Tuesday, August 05, 2008

On Beyond Bovine Trial #1

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I am working from home today. We actually dodged the bullet on Edouard as far as wind is concerned, but the resulting rain...well...one of the ramps from one highway to another on my way home is down for construction, which means I have to take surface streets. Surface streets that flood if enough people spit in the street, so I didn't really want to chance it after 8 to 12 hours of rain. I could have gotten to work, but I absolutely did not want to get stuck there.
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I suck at documenting experiments. I have no pictures of what the finished product looked like, I'm going to get better at this I swear.


Also major props to Clinton who tried this thing with me. And he didn't complain, although he did mention the need for the props.

Trial #1

Chayote. This was the first thing on the left hand side of my Kroger’s produce section when I originally came up with this weird plan. It’s a catalyst of sorts. Of course, now they moved over and there are some other strange little squash guys, but never you mind. Chayote is #1 in this here produce section.

I bought 2, and was kind of surprised when the check out lady knew what they were.

I may or may not be responsible for the eyeballs. I admit nothing!

My research told me that I would be able to eat them raw on a salad or cooked – specifically boiled – with any kind of sauce my little heart desired. So first I cut them up and Clinton and I each tried a piece raw.




Reactions:

C – You first.
K – I don't think I want this on my salad, it has a familiar flavor, I can't quite place it.
C – Yeah, I don’t know what that flavor is.
K – It’s kind of soapy.
C – What’s with the aftertaste? Now I know why they look like they have bitter beer face.

I dropped the remaining pieces in salted boiling water. The internet said to boil them for 45 minutes, but it also didn’t say to cut them up so small, so I just waited until they were tender.

I topped half with an alfredo sauce (in which I forgot to add garlic, so it was a little bland) and half with plain butter.

Reactions:
K – It tastes like…um…nothing? I mean, the butter one tastes like butter.
C – That’s weird.
K – This is kind of anti-climatic.
C – If I wanted to eat butter, I’d have just eaten a pat of butter.
K – I guess if you had a sauce you REALLY love, you could put it on it.
C – It's not even a good kind of tasteless, like a joke.


Post experiment, my mother chimes in that they’re used in Mexican cooking a lot and I should look in a Mexican cookbook or something. Hector says they’re a filler used in Fideo soup. Neither of these people offered this information before hand.

At any rate. It’s a filler, much like potato, except like no flavor, so kind of weird. I will probably not be buying them again. I kind of like my food to have a flavor.

2 comments:

Someone Being Me said...

Bitter beer face! Too funny. Maybe you should make part of your experiment to ask for recipes on each vegetable before you cook it. Who knows, you might end up with something really good.

Marinka said...

How can something that looks so adorable with fake eyes be tasteless? It doesn't seem fair!