CULINARY QUIZ
1) This large vegetable is best eaten when about 18 inches long, although they can grow to twice that size. They are related to the black eyed pea, and are popular in China. Name this vegetable.

2) These fungi are common on plant leaves and in the intestinal tracts of warm blooded animals. They are also found in the soil and in saltwater. Some are also used in food and vegetable production. Name this fungi.

3) The seeds and leaves of these evergreen trees and shrubs contain poisonous alkaloids that stop the heart of an animal so quickly that no symptoms are seen; the animal just drops dead. The flesh of the berries are the least poisonous parts. These trees were sacred to the Druids, and wood from the trees was formerly used to make long bows. Name this tree.

4) Who was Murat Bernard 'Chic' Young, and what is his connection to the Hawaiian Islands, a British politician, gambling, newspapers and a classic American food?

5) Bone and stuff a pig's leg with minced pork, herbs, truffles, and bacon. Cure it and smoke it; then soak it in water for 10 hours, simmer it in water and vinegar for several hours, and serve with lentils. Name this dish and the country of origin.

6) The oil from what edible nut is used in insecticides, brake linings, rubber and plastic manufacturing?

7) A classic British food has one of its earliest mentions in Charles Dickens' 'Tale of Two Cities (1859),' Can you name this food?
a) Christmas pudding
b) 'chips'
c) trifle
d) Yorkshire pudding
c) Worcestershire sauce

8) What plant root contains a compound that is 50 times sweeter than sugar?

9) 99% of the U.S. blueberry crop comes from one state, and 90% from just one county. Can you name the state, and the county?

10) During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush (1897-1898) what vegetable was so valued for its vitamin C content that miners freely traded gold for it?

 

Answers

) Yard long beans, also known as Asparagus bean, dow gauk, Chinese long beans, Peru bean, and Snake bean.

2) Yeast.

3) The Yew. Native Americans used the bark and twigs of the Canadian Yew to make a tea used to treat influenza, and the Pacific Yew is currently being studied as the source for a drug to treat some cancers.

4) Captain Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, named them the Sandwich Islands, for British politician, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who invented sandwiches as a quick meal while he gambled at cards. 'Chic' Young was the cartoonist who created the comic strip 'Blondie'. Blondie's husband Dagwood created the 'Dagwood Sandwich.'

5) Zampone, a specialty of Modena, Italy.

6) Oil from cashew nut shells. The milky sap from the tree is also used to make a varnish.

7) One of the earliest references we have to British 'chips' (French Fries in the U.S.) is in Charles Dickens' 'Tale of Two Cities' (1859): "husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil."

8) Licorice root contains glycyrrhizin which is 50 times sweeter than sugar.

9) Maine produces 99% of the blueberry crop, and 90% (30 million pounds) comes from Washington County alone.

10) Potatoes.