Hungry Scientist

We recently came across a token in memorium of the Father of Science in the Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence. We hope it was not a result of a kitchen accident, but rather a final rebel yell against the authorities that tried to quash his free thinking and scientific pursuits.

We’ve seen a lot of fruits in our time, but a visit to the local crunchie food co-op this weekend yielded a queen we had never before seen. A monstera deliciosa, or “delicious monster”, beckoned from the exotic fruit table, daring us to shell out the $5.99 the store was asking for it. Never weak in the face of a challenge, we swallowed the price and took the very strange, phallic-shaped, green-scaled fruit home. 

Turns out the 5.99 was nothing–for a fruit that takes a YEAR to mature. It’s the fruit of a philodendron, which has become a common decorative plant here in the States but is native to Mexico and Guatemala. The outer casing of the fruit is made of soft, green hexagonal scales that peel back, top to bottom when the fruit is stood on end, as it becomes ripe. Inside are fuzzy, white kernels that are soft and slippery when they’re extracted, and their flavor is the MOST DELICIOUS combination of pineapple and banana. Pure heaven.

But the monstera is not without its fangs. In fact, the whole fruit is completely poisonous until the moment the scales peel away by their own accord. The plant is full of oxalic acid (H2C2O4), a toxic member of the carboxylic acid family that converts insoluble iron compounds into soluble complex ions and is particularly useful as an acid wash in laundry detergents. How much of it is in the philodendron is unclear as yet, but it’s commonly known that rhubarb leaves are loaded with it, and that eating around 11 lbs of them will kill ya. 

So…. a burning sensation was definitely felt in the mouth and lips after eating the monstera fruit, but one doesn’t recall whether it was before research into its chemical makeup had been done–or after.

Our friend Kai got her hands on The Hungry Scientist Handbook. This is what happened:

http://2.recordertheapp.com/1cb95b237ddf0288ed78

We don’t know what happened next. We hope nothing blew up.

We’re working on making her an edible hockey puck. Any suggestions for an insanely durable yet edible material?

We’ve learned that many locals in Tuscany buy their wine in bulk directly from the Chianti wineries and store it in refillable bottles. In order to keep the bottles air-tight, they pour a little oil at the top. Rather than using olive oil, which makes wine taste olivey, they use a petroleum jelly-based oil and a loose-fitting cap or cork.

So after you’ve bottled your own wine at home, or are filling up refillable bottles at a friend’s winery, try this simple method. Just remember to siphon off the oil before drinking the wine! (see the siphon below)

We’d like to dedicate the first post of our first day in official publication to a very special couple of brains. Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman, aka www.evilmadscientist.com, are the truest hungry scientists. Their projects like “Demonstrate Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion in a Minute” and “A Simple Persistence of Vision Approach to Lissajous Figures”, they have us humbled; but their “Play With Your Food” thread has our hearts. (Sierpinksi cookies? Edible plane fractals, people!). They are imaginative, disciplined, dedicated, lovely people, and they contributed a handful of amazing projects to The Hungry Scientist Handbook. For that, we will forever doff our caps. Please, everyone, send some love through the circuits toward our favorite evils.