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[Insert_Gnome_Here]

A thread where where we discuss the more obscure fruits (and other foods) implemented in 40.xx, as well as speculation about what the fictional foods would taste like (River spirits cocktail, anyone?)

Today I tried some persimmons. They were alright, but did not have much flavour; texture was a bit soft. They were probably a bit too ripe (not quite x Persimmons x though).

[Urist Tilaturist]

Persimmons are very good when ripe. I would not consider them an "obscure fruit", but that all depends on location.

[wierd]

I wouldn't consider any of the added species all that obscure. Most are just variations on well known edible plants that have been domesticated by humans (real ones) for centuries, if not millennia.

As for what they taste like, I would presume they taste like the crops they are modeled after. 

Take for instance, "Spelt".  It is actually one of the very first cereal grains to be domesticated by humans, and is still grown commercially to this day as a health food for its greater dietary fiber and protein content.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt

Others that might make DF players raise an eyebrow could be the various amaranths listed in the game, though with the recent health craze, quinoa might be well known. (amusingly)  Amaranth grain is an inferior grain to wheat or rye in many ways, including having a curious quality to its flavor that can be difficult to work with. Despite this, it was one of the major food staples of the Americas for millennia, especially in North America. Many authentic native american dishes call for steamed amaranth grains, or for a kind of flatbread made from milled amaranth flour.

Most people suffer from a limited culinary palette. Despite improvements in the availability of "exotic" produce, many people today do not know what say-- A lychee tastes like, unless they are asian, have asian relatives, or live in asia (or at least in proximity to local lychees) Should toady implement lychee drupes into DF, I would expect that they would taste like lychees.  (as for what they taste like... Very similar to rambutan. Yes. I know that isn't helpful.  Try explaining how an apple tastes.)

Personally, I would love to see a mod for DF that fully makes use of the theoretically available food types, then produces an "allowed list" of "local dishes" for the region, based on the flavors and qualities of the various local elements.

Still, the plant enhancement didnt add any fanciful plant species that I am aware of. The only fanciful ones are the original food crops, which it is anyone's guess what they taste like.

[Hetairos]

I know spelt! You can even buy vodka made out of it here.

I haven't really played a lot of 40.XX yet, but I had to keep looking up various crops. The fact that their names aren't borrowed from other languages that often makes it extra hard.

[Psikeau]

Feather Trees now produce eggs. I imagine those would taste like a cross of celery and chicken eggs.

[Arx]

Most people suffer from a limited culinary palette. Despite improvements in the availability of "exotic" produce, many people today do not know what say-- A lychee tastes like, unless they are asian, have asian relatives, or live in asia (or at least in proximity to local lychees) Should toady implement lychee drupes into DF, I would expect that they would taste like lychees.  (as for what they taste like... Very similar to rambutan. Yes. I know that isn't helpful.  Try explaining how an apple tastes.)

Are those Asian? They're moderately easy to find in summer in SA.

...now I'm craving them.

[Baffler]

I'd never heard of them before the 40.XX releases here in [Redacted], and the people I asked hadn't either. The real question is: what does a plump helmet taste like? I imagine it's somewhat starchy, with a barely detectable but quite pleasant mix of bitter and sweet, like a grape.

[§k]

My adventirer has been eating rhubarb recently. I thought rhubarb is a plant of medical usage.

[Miuramir]

I thought rhubarb is a plant of medical usage.

Rhubarb is commonly thought of in the US (particularly in "the South", or south-eastern states) as a fruit, usually used sweetened in a pie, and frequently with strawberries.  It's legally a "fruit" in the US due to usage, although technically a vegetable. 

On the one hand, this usage only dates from around the 17th century, when sweeteners started to become more available and affordable.  On the other hand, the nigh-universal availability of Sweet Pods, and their products Dwarven Sugar and Dwarven Syrup, would seem to indicate that despite the nominally pre-1400 setting this change has already taken place in the default DF setting. 

Rhubarb does contain various compounds which make it both a mild cathartic and laxative, and used to be valuable medicinally for at least this, and probably more mystical reasons.  "The value of rhubarb can be seen in Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo's report of his embassy in 1403-05 to Timur in Samarkand: 'The best of all merchandise coming to Samarkand was from China: especially silks, satins, musk, rubies, diamonds, pearls, and rhubarb...'"  Once it became commonly grown it became far less valuable, and in some cases considered a "poverty" or "wartime" food.  (E.g. a strawberry-rhubarb pie would be a cheaper substitute for a pie made entirely from more expensive and harder to transport strawberries.)

[Urist Tilaturist]

Rhubarb is a sour-sweet edible stalk which is usually stewed with sugar. It is not a fruit.

Plump helmet is a mushroom, so it tastes like a mushroom. It somehow contains sugar, for reasons we have not learned yet.

[nuget102]

Feather Trees now produce eggs. I imagine those would taste like a cross of celery and chicken eggs.

Hm. That's oddly not how I imagine it at all... :p I always imagine fruits from a tree as tasting very sweet (I don't really know why) so I imagine it tasting kind of like an egg but with a bit of a sweet taste? Perhaps that's just me? :3

[wierd]

Most people suffer from a limited culinary palette. Despite improvements in the availability of "exotic" produce, many people today do not know what say-- A lychee tastes like, unless they are asian, have asian relatives, or live in asia (or at least in proximity to local lychees) Should toady implement lychee drupes into DF, I would expect that they would taste like lychees.  (as for what they taste like... Very similar to rambutan. Yes. I know that isn't helpful.  Try explaining how an apple tastes.)

Are those Asian? They're moderately easy to find in summer in SA.

...now I'm craving them.

Lychee, Rambutan, Mangosteen, et al-- are all from various asian localities, and were introduced to SA for international production, which enables the fruit to be available for longer periods of the year. (Northern vs Southern hemisphere, etc.)

There ARE some native SA fruit trees, like soursop, that produce edible fruit that is quite delicious. It is my understanding that soursop has been imported to some asian countries, much like Durian and pals have been imported to SA.

Here in NA, the most we get are oranges, some varieties of banana that tolerate cold, and some cold hardy varieties of mango, and then only in the southern parts of NA.  In the temperate regions, we have some native fruit and nut species, such as pawpaw (Different from SA mango-- closer relation to soursop, but very different texture and flavor. More "Banana custard" like.), North American mulberry,  and black walnut.  Most fruit trees are imports from Europe-- Apple, Peach, Pear, etc.  There are some native grape species, such as the muscadine grape species, and the vulpis grape species.  (In contrast to european vinifera species, which die horrible deaths here due to a native root parasite that vinefera grapes have no resistance to, called phyloxera.) 

Mostly, we have wild pseudocereal plants that are frequently regarded as weeds and not as food plants, such as the various pigweeds, which are actually amaranth plants, and a motley assortment of noxious weed species that may be of dubious medicinal use. (Such as various datura species, and horrible things like buffalo burr, and tobacco)

Even in NA, few people realize that things like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Are in fact edible, and produce a useful pseudocereal grain in addition to edible salad greens.  As I said, most people suffer from a limited culinary palette.

[LordBaal]

Living on a tropical country I have eaten a serious lot of weird fruit along the regular ones. I can't for the life of me remember eating persimmon, although from wikipedia looks it might have been that weird tomato that I bought on Brazil that really wasn't a tomato and almost ruined my hamburger.

River spirits... I imagine it as some light minty but concentrated moonlight shine.

[Adragis]

Anyonehad saguaro fruit before?

[Badger Storm]

I know a lot about food, but I have sensory issues that make tons of things - including universally-loved stuff like hamburgers and strawberries - anywhere from unpalatable to downright sickening.  It's really frustrating, and my weight and health suffer for it. 

I have heard of just about all the grains in DF except for fonio.  Quinoa is actually pretty good, but I've heard that the demand for it by hipsters is making it more expensive and thus harder for the farmers to eat their staple food, so I'm unsure if I can eat it in good conscience.
Has anyone seen spelt, amaranth, etc. in hot cereal form?  I would be very interested.