Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • January 1, 2018 9:03 PM

@ Wael,

Hmm,

Drink lots of lemonade. And eat some sushi!

You know I don’t U-Blube so that means you are at the mercy of my thought processes. Which unlike many did not suffer neurological poisoning last night (or tonight as tis three hours past the witching hour in not so Merry Old England).

Thus “If life hands you lemons make lemonade” promptly springs to mind (Unless you are old enough to remember the Seakers and “Lemon Tree”). As for Sushi it is just morsels of angle cut fish on nigiri which is stroked rice with glucose syrup diluted with rice vinegar and a pinch or six of salt. Gluing them together should be Wasabi, however in western culture wasabi is not what you think it is…

Traditional wasabi is a plant in the Brassicaceae –cabbage– family called “wasabia japonica” which has to be one of the easiest latinised plant names to remember… However in the west it tends to be powedered horse radish and a green dye, which whilst it has heat lacks some of the subtle flavours of it’s traditional cousin… There are two problems with the real wasabi, the first is it is habitat sensitive thus can only grow in certain places and climates. Oddly there is one an hours drive from my home, the next eastwards being at the other end of the Mediterranean in Israel. Secondly the subtle taste is lost very quickly within about 15-30minutes after grating, which is not the case with dyed horseradish especially in vinegar or lemon juice (a condiment used in Europe for new years day food such as fish and easter food such as lamb).

If you bite a lump out of the wasabi root it lacks the strength of flavour, which only arises from the plant cells being torn. Thus the finer you grate it the stronger the flavour, and the quicker it’s lost if left uncovered. As it’s a defence mechanism chemical based on sulfer –yup it’s a brasica just like brussle sprouts– it’s technically a form of poison, which suprisingly makes it an effective anti-biotic. So if you have bad breath you could put a little on a tooth brush and brush it in.

The horseradish plant however has a non relative that could almost be it’s twin at certain times. The difference being the twin is highly poisonous and will kill you quite painfully (imagine the worlds worst seasickness then death by inability to breath). Known as the family aconite with monkshood and wolf’s bane being two members. It’s natural habitate is mountain pasture lands and similar. Unfortunately it is highly decorative, thus people will grow one or more of it’s couple of hundred varieties in their garden. As all parts carry the poison it’s suprising that accidents do not happen more frequently as it realy is nasty stuff. So much so it’s also known as “The Queen of Poisons” which are generaly seen as “the spurned woman’s” murder weapon of choice… The most recent case of this I can think of was in 2009. In Feltham west London just down the road from Heathrow, airport Ms Lakhvir Singh used aconitine to poison the food of her ex and his new fiancee, killing them both…