It's one thing to be a foodie. It's another thing to put your life at risk because you're a little hungry and you want to be adventurous. How did our people learn what we could and could not consume? Who exactly discovered what seasonings paired perfectly with things? Who was the brave who learned for us that ketchup should always be on a fry? Deep thoughts friends. Deep thoughts.
Redditor u/maniacz2 had a really good life question we never really think about by asking.... What food has made you wonder, "How did our ancestors discover that this was edible?"
WTF?! Is correct!
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Kiviak - 500 Whole Auks (small bird) stuffed into a seal skin made air tight with the seals fat then left outside under rocks for 3 months.. mostly eaten on birthdays or at weddings.
Who the hell did this and thought "This will be a tasty snack in a few months?"
It's polite to eat it outside and it's considered good when it makes your eyes sting. It's never cooked and you just pull a bird out and start chowing down. WTF vj4
Don't be bitter....
Wild "bitter" Almonds have a significant amount of Cyanide in them. Whatever tribe in the Middle East that decided to keep breeding them and eating them anyway until they cultivated a non-poisonous cultivar was brave as hell. Or desperate. TofuDeliveryBoy
No, NO, Nonya...
This underground nut that is used in Nonya cooking. It's poisonous but you can eat it after it has been stored underground covered in ash for God knows how long. Buah kaluk I think it's called. BadUnker
Feel like I'm gonna ask what Nunya is and get a response like "nunya business kiddo." Amadeus420
I'm Flushed....
Hákarl.
It's made from sharks which usually are not edible. IIRC that's because they lack bladders, so all the nasty stuff accumulates instead of getting flushed out. Do your own research though, if you want to know for sure.
As a matter of fact, however, it can't be eaten unless you:
- gut and decapitate it
- bury it
- place stones on top to squish the shark and press the nasty stuff out
- leave it alone for 1-3 months
- dig out the corpse and cut it into stripes
- air the stripes for another 3-4 months
- remove the brown crust
Sounds delicious, huh? TheBoldMove
You're too Puffy....
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A bunch of people must have died from eating pufferfish and instead of stopping they just thought "Nah we just have to figure out exactly how to eat this thing." jonathanspicoli
In one prefecture they figured out that you can pickle fugu ovaries in rice bran for 3 years and it will remove the toxicity. I wonder if they just pickled the ovaries and had people periodically taste test it and when people stopped dying they were like, "Aight it's ok to eat." OMothmanWhereArtThou
Very Saffy....
Saffron, who the hell figured out that the stamen from a specific crocus flower, when picked and dried then steeped in warm liquids was going to be delicious? zowlingball
Easy. At first they wanted to extract the color and use it to dye stuff. Then they discovered that it also tastes good. Freevoulous
I'll take them scrambled....
Century eggs. Take duck eggs. Wrap them in hay and mud and ashes (legend has it horse urine used to be used too, because it's alkaline). Wait a few weeks / months. Break them open whereupon they are grey and jellylike and pungent smelling slightly of ammonia. Boil and eat.
I love them, but I really have to wonder who thought that eating them was a good idea in the first place. Or perhaps, how hungry they were that eating them seemed like a good idea. nogardleirie
Don't Swallow....
Cashew nuts. The shell is poisonous, the oil from the shell is poisonous, the nut is ok. If you pick one, shell it and eat it you will get a poison ivy type reaction everywhere it touched you.
Potatoes, the leaves are poisonous, the weird bubbly crap on the roots is fine, but only if you cook them. Wild potatoes can make you quite sick eaten raw. HoodsInSuits
Baking in the Woods....
The answer is always grains. I can't figure out how our ancestors discovered that prehistoric varieties of wheat or barley were edible. klod42
People probably saw an animal baking bread and figured it was safe to eat. OftheGates
Why poop?
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Civet coffee. Although more of a recent discovery (18th century). But who in their right mind decided, "I'm going to make coffee with this animal's poop!"?!! pommomwow
Arabian herders saw their goats eating coffee berries and acting energized afterwards. People began eating the berries. It took a long time before they learned to just boil the bean. DavidPT40
Pass the pepper....
Regular salt. You are eating a mineral. I get it that it was very critical to conserve meats back then but still I don't get how people can enjoy eating it or how the hell they figured it was edible and meat preserving. rodrigo_sth
Strawberries forever!
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Not so much edibility, but...lemme back up a little here.
When you see "natural flavors" in an ingredients list, it doesn't mean that the flavor represented actually came from the supposed source, just that the source is natural and not a man-made chemical (which would be artificial flavoring). Some natural grape flavor isn't from grapes, for instance, it's from mold.
With me so far? It gets even better.
One fairly common natural flavoring is strawberry flavor which is derived from the anal glands of beavers. So who was the first guy to eat a beaver's ass and say, "Hey, this tastes like strawberries!" 626c6f775f6d65
Starbucks thanks you....
Coffee,
Pick it, dry it. Roast it. Grind it. Boil water. Mix it. Filter it. Add milk. Add milk froth. Add sugar. Add hazelnut syrup. Drink before it gets cold. TheNewHobbes
Can you add butter?
Popcorn. I can only imagine there was a fire where corn was being stored... So basically by accident. Macaht
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCp59TLWmZI&vl=en-US
This was a kids book I read in like Kindergarten, and it stuck with me for way too long. All I had to do was google "kids book about native americans popping corn." I distinctly remember the page where they said that early natives thought that the kernels held a little demon that would get so angry that he blew up when heated. SammyMhmm
To the core.....
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As a french, cheese and wine. Two of our most renowned food items are basically rotten products. rakoo
You eat first....
Almonds. Originally poisonous... how does that even start? Carl died but before the afterlife he said they had a nice aftertaste. katkatkatkatkatkatt
I don't know why this is so low. People are saying cashews but almonds make the top nut list for me. Bgtex
That all sounds.... ummm....
Don't get me wrong, a bowl of moules mariniere with chips and a pint of good lager on the Mersea seafront is one of life's great pleasures.
But who the hell thought those black rock-dwelling weirdos would be edible? Creeeem
Shrooming all the way....
Every time I'm in the forest and picking mushrooms I wonder "how the hell did they figure out which one that was edible and which one was poisonous!?"
They must've learned it the hard way.. osktox
Every family has a least favorite child. PerilousAll
Chopped or Sauteed?
Onions! How can someone cut into something and with tears streaming down their face and eyes stinging, think "yep I bet this is safe to eat!" LeahMakesClothes
Probably didn't cut it in the First Place, they Would just bite in it. morre-jr
We're Doomed!
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Kimchee.
"Hey guys, I covered some cabbage in salt and buried it for 5 days"
"Barry, why the hell would you DO that?!"
"Wanna eat some with me?"
"God! It smells like pickled **holes!"
"......wanna eat some with me?"
"Hell yeah I do!"
How the hell is our species still alive? Penguin154
How many times have we all said... "I'll just eat it and see?"
But we should also be prepared and ready to ask the right questions to have a leg up on the competition.
"What is THE best question to ask on a job interview?"
A company's history or information about a past employee were suggested subjects appropriate for questioning.
Prior Knowledge
"When you were interviewing here, what would you have liked to know before you joined?"
"This worked for me. I asked my interviewer a question about how she had personally dealt with a company policy she had just explained. She bragged about her stellar adherence to the policy. I nodded my approval. I got the job."
A Previous Employee
"One that has always gone over well for me:"
"What were some qualities that the previous employee in this role brought to the job that you would like to see carried forward?"
"Another good thing to do is research the company you are interviewing with and you can ask things about what they may be involved in or you could drop that while reading about the company, you wondered this."
Hypothetical questions were suggested as helpful examples of inquiry.
Indicators Of How Companies Treat Employees
"A question that landed me a job once was: 'If I asked your direct reports about your management style, what do you think they'd tell me?' Stumped a hiring manager and he emailed me personally to tell me about it, no one ever asked him that question but got the job.
"In my current interviews I'm asking 'what did your company do for its employees during [the virus] to improve their day to day, work life balance, etc.' and I ask 'Is there anything your company adopted during [the virus] that they plan to keep post [the virus]?"
"These questions give a lot of insight into whether a company treated their employees well."
Past Performance & Adjustments
"If we were currently sitting in my 1 year review, what would I have done in this year for you to say I excelled in my role?"
"If I could snap my finger right now and change anything about your job or the company, what would it be and why?"
The following questions about a prospective company may not be answered from initial digging on their website.
Measure Of Success & Career Trajectories
"How is success measured in this role?"
"What are some possible career trajectories within the company that could stem from this position?"
Being A Solution
"Ask them what is the biggest problem you can solve for them in your first six months with the company. Similar to 'don't think of a purple hippo,' this forces them to imagine you succeeding in the position."
Simply The Best
"Who is your best employee and why is he/she the best?"
"You will then face 2 situations mostly:"
"panicking CEO who can't answer you 'Bob who works 17 hours a day for a slice of bread' so the fear in their faces must be a big nono for you"
"entusiast CEO who actually follow their business and can tell you who is an added value for the company and why."
– ThePiz91
My experiences with job interviews are different than others seeking work in office environments.
Having had a years-long career as a dancer, my "interview" was the dance audition, where hopefuls dance in small groups of people at a time after learning a routine and then awaiting their fate after the panel evaluates their performances.
The question I may or may not have asked in such a scenario earlier in my career was: "Did I make the cut?"
I did not make the cut. And I learned never to ask that again.
I remember the worst date I ever had. My biggest regret is that I stayed for the entire thing. I should've left as soon as I realized this was not going well, which was basically at hello. But he was paying so I drank, a lot. I'll keep names and dates to myself to protect the innocent.
0/10
Big Brother Reaction GIF by Big Brother After DarkGiphy"Went to brewery, date said I had hairy arms and that meant I was horny, said "you look really awful in this light" and then tried to dig out of that hole by saying in his native language that was a term of endearment long term couples said to each other. 0/10 did not date again."
Lucky 13?
"My wife wanted to plan our 13th wedding anniversary. I was excited because usually, I plan it. She bought us some new disc golf discs and after a quick supper, we went to play. We hadn't played in forever. We were laughing and I had a great time. She served me with divorce papers and told me that the date was a test to see if she still had feelings for me. I also learned that she was having an affair that started well before our anniversary."
- rmorlock
Two Hours from Home
"Not necessarily a date but a person I was dating invited me to his parent's house for the afternoon. He wanted to introduce me to them and show me the house he grew up in. I thought it was super sweet and had no problems going. He was also in the middle of moving and needed to pick up a few things, so it really didn't seem that unusual."
"Yeah, we got there and it was awful. His entire family was there. They traveled from hours away too. This was not just meeting the parents, it was meeting the ENTIRE family. Even worse? At some point, this idiot told his parents that he had proposed. We had been dating TWO months. I spent the entire afternoon dumbfounded and just playing along."
"We were two hours from home and I had no cell service, no way to leave at all. We ended up spending the afternoon brainstorming wedding ideas and planning an Alaskan honeymoon that his parents planned to gift us. His brother even called to say congratulations! We drove back to his apartment in silence. When we got there, I got in my car and left, didn't even bother grabbing my stuff. Weirdest experience ever. I have no idea how he broke it to his parents that we weren't getting married."
You're Cut Off!
"Got set up on a blind date once between mutual friends. She shows up to the restaurant already a little tipsy, orders multiple appetizers and only takes like one or two bites from each one. Then she proceeds to order 3 or 4 more drinks and is visibly drunk at this point. She gets up and says she's going to the bathroom and staggers off. About 15-20 minutes go by so I try to call her several times but no answer."
"Finally I decide to pay the check and just leave. About 2 hours later I'm sitting at home and I get a call from an unknown number. It's the police department. She was picked up on a DUI on her way home after she ditched me and gave the cops my number to see if I could go bail her out!"
- mox44ah
Sorry?
Bbc Three Idk GIF by BBCGiphy"Well, I gave this answer on a different topic, but it ties in with this. We were out on a date, we had been seeing each other for a while, close to a year maybe. She gets a phone call. Suddenly she looks destroyed. Her fiancé had just died in a motorcycle accident."
What in the world? I mean how can we ever expect to pair off with the dating pool being inundated with liars and nut jobs? I'm going to delete my apps.
Girl, Bye.
Sassy Beyonce GIFGiphy"Had a girl openly flirt with the bartender in front of me. She says she wasn't. But handing him her own phone and asking for his contact info in front of her date seems like it to me."
Crazy!
"Came out from a movie, late at night, and date's Camaro was stolen. Apparently, he called his WIFE (that I did not know he had) and let her know where he was and what happened. She showed up and realized he was on a date! She started chasing ME around the parking lot telling me she was going to kill me. Saved by the cops who showed up just in time to take the auto theft report."
Hey Mom
"Met a girl at a country bar one night in my 20s. We were both pretty drunk but hit it off pretty good. Ended up getting her number and we agreed we'd go on a real date. Fast forward to the date, she gets in my vehicle and... she looks almost identical to my mom. I was mortified. I was polite and we went for lunch where I found out she also had a boyfriend she "wasn't sure if she was into". Never talked to her again."
- SgtGo
Liars...
"When I was in college many years ago, before the advancement of cell phones and social media, I was chatting with a girl I met on a BBS who lived on Long Island, NY. I was 18 at the time, but lied and said I was 22 because she said she was 25. We spent a few weeks emailing each other, as well as calling each other."
"We even exchanged pics. When we finally met up, things blew up. Turns out we both lied about our ages: She was really 33, and lied because she thought she looked younger. She admitted she sent a college photo to me. We still had dinner together, but it was awkward as hell. We never spoke again."
Doubles
Kill Me Now Season 1 GIF by FriendsGiphy"It was a double date. She was more interested talking to the other girl throughout the whole thing. Found out later from the other guy that his girl cheated on him with my date."
Ummm... I think I'm just going to stay single. That is a handful of crazy. Why can't people just be honest? I swear the search for love warps people's brains. Be careful out there people.
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