SC - The taste of Chocolate & a King Midas update.

[Bethany Public Library]

Hello All.

I'd like to reccomend an article to everyone---I know choclate is out of our
time frame (mostly), but there is a terrific article about using taste to
qualify the botanical origins of chocolate, and is an all around
well-thought out article. A good approach to tasting other items. You might
want to read it. Some interesting theories about how the high-yield method
of  farming/production has resulted in a situation where superior tasting
food is less and less available (profit reigns over quality, I suppose).
There's a claim that this is also true of maize and potatoes.  Thus the
number of sources both geographically and in botanical variety is far less
than was true in the past.

It's in Research/Penn State's september 2000 issue (Volume 21 Number three)
which is sent gratis to many public Libraries and all the Public Libraries
in Pennsylvania.

For those waiting for the king Midas information, my apologies. I have some
excellent information, but the computer it is on has crashed. I hope to have
it up and running soon, and will forward what has been generously shared
with me. One of the interesting things about the King Midas Funerary find's
meal (interred with the body) is it's surface similarity to Al-Andalus'
recipes. The meal, found in extraordinarily good shape, considering it's
antiquity, had pepper-like compounds in it, although the current thinking is
that it's highly unlikely pepper was a viable ingrediant.  The scientist
analysed the meal and concluded that it was a spicy lamb (barbecued ahead of
time) and lentil stew. I can provide the spices at a later date, they are on
my othe computer. A drink made of a mixture of grape wine, honey mead, and
barley beer was also found to have been provided. If anyone has a hard time
waiting, a simple search for the Penn State Museum's King Midas feast may
have some results. There's also some good
historiocal-brewing-from-an-archaelogical-standpoint  information. Otherwise
I hope to pass along the materials as soon as humanly (and electronically)
possible.

That's just something to chew on while I slog away at this blastedly slow
computer. It's always the spiffy fast computer that takes the dive.

Cheers

Aoife