Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ubc-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!mhuxn!ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!ddyment From: ddyment@ubc-cs.UUCP (Doug Dyment) Newsgroups: net.cooks Subject: Re: Eating flowers--really on food discovery Message-ID: <1221@ubc-cs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 18:01:17 EDT Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.1221 Posted: Fri Aug 16 18:01:17 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 04:55:17 EDT References: <50@drutx.UUCP> <411@stcvax.UUCP> Reply-To: ddyment@ubc-cs.UUCP (Doug Dyment) Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 10 Summary: tapioca story **** Many years ago (i.e., I forget the source), I read the following story of the "discovery" of tapioca. Apparently its poisonous nature was well known to natives, and when someone (acutally, a white person) was lost in the jungle, with apparently no hope of rescue, he decided to speed his demise by eating some of the poisonous root. In an attempt to make it taste better, he cooked it first, and voila!, both a new discovery and a foodstuff to support him during his eventually successful search for civilization.