Comments on: Tofurkey Day http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99 Ian Lance Taylor Wed, 7 Jan 2009 13:56:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.2 Comment on Tofurkey Day by: tromey http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7322 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:32:11 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7322 "If we weren’t meant to eat other people, why do they taste like pork?” Hilarious! In the end, though, I stopped responding to statements like the one that inspired this. Being around a vegetarian seems to make some people very nervous, as if they assume I am going to judge them. BTW I'm loving the potato history. For Thanksgiving we usually make something much more complicated than our normal fare. This year it was a winter vegetable pie. But then, I'm not very concerned about the visual appeal. “If we weren’t meant to eat other people, why do they taste like pork?”

Hilarious!

In the end, though, I stopped responding to statements like the one that inspired this. Being around a vegetarian seems to make some people very nervous, as if they assume I am going to judge them.

BTW I’m loving the potato history.

For Thanksgiving we usually make something much more complicated than our normal fare. This year it was a winter vegetable pie. But then, I’m not very concerned about the visual appeal.

]]> Comment on Tofurkey Day by: ncm http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7306 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:52:17 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7306 Further research reveals the Incas had over 2000 (some say 3000) potato varieties, of which 1200 remain, managed by the Quechua-Aymara Association for Sustainable Livelihoods. In the Sacred Valley of the Incas today, "...a typical farm plot may contain 250 - 300 varieties". Further research reveals the Incas had over 2000 (some say 3000) potato varieties, of which 1200 remain, managed by the Quechua-Aymara Association for Sustainable Livelihoods. In the Sacred Valley of the Incas today, “…a typical farm plot may contain 250 - 300 varieties”.

]]> Comment on Tofurkey Day by: ncm http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7305 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:33:11 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7305 The Incas maintained 240 different varieties of potato. I have seen an argument that Machu Picchu was, principally, an agricultural experiment station, with a terrace for each microclimate in the empire, and a potato variety that would grow in it. The mysterious circular structures, then, would have been silos. When somebody says, "If we weren't meant to meant eat animals, why are they made out of meat?", I say "If we weren't meant to eat other people, why do they taste like pork?" The Incas maintained 240 different varieties of potato. I have seen an argument that Machu Picchu was, principally, an agricultural experiment station, with a terrace for each microclimate in the empire, and a potato variety that would grow in it. The mysterious circular structures, then, would have been silos.

When somebody says, “If we weren’t meant to meant eat animals, why are they made out of meat?”, I say “If we weren’t meant to eat other people, why do they taste like pork?”

]]> Comment on Tofurkey Day by: Ian Lance Taylor http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7299 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:56:20 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7299 I used to feel as you do: if I wanted something like meat, I should eat meat. But, after all, I didn't become a vegetarian because I don't like meat. I do like it. And after 15 years or so of not eating meat (i.e., about 10 years ago), I realized that there was nothing wrong with eating something vegetarian that tastes good to me, even if the reason it tastes good is that it tastes like meat (or at least that it tastes like what I remember meat to taste like). I have really nothing to say about potatoes, except that I've always enjoyed to potato displays at country fairs, demonstrating 50 different types of potato. I used to feel as you do: if I wanted something like meat, I should eat meat. But, after all, I didn’t become a vegetarian because I don’t like meat. I do like it. And after 15 years or so of not eating meat (i.e., about 10 years ago), I realized that there was nothing wrong with eating something vegetarian that tastes good to me, even if the reason it tastes good is that it tastes like meat (or at least that it tastes like what I remember meat to taste like).

I have really nothing to say about potatoes, except that I’ve always enjoyed to potato displays at country fairs, demonstrating 50 different types of potato.

]]> Comment on Tofurkey Day by: ncm http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7289 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:52:22 +0000 http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/99#comment-7289 I haven't smelled Quorn's myco-roast, but the odor of their other products absolutely turns this vegetarian's stomach. The point of these things is lost on me. If I wanted something a lot like meat, I'd just eat meat. At my parents' house, I somehow ended up responsible for carving the turkey, in the kitchen. (I asked if I shouldn't be doing that at the table, and was told that that was only done on TV, not IRL.) I ate lots of sweet potato and mashed potatoes, and went to bed well satisfied. The story of the words "sweet potato" and "potato" is badly confused. The Amazon basin "patata" and the Andean "papas" came to England in reverse order, and somehow the papas got called "potatoes"; then, when the patatas got there, they had to be called something else. Yams confuse matters further: true yams are neither sweet nor carotene-colored. Somehow Americans took to calling patatas "yams". The confusion also occurs in Japan, and elsewhere. Maybe it's that "roots is just roots", and confusion is unavoidable. How the Amazonian patatas got to Polynesia before the Europeans did was long considered a big mystery. When chicken bones found in Chile were carbon-dated to c. 1450, that mystery was considered solved: the Polynesians had visited, and evidently swapped moa-moa (chickens) for what the Quechua call "cumal", and Polynesians call "kumara". (That the nautical vocabulary of native Catalina Islanders was Polynesian was not considered persuasive.) The mystery, of course, was only in the minds of Europeans who couldn't believe in savages reaching the Americas before their own ancestors did. "Turkey" is similarly confused. According to McGee, at the time turkey was introduced to England, an American fowl would have attracted little attention, but being ostensibly oriental made it exotic, thus interesting. I have nothing to note about cranberries except that eating them gives me blisters on the neck and hands. I haven’t smelled Quorn’s myco-roast, but the odor of their other products absolutely turns this vegetarian’s stomach. The point of these things is lost on me. If I wanted something a lot like meat, I’d just eat meat.

At my parents’ house, I somehow ended up responsible for carving the turkey, in the kitchen. (I asked if I shouldn’t be doing that at the table, and was told that that was only done on TV, not IRL.) I ate lots of sweet potato and mashed potatoes, and went to bed well satisfied.

The story of the words “sweet potato” and “potato” is badly confused. The Amazon basin “patata” and the Andean “papas” came to England in reverse order, and somehow the papas got called “potatoes”; then, when the patatas got there, they had to be called something else.

Yams confuse matters further: true yams are neither sweet nor carotene-colored. Somehow Americans took to calling patatas “yams”. The confusion also occurs in Japan, and elsewhere. Maybe it’s that “roots is just roots”, and confusion is unavoidable.

How the Amazonian patatas got to Polynesia before the Europeans did was long considered a big mystery. When chicken bones found in Chile were carbon-dated to c. 1450, that mystery was considered solved: the Polynesians had visited, and evidently swapped moa-moa (chickens) for what the Quechua call “cumal”, and Polynesians call “kumara”. (That the nautical vocabulary of native Catalina Islanders was Polynesian was not considered persuasive.) The mystery, of course, was only in the minds of Europeans who couldn’t believe in savages reaching the Americas before their own ancestors did.

“Turkey” is similarly confused. According to McGee, at the time turkey was introduced to England, an American fowl would have attracted little attention, but being ostensibly oriental made it exotic, thus interesting.

I have nothing to note about cranberries except that eating them gives me blisters on the neck and hands.

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