Medellitin

I am really loving 'Future Food' on Planet Green (10PM:EST/Tuesdays).  On each half hour episode, Chef Homaro Cantu and his chefs use modern cookery techniques to recycle abused product , creating fish dishes without using fish, and, on the most recent episode, solving world hunger . How would the Moto team solve world hunger?   Their answer begins with a peculiar fruit called "Miracle Fruit".  Miracle Fruit contains a taste chemical called... wait for it... Miraculin.   Miraculin is a taste modifier.  You put it on your tongue and sour/bitter flavors become sweeter.  There are a handful of taste modifiers out there, but miracle fruit is the easiest to come by. At first glance, it is easy to dismiss the idea that the power to make unappealing flavors delicious.  After all, if you are starving, does flavor play a huge role in what you eat?  I don't know.  I also don't know how nutritious crab apples and various weeds are.  Bu...

When you are drinking that can of cola you aren't just feeling those tiny bubbles, you are also tasting them, according to a new paper entitled "The Taste Of Carbonation". From the press release: Ryba added that the taste of carbonation is quite deceptive. "When people drink soft drinks, they think that they are detecting the bubbles bursting on their tongue," he said. "But if you drink a carbonated drink in a pressure chamber, which prevents the bubbles from bursting, it turns out the sensation is actually the same. What people taste when they detect the fizz and tingle on their tongue is a combination of the activation of the taste receptor and the somatosensory cells. That's what gives carbonation its characteristic sensation." There are two crazy factoids here. The first is that the sensation is identical when the bubbles aren't bursting, which seems to defy logic. You'd think there would be some sensory difference. Second, somewhe...

**UPDATE:** They refunded my money and sent me tablets. While a frustrating experience, they did ultimately make me whole. On June 3rd, Grub Street published a blog post entitled “Miracle Fruit Dealers Will Take You ‘Flavor Tripping’”. In it, they talk about the Miracle Fruit, a berry of West African origin that will temporarily invert your taste of sour for somewhere between 30 minutes - two hours. Obviously, that makes people like me excited. They also mention a New York based company, Miracle Connect , that would deliver the berries to you within a week. That makes people like me incredibly excited. Buying temperature sufficiently raised, I purchased the berries through the website. On June 20th, I still did not have my berries. I sent in a status request. Here was the reply: Hey, We’re getting more berries in two weeks! Sorry for the delay, we sold out after the Times and NY Mag stories. Best, NS > Dear Miracle Connect: > > Can I get a quick status on my order? My receipt...

**UPDATE:** They refunded my money and sent me tablets. While a frustrating experience, they did ultimately make me whole. On June 3rd,  Grub Street  published a blog post entitled “Miracle Fruit Dealers Will Take You ‘Flavor Tripping’”. In it, they talk about the Miracle Fruit, a berry of West African origin that will temporarily invert your taste of sour for somewhere between 30 minutes - two hours. Obviously, that makes people like me excited. They also mention a New York based company,  Miracle Connect , that would deliver the berries to you within a week. That makes people like me incredibly excited. Buying temperature sufficiently raised, I purchased the berries through the website. On June 20th, I still did not have my berries. I sent in a status request. Here was the reply: Hey, We’re getting more berries in two weeks! Sorry for the delay, we sold out after the Times and NY Mag stories. Best, NS > Dear Miracle Connect: > > Can I get a quick status on my order? My recei...