Quick Foodie Quiz 27 – answers

Here are the answers:

1. What is (a) yuzu?
   1. A citrus fruit popular with Japanese chefs
   2. A breed of cattle known for their top quality steaks
   3. A Japanese drink like sake
   4. A tool used in vegetable carving

   The yuzu is closely related to the mandarin orange. It’s rarely eaten by itself, but its juice is commonly used as a seasoning (a bit like lemon or lime juice in other cuisines) and it’s also a common ingredient in cakes and desserts. (It’s also used in baths on the winter solstice!)

2. Artist’s Conk, Turkey Tail, Shaggy Mane, and Reishi are types of what?
   1. Cabbage
   2. Wine
   3. Mushroom
   4. Chicken

   The shaggy mane, also known as the shaggy ink cap, is delicious but needs to be prepared within about six hours of picking, or else its shaggy cap degenerates to a black inky substance. The reishi is a bracket fungus and is reputed to have the strongest health-giving properties of any mushroom, although the turkey tail is another contender for its possible cancer-fighting benefits. The artist’s conk, another bracket, is inedible.

3. Do yeasts have sex?
   1. Never
   2. Sometimes
   3. It’s the only way they can reproduce
   4. This is a trick question, right?

   Yeasts are single-celled organisms. In normal circumstances they usually reproduce asexually by “budding” – splitting in two – but under stressful conditions they may mate.

4. Out of the following four words, find the one which connects wine and cat litter.
   1. Cloud
   2. Volcano
   3. Storm
   4. Earthquake

   Bentonite, a clay used for cat litter, is also used as finings for wine. It’s usually produced by the weathering of volcanic ash, normally in the presence of water.

5. What is sinigang?
   1. A medicinal tea
   2. A type of rice
   3. A sour tasting soup
   4. A herb used in oriental cooking

   Sinigang is a sour soup or stew popular in the Philippines and similar to tom yam. The ingredient that provides the sourness is usually tamarind, sometimes guava or raw mango, but never vinegar, which would make the dish a paksiw. Apparently.

How did you get on? Why not post a comment below and let me know?