insomniac

Ce'nedra, enough already with the prolific cooking and posting.....you are going to fail uni if you keep up the pace here......and you never seem to sleep, I don't want to see any more posts after midnight your time, now GO TO BED

I am full of admiration for your stamina as you MUST have been jetlagged for most of those days......what an idyllic place your sister-in-law and her family lives in, and how lucky are you to have all this bounty in front of you in the years to come...just gorgeous, thanks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Pointer to a New Hallucinogen of Insect Origin E.B. Britton 27 Galway Place, Deakin, Canberra ACT 2600 (Australia) (Accepted August 28, 1984) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The purpose of this note is to draw attention to a long forgotten observa- tion which points to the existence of a new hallucinogen, unique in that its source is an insect. Augustin de Saint-Hilaire (1779-1853) travelled extensively in eastern Brazil between 1816 and 1823 and after his return to France published valuable observations on the geography, ethnology and natural history of the country. In two of his unpublished works Saint-Hilaire (1824, republished Jenkins, 1946, p. 49; 1830, pp. 432-433) described the use of an insect as food and medicine by the Malalis, natives in the Brazilian province of Minas Gerais. The relevant passage (1824) (translated) is as follows: When I was among the Malalis, in the province of Mines, they spoke much of a grub which they regarded as a delicious food, and which is called bicho de tacuara (bamboo- worm), because it is found in the stems of bamboos, but only when these bear flowers. Some Portugese who have lived among the Indians value these worms no less than the natives themselves; they melt them on the fire, forming them into an oily mass, and so preserve them for use in the preparation of food. The Malalis consider the head of the bicho de tacuara as a dangerous poison; but all agree in saying that this creature, dried and reduced to powder constitutes a powerful vulnerary (for the healing of wounds). If one is to believe these Indians and the Portugese themselves it is not only for this use that the former preserve the bicho de tacuara . When strong emotion makes them sleepless, they swallow, they say, one of these worms dried, without the head but with the intestinal tube; and then they fall into a kind of ecstatic sleep, which often lasts more than a day, and similar to that experienced by the Orientals when they take opium in excess. They tell, on awakening, of marvellous dreams; they saw splendid forests, they ate delicious fruits, they killed without difficulty the most choice game; but these Malalis add that they take care to indulge only rarely in this debilitating kind of pleasure. I saw them only with the bicho de tacuara dried and without heads; but during a botanical trip that I made to Saint-Francois with my Botocudo, this young man found a great many of these grubs in flowering bamboos, and set about eating them in my presence. He broke open the creature and carefully removed the head and intestinal tube, and sucked out the soft whitish substance which re- mained in the skin. In spite of my repugnance, I followed the example of the young savage, and found, in this strange food, an extremely agreeable flavour which recalled that of the most delicate cream. If then, as I can hardly doubt, the account of the Malalis is true, the narcotic property of the bicho de tacuara resides solely in the intestinal tube, since the sur- rounding fat produces no ill effect. Be that as it may, I submitted to M. Latreille the description of the animal I had made, and this learned entomologist recognised it as a caterpillar probably belonging to the genus 'Cossus' or to the genus 'Hepiale'. These observations are repeated in Saint-Hilaire (1839, pp. 432-433) with the addition of the information that the "bicho de taquara" are half as long as the index finger. The intoxicating effect of the larvae from bamboo has apparently been forgotten in Brazil and the seven volume Handbook of South American Indians (Steward, 1946-1959) while referring briefly to the observation of Saint-Hilaire in Vol. 5 (p. 557) gives no additional references. This is perhaps not surprising as the Malalis were a near-coastal tribe long ago overrun by the advance of civilisation. The name "bicho de taquara" is, however, still in use and according to Ihering (1932, p. 236) and Costa Lima (1936, p. 266; 1967, p. 246) refers to the larva of the moth Myelobia (Morpheis) smerintha Huebner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae : Crambinae). Costa Lima (1967, p. 246) states that the larvae feed in common bamboos including Nastes (=Nastus) barbatus Trin., "taquara lixa" (Merostachys Rideliana Rupr.), "taquara poca" (Merostachys Neesii Rupr.) and "taquaras- su" (Guadua sp.) (Hoehne, F.C. et al.). The larvae feed inside the internodes of the bamboo and attain a maximum length of about 10 cm. The moth emerges in September and has frequently appeared in plague proportions. There are 24 species of Myelobia in South America, one in Mexico and one in Guatemala. The statement by Saint-Hilaire that the larvae are only found when the bamboo is in flower probably means that the host bamboos flower annually (as do a number of Brazilian species) and it is at that time that the larvae reach their maximum size. As the adult moth emerges in September this is probably in July or August. It appears from the observations of Saint-Hilaire that the active substance is not destroyed by drying, and the need to remove the head and gut to avoid intoxication suggests that it is contained in the salivary glands. The active material could therefore be concentrated initially by removing the head plus salivary glands and part of the gut, discarding the rest of the body. In view of the interest in the pharmacology of hallucinogens and the medicinal use of the dried and powdered larvae it would seem to be woth- while to investigate what appears to be a new source, and as the insect is large and common it would be well suited to biochemical study. It is of particular interest that this would be the first hallucinogen of insect origin.

hahahahahaha do NOT mentally scar your children or they will wait until you are in a home and scar you

the kitchen floor is covered in quinces and I'm about to start on the membrillo, thanks, PG, P the E and Abra for other great quince stuff as I have a quince mountain here ps. do you know that if you put a quince in your clothes cupboard it makes everything smell lovely (just don't forget to take it out before it starts to rot )

oh bollocks, I thought mishmish meant apricot, no wonder I had 'em rolling in the aisles in Egypt with my 'very funny Gulf accent', and yes, have to agree, Egyptians are a very amiable people....(my bro used to live in Maadi, could never pronounce that either ) great blog!

don't worry too much Ce'nedra, I'm betting I'm one of many on this forum who have eaten street food for years without any noticeable ill effect ....and the 'goat curry ' I had in Sumatra (99% sure it was cat) was tasty.....as long as the food is fresh and turnover seems to indicate so, don't use too much imagination, just enjoy.... (I'm remembering being asked as I was munching on a dried BBQ camel meat skewer if I didn't worry about the TB, and being told that the 'prawns' I was loving were, you know, those things you find in the hedge, i.e. bugs.....)

I have some lying around and wanted to use it. I'm more of a savory person than a sweet person and thought that the mascarpone would add a nice smoothness to the sauce. ← hey lucky (you must be with 3 8's after yr name)...I use mascarpone in bechamels etc, eg. for lasagne, and find it gives a great result, also use it in some risottos at the very end, so I would definitely try it in mac and cheese altho I've never made that particuar dish (it's not expensive here )

my son would be running fast but in the opposite direction, would hate to see his cholesterol reading right now (love mid-Autumn festival.....and durians)

I'll come and get it

maybe next time you could try venison chops with chicken mousse and tarragon wrapped in the caul and sealed in a pan then into the oven for a few minutes a la Jean-Christophe Novelli's signature lamb chop dish??

bingo

I think they are tong yod?? phonetically speaking it's been a while

well, our kids were also happy to eat most Thai dishes toned down at first (I cunningly added Thai herbs to their homemade pureed babyfood when they were very small ) most of the starters are fine,fish/prawn cakes, gai pad bai toey (chicken in pandanus leaf) satay etc etc, tom kha gai(chicken cocnut soup), gaeng jued (clear broth with veg. and bean thread noodles), any pad priew wan (sweet and sour), any pao (grilled fish etc), gai yang (bbqed chicken) moo wan or moo knob (crsipy or glazed pork)mee krob (crsipy noodles) guay tiew (rice noodles) anything tom gaathi (boiled in coconut milk), the veggie dishes....actually I could go on and on....just ask for a dish or 2 to be 'mai pet' (not hot) or 'pet nitnoy' slightly spicy'....my daughter is 21 now and has just dumped a boyfriend for not liking spicy food

as far as I recall when dragging the kids to be 'educated and enriched' (i.e. it was raining) the Powerhouse only has a bog standard cafe

when my Filipino foster son arrived in the UK he ate soooo much that he ended up looking like a little chipmunk, piling his plate high and often not being able to finish the food; now he realises that the food is not going to disappear and it won't be his last good meal and has slowed down and slimmed down...perhaps a similar thought process is taking place in the minds of the Chinese immigrants, not being able to believe their eyes at the foodie abundance??(altho I must admit I used to sit open-mouthed in wonder at some of the towering plates at buffets in HK )

From my own equally extremely limited hotel experience, I would agree. ← ditto, certainly so at the Marriott Bristol with its Michael Caines resto

I LOVE that oatmeal (and its tin ) - that's one of my favourites, too! ← my oatmeal too, once tried you will never return to the quick stuff

if you have the time drive up the mountain for lunch a few miles past Mont d'Arbois to the altiport which has a lovely outside dining area with a stunning alpine vista and very good local food...you can also watch the small planes negotiating the tight turn against the 2000ft col to land on the airfield.....we enjoyed Flocons de Sel for dinner, can recommend

the only place I've been asked not to take pix of the food was Pierre Gagnaire.....I think that is his restaurant's policy. On a very recent trip to Lyon/Haute Savoie I actually took photos of a lot of the meals we ate because I was absolutely blown away by the standard of cuisine(we had flown down from England in our small plane) and we were eating lunch at airfields we had landed at....very small airfields, some above 5000 feet in the mountains and very remote and short.....we couldn't believe there was a small resto at every field! We were served uniformly fantastic plates, normally of local specialities. We were staggered because the equivalent in the UK is the boringly predictable greasy fast food followed by crappy coffee (if indeed there is somewhere to eat)....and the wine was wonderful.......................only joking

My son has worked for Aggie for the past 2 years and from what he has told me the man is both a perfectionist who takes no prisoners when it comes to maintaining the standard he insists upon in his kitchen, and a culinary genius. I look forward my birithday lunch there

I ate at Under Bridge Spicy Crab last month with some friends.....it's not exactly waterfront in Wanchai but a pretty memorable meal and brought back memories of taking the kids to eat in the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter long ago from floating kitchen 'restaurants'; just beware of seafood due to recent health scares, ask locals to fill you in, but please don't let that snippet of info put you off, HK is still foodie heaven to me

it's not the hitting on per se but it always seems that the other women at their table don't take too kindly to the chat

the thought of such stellar bread is but a dream where we live at the moment, beers a tad more accessible, however I will, as usual, be eating my fingernails, hmmm, I'm from Oz, husband Kiwi, kids went to French school in HK and daughter played rugby for the school at the HK 7's, lived in Fiji for 4 yrs, now in England,....who to back????? actually reset position seems to be allez les bleus (with a bit of all black ) ps. we are eating lamb tonight

What flavor quark did you buy? Up, down, top, bottom, strange or charmed? Seriously: I haven't heard of this outside particle physics before. It looks like a dairy product -- what is it exactly? ← Oddly enough, there is a dairy product connection to the use of the word "quark" in physics. From Wikipedia: The word was originally coined by Murray Gell-Mann as a nonsense word rhyming with "pork". Later, he found the same word in James Joyce's book Finnegans Wake, where seabirds give "three quarks", akin to three cheers (probably onomatopoeically imitating a seabird call, like "quack" for ducks, as well as making a pun on the relationship between Munster and its provincial capital, Cork) in the passage "Three quarks for Muster Mark!/Sure he has not got much of a bark/And sure any he has it's all beside the mark." Note: This is in reference to the City of Munster, where Munster Cheese originated, which is completely different than the American Muenster Cheese. SB (who say physicists have no sense of humor ) ← you have just eductated me, thanks and I always thought quark rhymed with shark (the physics sort I mean) maybe it's an American accent