[Sca-cooks] Salty carrots-from Isabella

Dragon dragon at crimson-dragon.com
Mon Mar 31 11:44:11 PDT 2008


Daniel & Elizabeth Phelps did speak thusly:
>Speaking of polychrome veggies, I've seen white eggplants ( don't know if
>they're period), across the pond they call the purple ones aubergines, which
>is also the name for that color, somewhat like oranges I think. Not sure
>which is the original.

There are a huge number of eggplant varieties ranging from tiny, 
pea-sized green ones used in Thailand to the large purple "Italian" 
type. There are green, white, light purple and dark purple varieties. 
There are spherical ones, egg shaped ones and long, skinny ones like 
the Chinese and Japanese varieties. At one of my local Asian markets 
I have seen as many as a dozen different types in all sizes and 
colors. And the Indian market often has the white ones that are about 
the size and shape of a chicken egg.

>There is also a variety of limes called Key Limes,
>they look like a lemon but they are actually a very large yellow skinned
>lime that grows in South Florida and possibly the Caribbean.

Just one of the many variations of citrus which includes all sorts of 
things we normally do not get in the U.S. outside of gourmet or 
ethnic markets. Examples being Yuzu and Buddha's Hand.

>I think there are purple potatoes too that grow in the Andes. But that's
>getting pretty far afield, probably.

I can buy purple potatoes in many of the local grocery stores here in 
Southern California, they are not rare here.

Nor are purple sweet potatoes which originate in Polynesia all that 
hard to find at my local Asian markets.

>Then we'd have to start talking about
>all the different colors of corn and beans and squash and apples, too!

There are many, many cultivars of all of these species. Makes for a 
wonderful abundance of food. I think that some of the different 
colors of flint corn produce very different flavors in the corn meal 
they produce. Blur corn is very different from white corn or yellow or red.

>Not sure if this was the kind of stuff you were looking for, but it's
>interesting anyway. Key Lime pie is one of the most sublime desserts ever
>invented, says this South Florida beach girl!

Eh, I personally disagree. But that is a matter of taste and opinion.

>PS: do changing flavors count too? Oranges were originally sour, I believe.
>And blood oranges are just cool looking, but hard to find.

Hard to find where?

They are VERY seasonal, but in season, I can get them at nearly every 
grocery store in my area. The season for them seems to be about March 
through early June.

Dragon

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  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
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