the weirdest food thing i've read in quite a while

[thew]

miracle fruit

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/din...

who knew?

[jbyoga]

I have tried them, it is really strange! You eat one and then eat a lemon and it tastes like lemon candy! Wacky....

[dolores]

Poor little lemons.

[TongoRad]

I'm with you, dolores (I think...). Personally I love sour things, on more than one occasion I have even refered to my salad as a vinegar delivery system, and I see no reason to make them taste any different if even just for the pure novelty of the experience. To have my palate that out of whack, for that long of a period of time, in what I would consder a negative direction, just isn't something that would appeal to me.

[thew]

that seems odd, to me. i like sour things too, but i could give it up for an hour of my life to have a new sort of experience. I mean, isn't experiencing new flavors the essence of being a CH?

[TongoRad]

Is this really about experiencing new flavors, though, or is it about 'declawing' certain flavors that you are already familiar with? The impression I get is that it leans heavily toward the latter, and I'd prefer it if my wine didn't end up tasting like Manischewitz in the process ;)

[thew]

i just think the altered taste is fascinating enough and really doesn't last long enough to impact my life badly, that i would want the experience

[tatamagouche]

I agree with you, thew. It's just an hour. Sounds like a fascinating experiment in tastebud hallucination. Why "declawing" as opposed to "defamiliarizing," seeing (or tasting) something in a whole new way?

[mhoffman]

It seems to me that the most interesting part of the experience would be the pairing of textures or mouth-feels with flavors they've never had before. In this sense it might be fun in the same way that certain techniques in progressive/ultra-modern/molecular cuisine are.

[BobB]

Artichokes are known to have a similar effect, though not so intense.

[dagwood]

That's really cool!

[tatamagouche]

Whoa! That's nuts!