The Cashew

[The Crunge]

Having a boring morning, so thought I would post a completely trivial thought.

I was in Costa Rica recently and went on a guided horseback tour of the rain forest. Our guide pointed out a cashew tree and mentioned that the covering part of the cashew nut is poisonous/toxic. One must first boil away the covering to get to the delicious cashew nut itself.

Maybe the guiide was full of shit, but if the above is true, how did the cashew nut ever become the popular snack it is today. My thinking is that the first guy who gave it a try didn't know about the boiling part, he just ate it raw, got very sick and died. After seeing that, who would have bothered with it?

See, told ya it was a boring morning.

 

[anonemouse]

I've often wondered the same thing about oysters.

Who was the first person to crack one open and think "Hey, I wonder what that tastes like, raw?"

It must have been a bet.

 

[basketcase]

I've always wondered about clamato juice. Booze must have had something to do with it - don't mind a ceaser every so often though.

 

[ck_nj]

I saw something on cashew nuts on TV. May have been that show 'How It's Made'. What he said is true. The process you describe is also why cashews are more expensive than peanuts.

 

[papasmerf]

milk

now thatmust have been a hard sell.

 

[xarir]

Cashew - true about the poison.

But I've always thought that the guy (gal?) who ate the first lobster must have been pretty damn desperate.

 

[Meesh]

Simpler yet.

Clamato juice.

Who the hell had a sip of tomato juice and decided, "Hmm...not bad, but it needs FISH!"

 

[antaeus]

Who sampled the first Geoduck? Hmm, wonder what this clam with an immense penis tastes like?

 

[Master Baiter]

Yup, the cashew nut covering is poisonous and needs to either be boiled or roasted off. For those who don't know, the seed grows on the outside of the fruit. Think of a pear but with the curved nut on the bottom of it. The actual fruit part is pretty tasty. Used to have one of those trees in my backyard!

 

[lickrolaine]

Black guy that roasted our cashews said it was only poisonous to white folk,could not argue as we always had cashews and no signs of bodies!

 

[HafDun]

OK so who invented the blow job???

 

[stormchaseryvr]

OK so who invented the blow job???

No clue, but they deserve a lifetime achievement award.

 

[boffo]

Death rate from eating Fugu blowfish in Japan is very low.

Quote:

"Since 1958, only specially licensed chefs can prepare and sell fugu to the public. The fugu apprentice needs a two- or three-year apprenticeship before being allowed to take an official test. The test consists of a written test, a fish-identification test, and a practical test of preparing fugu and then eating it. Only 30% of the applicants pass the test. This, of course, does not mean that 70% die from poisoning; rather they made a small mistake in the long and complicated procedure of preparing the dish. Due to this rigorous examination process, it is generally safe to eat the sliced fugu sold in restaurants or markets.

Furthermore, most fugu sold nowadays comes from fish with only a small amount of toxin. Selling or serving the most toxic liver is illegal in Japan, but this "forbidden fruit" is still sometimes eaten by amateur cooks, often with fatal results. After the years following Japan's defeat in World War II, when several homeless people died from eating fugu organs that had been discarded into insecure trashcans, restaurants in Japan were required to store the poisonous inner organs in specially locked barrels that are later burned as hazardous waste."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu

 

[Potang4U]

Fugu blowfish,,,I watched on some travel show...an average of 70 diners die in Japan annually from eating the toxic thang.

That's one way to leave a restaurant without paying the bill.
I wonder do the kitchen chief makes a bet who will be fatally drop in the restaurant,be hospitalize,or nothing more than diarrhea time?