Yet another Hacker News

24 points surprisetalk 3 days ago 65 comments

cush 21 hours ago | parent

People throw away so much strawberry in an effort to cut the leaves off. Just eat the leaves. Next time you go to eat a strawberry, try eating the leaves too - they're very mild in flavor, and you waste no strawberry!

busymom0 21 hours ago | parent

I just hold it by the leaves in my fingers and take a huge bite of the entire berry with my teeth ending right before the leaves.

sho_hn 21 hours ago | parent

I just rip the leaves off, which is very easy with the variety we eat here. I never would have thought to cut them off. Are your two strawberries different?

embedding-shape 21 hours ago | parent

Same, sometimes this lead to me eating a bit of the leaves, sometimes I leave a bit of strawberry, but no one died yet, so I continue :)

Tade0 21 hours ago | parent

I started chewing the leaves. There's a hint of strawberry in them.

modeless 21 hours ago | parent

In at least some varieties of strawberries, the top of the berry has the least flavor and sweetness, and the bottom has the most, so I don't feel like I'm losing much.

embedding-shape 21 hours ago | parent

Most mass-produced strawberries people eat today are basically white on the inside and relatively flavorless to the real thing anyway, I don't think most people miss out if they eat or not the top of the berry.

downrightmike 20 hours ago | parent

White part under them tastes like nothing

cush 4 hours ago | parent

Yeah I don’t buy strawberries if they have a white top

pragmatic 18 hours ago | parent

Yes, that’s where the pesticide are. Can’t get enough pesticides.

cush 4 hours ago | parent

Yeah you’re going to want to start by washing your produce

bobbiechen 21 hours ago | parent

I do like to save watermelon rinds and cook them into soup.

Anyone have a use for banana peels?

el_benhameen 21 hours ago | parent

Now that is actually novel! To me, at least. You cook them into a regular soup as an additive? Or you make watermelon rind soup? How’s it taste?

bobbiechen 21 hours ago | parent

It's a variant of a Chinese wintermelon soup like https://thewoksoflife.com/winter-melon-soup-pork-ribs/ ! It's a great sponge for the soup flavors.

werdnapk 21 hours ago | parent

Banana peel oleo saccharum... you can add it to drinks and cocktails for a punch of banana.

VyseofArcadia 21 hours ago | parent

Yes, British TV chef Nigella Lawson cooks with them. https://youtu.be/kOF0Id92XRY?is=YOb6iPmPaMBeHLkJ

EvanAnderson 21 hours ago | parent

Thanks for sending me down that rabbit hole. Neat.

We throw away a butt-ton of watermelon rind in the summer. I never thought to see if they could be used for something.

downrightmike 20 hours ago | parent

Throw them in with the banana in the blender

intrasight 21 hours ago | parent

I eat the apple skin (of most apples) but I do not eat the core.

EvanAnderson 21 hours ago | parent

I am reminded of the saying in my family: Anything is edible if you're willing to eat it.

My late father-in-law ate entire apples-- core and all. I've tried but I can't stomach the texture or how much more the fibrous parts of the core get stuck in my teeth. It doesn't disgust me, I just don't prefer it.

Not to miss an opportunity to talk about apples:

I started eating three apples / day for lunch last year. I hadn't realized how dirty apples are. I assumed the washing they get in processing gets them pretty clean. It does not. I wet them and clean the stem and flower areas with a paper towel. I'm shocked at how dirty the towel ends up.

I'm a sweet apple kind of guy. Envy apples are the bomb. I used to like Honeycrisp but the rumors of their being bred into shitty tastelessness are true. They're terrible. Shockingly, sometimes Red Delicious, which I'd previously relegated to the "buy as a last resort" list, are actually pretty good now. Fuji, Gala, and Cosmic Crisp are all decent specimens.

My wife likes Pink Lady but I think they're just a little too tart. She can also put away the Granny Smiths which I find to be horrifyingly sour. Ick!

Anybody have feelings about other apple varieties a person like me might be into?

motionlessveloc 21 hours ago | parent

All mushrooms are edible, but some mushrooms are edible only once.

monkpit 21 hours ago | parent

There are old mushroom hunters

and there are bold mushroom hunters

but there are no old bold mushroom hunters.

EvanAnderson 21 hours ago | parent

Point taken.

I don't eat mushrooms-- can't stand the texture. I heard a podcast episode re: death cap mushrooms and it was chilling. A guy in the podcast talked about tasting a death cap then spitting it out and rinsing his mouth. He said they had a good taste.

Absolutely horrifying.

ta988 21 hours ago | parent

This is what everyone poisoned with them say. And really often why they don't make the link between those and their illness.

IncreasePosts 21 hours ago | parent

All mushrooms are edible only once, unless you're into coprophagia

xnx 21 hours ago | parent

The core basically disappears if you cut an apple in disks (or each from the bottom).

EvanAnderson 21 hours ago | parent

I still cut out the core when I slice an apple. I don't know the anatomical terminology well, but the "plastic-ey" texture of, I believe, the endocarp is what I don't like. It reminds me a bit of the plastic-ey tooth-clogging bits of popcorn.

busymom0 21 hours ago | parent

Aren't the seeds of the apple supposed to contain cyanide? Article points this out too and risk doesn't seem worth it. I used to eat the whole apple long time ago until someone pointed that out and from my googling, it was correct. Now I try to eat all of the apple except the seeds and stem.

I like putting my apples in the fridge. Love me a cold and crisp gala apple. On very rare occasion, the gala I get are mushy. But otherwise, they are my favorite.

EvanAnderson 21 hours ago | parent

I don't know if my father-in-law spit out the seeds or not. I'd heard the cyanide thing as a kid and always avoided eating them.

doctor_blood 21 hours ago | parent

You would need to eat the seeds of SEVERAL HUNDRED apples in one sitting, and you would need to grind them up finely beforehand to get full amygdalin absorption.

We're talking about almost a cup, or 100+ grams of apple seed here.

Your body continually neutralizes cyanide with the enzyme rhodanese, so there's also no danger of cyanide accumulation from eating a few apples a day.

altairprime 21 hours ago | parent

Soluna is like eating crispy wine and is currently at the top of my list. Prior to finding that, Lady Alice improves on Pink Lady, and it was my rockstar favorite. Envy is my go-to year-round when I can’t find rarer varietals; I’ve eaten hundreds of them. Cosmic Crisp is a fine last resort when Honeycrisp is too bright. Consider also trying Rubinette, Arkansas Black, Zestar. My notes say Wild Twist is a former Lady Alice but I definitely rank it just below L.A.

On the flipside: Kanzi “disappointment with every bite”, Ambrosia “pie apple because the raw texture sucks”, Autumn Glory DNF, Kissabel “lost its joy and turned grassy, DNF” Sugarbee “kinda one note, chewy, technically better than Red Delicious” Sweetango “knockoff Honeycrisp”, Evercrisp “painfully crisp, annoying to eat, fades to zero, looks like it was factory-polished, DNF”, Dazzle “all the flavourlessness of a Red Delicious with a nice crisp”, Ginger Gold “ten seconds of wonder and then mushes into disgusting texture and flavorlessness”

EvanAnderson 21 hours ago | parent

Thanks for the commentary. I'll check out some of those.

hysan 21 hours ago | parent

I don’t know much about apple variety names, but if you love apples and plan to visit Aomori prefecture in Japan during apple season, I highly recommend stopping by a market or grocery. I used to live in northern Akita and there was a farmer from Aomori that would come by with freshly picked apples to sell at one of the supermarkets. They had many varieties and they all tasted amazingly sweet and unique. I have yet to find an apple anywhere close to those since moving back to the states. The most recent new variety that I tried that I liked was Kiku. It’s like a sweeter version of a Fuji apple with a very similar texture. Based on your preferences, I think this would a fun one to try.

zikduruqe 21 hours ago | parent

> ate entire apples-- core and all

If you eat it from the North Pole to the South Pole, there is no core.

The core is only there if you eat around the equator.

Give it a try.

motionlessveloc 21 hours ago | parent

Grapes are commonly peeled in Japan, and people will look at you strangely if you eat them skin on. However, Japanese grapes are huge and have a thick, astringent skin that peels off easily.

Likewise, when Japanese people go overseas and start peeling grapes, people look at them strangely. Eventually they figure out that Western grapes are small, hard to peel and the skins are thin and nearly tasteless, so they adopt our barbarian habits too.

Updated to add: Japanese grapes like Kyoho are actually hybrid cultivars of Western grapes (Vitis vinifera) and Concord grapes (Vitis labrusca), which is why they're so different.

Tade0 21 hours ago | parent

My dad would peel the skin of every fruit, including grapes, which is how I learned to do it.

embedding-shape 21 hours ago | parent

Are you/your dad Japanese? I feel like we're missing most of the context here.

sho_hn 21 hours ago | parent

I've had this conversation and the way I explained it is that our grapes are closer to the boba in bubble tea. It's not quite right (they don't pop quite as much) and boba isn't Japanese, but it gets the point across.

bbg2401 17 hours ago | parent

Whose grapes are you likening to boba? I’m struggling with the comparison - even a loose one.

Is there a grape variety I’m entirely ignorant of?

sho_hn 16 hours ago | parent

Like my parent said, the grapes in East Asia are thick-skinned, and people either peel them or suck out their flesh. The ones sold in Europe are very thin-skinned, and peeling is largely impractical. I'm relating the latter to boba.

NoImmatureAdHom 21 hours ago | parent

Fun fact: a lot of people think artificial grape flavoring doesn't taste like grapes. And that the "Welch's concord grape jam" variety of jams is artificially flavored.

Nope, that's just what some grapes taste like. There's a Korean variety, and Concord at least. Wiki says it's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitis_labrusca

ButlerianJihad 4 hours ago | parent

I live near a Korean pan-Asian convenience store, and I've been enjoy the variety of beverages and ramen available there. Oceania today exports foods with significant influence by Italian cuisine, in particular.

There are some fruit drinks which contain whole fruit, like green grapes. It's sort of on the spectrum if you imagine canned grapes, which come in a "light syrup" but the beverage is a thinned-out version of that, not tart or sugary like American grape juice.

But you pour the can out, and a couple of fresh grapes come out as well. I suppose they are peeled. I was a little disappointed when the pear juice didn't include sliced pears. But there are many more fruits to try!

sho_hn 21 hours ago | parent

When I realized you can just eat kiwi with the skin on (if it's a very hairy one, brush them off under running water) and in no time it actually tastes better (adds some lovely contrast), it became my favorite zero-ennui fruit. It almost feels like a cheat code for something so tasty and large to require so little effort!

Now, I never thought that kiwi skins are not edible of course, but I just assumed they're somehow unpleasant because everyone seems to peel or spoon them.

NoImmatureAdHom 21 hours ago | parent

I like that you can take a bite directly through a kiwi

downrightmike 20 hours ago | parent

Big grape.

NoImmatureAdHom 19 hours ago | parent

A gooseberry, in fact.

kelipso 21 hours ago | parent

Haha literally ate kiwi with skin on for the first time today. It’s a lot nicer, you just rinse it and eat it!

jdkoeck 21 hours ago | parent

My favorite thing is leaving the skin and slicing them. Each slice has the perfect amount of skin and pulp, it’s crunchy, it’s heaven!

honr 16 hours ago | parent

I have never had a problem with kiwi skins (except when the kiwi is unripe; a natural mat with acids and possibly oxalate. NOPE).

But are you claiming you eat the whole fruit, or you throw out the tiny thorn?

sho_hn 15 hours ago | parent

I usually throw out the tiny thorn.

tiahura 21 hours ago | parent

Mango skin, leaves, and sap contain compounds related to urushiol, the allergen in poison ivy.

embedding-shape 21 hours ago | parent

Huh, that's neat, so get used to eating mango skin, and eventually you can eat poison ivy? Kind of handy, thanks!

kaycebasques 21 hours ago | parent

I started eating mango skin a few months ago. When it's thin and bland, it's not bad. Gives a nice crunch to the eating experience. But often it's way too thick and sometimes strongly bitter.

niemandhier 21 hours ago | parent

If you eat enough kiwis with skin, tarantula abdomens start to look like something tasty.

I read that online, I trained myself to eat whole Kiwis and lo and behold: It is true!

Our brains are so wonderfully strange!

dbacar 21 hours ago | parent

Looking at the pesticide scores, one should not eat any fruit/vegetable without peeling if it has any.

bossyTeacher 21 hours ago | parent

That is why you wash your food before eating it same as you do with legumes and rice (that likely also have had pesticide on them).

sho_hn 21 hours ago | parent

In South Korea (where I used to live for a while) it's quite common to wash fruit with soapy water at home before eating them.

loco5niner 21 hours ago | parent

But peanuts and white rice, the most common ones have already been 'peeled'

brnt 21 hours ago | parent

Unfortunately a lot leaks in. Grapeskins are particularly porous for instance. So are most of the dirty dozen iirc.

Skins are healthy, but only if organic and/or clean fifteen.

busymom0 21 hours ago | parent

On a related note, a friend of mine removed both the skin and even the center core (the seeds part) of cucumbers. I think all that's left is about 30% of the cucumber.

I found that truly bizarre. Her reasoning was that it was too watery (???)

sandesh247 21 hours ago | parent

Eating an apple the right way: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/42b8Zah8-jM

NoImmatureAdHom 21 hours ago | parent

You can eat whole boiled eggs too. Shell and all.

lsch1033 21 hours ago | parent

Well certainly not for every fruit... especially after you learn that durian is an edible fruit

pragmatic 18 hours ago | parent

https://www.britannica.com/story/can-apple-seeds-kill-you

Also, don’t feed them to dogs especially small dogs.

Highly unlikely to be a problem but people die from water poisoning so…