• ramble81@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    If land bugs were as meaty and tasty I’d be eating them too.

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Recently, we were in the canteen at work and a colleague, who moved here a few years ago, told that she never had rhubarb before.

    Then she asked me, probably just for vocab reasons: Rhubarb is a vegetable?

    Uhh…

    I had never thought about it. I mean, what the heck is this:

    Could be a salad, a leafy green. It’s kind of similar to celery, but is celery even a vegetable? Well, and of course, rhubarb is often used like a fruit, so uh…

    Well, I looked it up, and scientifically, it does count as a vegetable, but colloquially, it’s often considered a fruit.

    • prime_number_314159@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Like today’s computer scientists, early biologists sucked at inventing new words, and simply reused existing ones. “Berry” in common language is a small, usually sweet and edible, fruit. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are all berries.

      Then biologists came along and decided, actually, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are out, but watermelon and bananas are in, because the size of the fruit doesn’t matter, only the placement of the seeds decides whether something is a proper, scientific berry.

      A similar thing has happened with “fruit” and “vegetable”, where scientific fruits include cucumbers, eggplants, and pumpkins. Luckily, all three of these are also berries.

      I say we ignore them, and use words to mean sensible things.

    • A Phlaming Phoenix@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      I’ve never had rhubarb. I’ve heard it’s sweet (people make pies out of it), but it looks like celery, which is one of my most hated foods. What does it actually taste like? Is it palatable raw?

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Rhubarb is actually really sour. As in, if you eat too much of it, your teeth will start feeling as if they’re covered in fur, because it genuinely fucks with your enamel. (Rhubarb contains oxalic acid, which is also used in some tooth whitening products).

        But it’s basically never eaten without adding a boatload of sugar to it. So, you can kind of imagine it like those sour sweets, but stronger, and of course, it’s a plant, so the taste is somewhat richer (although still not very rich for a plant).

        As for eating it raw, well, then you can’t really add sugar to it, so basically not palatable. I mean, you can do it, but unless you really like sour, it’s just not good.

        And it’s only really similar to celery in terms of its texture and crunch. The taste is completely different.

      • ThoGot@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        If you’re allergic to shellfish, there’s a high chance that you’re also allergic to insects

          • Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            I’m legitimately curious- why do you think the above claim is bullshit? To me, the fact that both shellfish and insect carapaces are made of chitin makes it seem reasonable that they would trigger similar allergic reactions, but I wonder if that’s not the case?

            Edit: I looked it up, it’s a protein called tropomyosin and it is carried by some crickets, along with other bugs like cockroaches.

            I found an article here

            • And009@lemmynsfw.com
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              8 months ago

              Oh sorry. Non native speaker here and learned a new phrase. I’m sure the chitin could have a protein structure causing allergic reactions to those who never got exposed to it when they were young

              • Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works
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                8 months ago

                No worries! I figured out its not chitin- who knew that mushrooms had that too??

                I thought you were saying you didn’t believe that there can be shared allergies between shellfish and insects, to which my brain said “wait, they’re made of the same thing”. For your reference, English speakers “call bullshit” on one another when they think someone is lying, hence my curiousity.

  • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    You refuse to eat bugs because they are “disgusting and gross”

    I refuse to eat bugs because I love them too much. We are not the same.

  • Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Crawfish are literally called mud bugs in a lot of places. I think lobsters and langoustines should also be under the bug umbrella.

  • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I have a very open view towards food that is served to me (in good faith). If you honor me by serving me a meal you enjoy I will eat it, whatever it is. If you serve me live cockroaches while laughing I’m not going to say what I’d do, bad faith gets bad actions. But I never choose to eat shrimp unless they’re served to me. I ate some last week unfortunately. In context, it wasn’t terrible.