Day: September 29, 2022

Taste Test – Corn Nuts

Mexico, North America, Taste Test

When I was in college in the early 1980s my friend Mark and I were looking at a vending machine for a snack while waiting for a class to start. We saw a package of Corn Nuts and neither of us had ever heard of them before. We grabbed a couple of bags and fell in love with them. They have been a go to snack ever since. They are not easy to find so I have family look for them wherever they go. They are an important addition to my home-made trail mix for road trips of when I used to plan long distance canoe trips. We found some imported corn nuts from a natural foods market so I took these and ordered on-line some of the original for a taste test.

Alex giving them a try

He liked them but not like I do

Taste Test – HP Sauce

England, Europe, London, Netherlands, Taste Test

HP Sauce is a British brown sauce, the main ingredients of which are tomatoes and tamarind extract. It was named after London’s Houses of Parliament. After making its first appearance on British dinner tables in 1899, HP Sauce went on to become an icon of British culture. The bottle I purchased was manufactured in The Netherlands and distributed out of London. I am not a huge steak fan but I decided to try the sauce on some steak and prime rib.

Steak

Prime Rib

Taste Test – Milkweed Pods

Taste Test, Wild Foods

Milk Weed is an edible plant during different stages of its development. When foraging any wild food it is essential proper identification and preparation is done. There are poisonous wild plants and at different stages of its growth a plant may be poisonous, unpalatable or delicious. Some parts of plants may be edible while other parts may be either unpalatable or outright poisonous. This is not a site to use for the first time forager please look out for a more definitive foraging specific site.

We had a portion of our back yard that had gone wild and was overgrown so we decided to harvest some milkweed pods.

At this stage of the plant the pods are the edible portion

Pick and trim the ends

We ate them breaded and fried but they can be parboiled and eaten several different ways

A very nice wild vegetable that can be enjoyed cooked several ways. The white silk inside the pods is also edible. The pods should be picked young or they may be fibrous.