Try a little Irtish moss

Want To Eat Green For St. Patrick's Day? Do It The Irish Way — With Seaweed : The Salt : NPR: "the Irish have a long history of eating seaweed. The reddish-brown fronds of dulse (Palmaria palmata), also known as dillisk or duileasg, were a nutrient-rich supplement for early diets, and Irish moss (Chondrus crispus), or carrageenan, thickened milk into pudding. But the practice gradually declined."

Seaweed was eaten to keep alive during the Great Famine of the mid-1800s, and for many in Ireland, it never quite shook this association as a vestige of an older, poorer time. It's sold as a snack food at the centuries-old Ould Lammas Faire in Northern Ireland, but as something of a quaint tie-in to the festival's past (much like Renaissance Fair-only al fresco turkey legs). More often than not, seaweed was harvested not to be eaten itself, but to fertilize the fields to better grow other crops.

But in Ireland — as in many places — people are looking to change that. Prannie Rhatigan of Streedagh, County Sligo, first started teaching about seaweed in the 1990s. "When I would ask participants what seaweeds they knew of or had eaten, most looked at me blankly. A few people volunteered dulse or Irish moss," Rhatigan remembers. "Now when I give courses, everyone has eaten a wide range."'via Blog this'

Why Pu'er, A Complex Tea, Draws Rapt Fans And Big Dollars : The Salt : NPR

Why Pu'er, A Complex Tea, Draws Rapt Fans And Big Dollars : The Salt : NPR: "Though we most often see tea (camellia sinensis) in the shape of neat ornamental bushes with small leaves, these can grow into trees with large leaves if left alone, and the assamica variety that produces pu'er grows particularly large. And though we sometimes think of tea as fermented, in truth, black and oolong teas oxidize when they are exposed to air. Most teas, unlike pu'er, do not undergo fermentation with bacteria and yeasts.

That fermentation can produce a wide array of complex flavors – from the poorly processed and moldy (like Falkowitz's first taste) to a palate so desirable that some pu'er has commanded a higher price per gram than silver. At its best, Falkowitz says, pu'er provides a kind of "bodily revelation, with a finish that lasts for hours.""



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Is Wagyu the World’s Most Overrated Steak? - Bloomberg

Is Wagyu the World’s Most Overrated Steak? - Bloomberg: "“I hate the stuff,” says a butcher and author of a new cookbook dedicated to beef. He’s not alone."



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