And then there’s Brassica oleracea, where it’s not even a family, but one single species that brings us a heap of classic veggies including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, and gai lan. If you expand to its family you can add turnip, bok choy, radish, wasabi, as well as the majority of source vegetables in the eponymous “vegetable oil”.
Damn. I didn’t understand the joke the above user was making and was hoping that by understanding why it’s a switcheroo I could understand the original joke. But now I’m no closer than where I started.
That’s an existential crisis I’ve had after starting to eat vegan. Suddenly everything in your cupboard is a plant, with the exception of salt and sometimes mushrooms.
It’s just like: I’ll now eat this noodle-shaped plant with this pureed plant and this protein-rich plant and I’ll also throw in some tasty plant shreds. Maybe I should also have some plant leaves with a dressing out of plant oil, fermented plant juice and this plant seed paste.
But then I realized that meat, eggs, cheese, milk, and even mushrooms, they’re all just processed/digested plants, too. So, there’s only plants and salt. Which really didn’t make the existential crisis any better, but at least we’re all in it together. 🙃
For what it’s worth, though I don’t think I’ve ever had them in any form, I’ve heard that the poor reputation of Brussels sprouts is due to the popular way of cooking them in the '30s through '80s being to boil the shit out of them. They’re supposed to be quite good if you cook them the right way.
I once had a coworker who just took a bite out of a raw onion right in front of me. They were completely unfazed, like it was an apple or something. I’m still a little emotionally scarred.
Younger guy from the southern US here, I have done this just to fuck with people. I’m just not very sensitive to the “bite” onions are supposed to have. I can chop quite a few of them before my eyes start to water.
Southern guy probably was eating a Vidalia onion. The soil is low in sulfur, I believe, and has a more neutral acidity, so the onion is pretty uniquely sweet. I heard one older southerner call them dirt apples.
There are actually onions that you can do that with. I think the soil where those are grown is low on sulfer or something so the onion cant make the chemical responsible for making your eyes water.
I’ll usually eat a could wee chunks of an onion after I dice it up, and the other day I was surprised by how palatable the onion was that I was eating. Normally I enjoy eating a couple tiny pieces raw, but this was an onion I could see myself taking a big ol bite out of
I had a surly paternal grandmother who seemed to revel in making the lives of children miserable.
When I was about four years old, I asked for a snack, and she gave me a raw onion.
I sat at the kitchen table and ate the entire fucking thing like it was the sweetest piece of fruit known to history, staring her in the eye the whole time.
If I had been just a little bit older and thought of it, I would’ve asked her for another one.
She died when I was seven. My reaction to this, as she lived in Washington State, was, “Does that mean we get to see Mount Saint Helens?” as the volcano had gone off just a couple weeks prior.
I know it’s stupid, but I just can’t give up good food. My stomach will hurt so bad it feels like I have back problems or something and I’m still not eating spaghetti without my garlic bread.
I don’t eat the good stuff constantly, most of my meals are bland. When I get a chance though I don’t pass on it.
How sensitive are you? I’ve found I struggle with them a bit if I eat lots suddenly after not eating them for a while, but if I continue, it tends to be fine. My guess is that the reason it is inconsistent for me is related to fluctuations in gut bacteria partially due to what I am eating…
I know actual IBS is no joke, but I think it would be interesting to determine your threshold and see if you can change it at all. For example, eat a pea-sized piece of onion and wait a couple days. No effect, start eating a pea-sized piece of onion every day and wait for cumulative effects (a week or two?). Still no effect, add another piece for one day, go back to regular dose for a couple days, etc. When you reach the point where it starts to cause discomfort, back off a bit and try to push it again in a week or two.
I’ve never really tried to change it, I adapted as best as I could.
I’m intolerant to most fodmap (lactose, mannitol, fructans, gos and fructose). I also noticed that gluten can wreck me if I eat too much of it, fatty food can trigger me as well as alcohol.
It was hard to get used to it but now it’s a question of self regulation. I skip most of the things that trigger me and indulge sometimes, often a bit too much and I have to face the consequences for up to a week or so. Lactose is the easiest to deal with because of lactase, the rest not so much… I guess at least I’m not celiac or suffering of Crohn’s, so that’s that I guess.
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