How about another food trivia quiz?

“Cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.”

Craig Claiborne, ‘Craig Claiborne’s Kitchen Primer’

1) One of the largest trees in the world, Dr. Livingston (I presume) considered it to be a kind of giant carrot that someone had planted upside down. Native to tropical Africa, these trees bear a long, large, oblong fruit whose pulp is used to make a cooling beverage. The leaves are also dried and powdered and mixed with food, and the pulp of the tree is sometimes eaten.

Name this tree and its fruit.

2) Native to Mexico and South America, this plant is now widely cultivated as a garden ornamental, and its flower is one of the most widely recognized edible flowers. The leaves and young stems can be eaten in salads, the flower buds and the young nutlike fruits can be pickled and used as a substitute for capers. The flower blossoms can be minced and used to flavor cream cheese and butter. All have a peppery flavor similar to watercress.

Name this plant.

3) In 1612, Captain John Smith described this dish as it was made by the Indians of Virginia:

“Their corne they rost in the eare greene, and bruising it in a morter of wood with a Polt; lappe it in rowles in the leaves of their corne, and so boyle it for a daintie.”

This ancient Mexican dish, was served by the Aztecs to the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez and his men.

Name this dish.

4) Native to central Asia, this plant has been used since ancient times by the Chinese and the Egyptians. It is pictured on ancient Egyptian tomb walls from 3,000 B.C., and there is evidence of its use in ancient Sumaria, Crete, and in the ruins of Pompeii.

It has a long history in medicinal folklore, is mentioned by Pliny, Hippocrates, and Mohammed, and in modern times was used in both World Wars to treat disease and infection. Its use in the culinary arts is equally as old, being mentioned in the Old Testament, and by Herodotus, Aristophanes, Virgil, and Dioscorides. It is used for its culinary value in almost every culture and country in the world.

‘Chicago’ is derived from the Native American name for the wild plant. It is said that it sprang up in the left footprints of Satan when he left the Garden of Eden.

Name this plant.

5) This animal was domesticated about 10,000 B.C, probably in the area in what is now northern Iraq, and selective breeding was being practiced by ancient Roman times. Its worldwide population today is over 1 billion. It is considered one of the most valuable of all domestic animals, Wild forms of this animal can be found in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. South America and Australia have no wild species, but domestic types are raised there.

Name this animal.

a) cattle

b) sheep

c) goats

d) pigs

e) chickens

6) What is heliculture.

a) growing plants in soil

b) growing snails for food

c) growing heliotrope garden plants

d) growing seaweed for food

7) Lake Titicaca is the world’s highest lake navigable to large vessels. It is the border between Peru and Bolivia at 12,500 ft above sea level, and is 3,200 square miles in size. It is also an area that was home to one of the oldest known civilizations in the Americas. The Aymara people that live there still practice ancient methods of agriculture.

What do they grow in the highest cultivated area of land in the world, at 15,420 ft?

a) potatoes

b) quinoa (a small grain)

c) barley

d) corn

e) chocolate

8) This is one of the oldest cultivated flowering plants. The flowers are edible, with a taste reminiscent of grapes and mint. It has been cultivated for so long that its origin is unknown. Some of the other names for the cultivated flower are ladies-delight, stepmother’s flower. The wild forms are also known as johnny-jump-up and love-in-idleness.

Name this flower.

9) An Australian (or New Zealand) dessert named for a Russian Ballerina, it consists of a meringue base with whipped cream and fruit.

Name this dessert.

10) Ground black cherry pits used as a flavoring in the Middle East.

Name this flavoring.

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ANSWERS

1) The Baobab is the tree, and Monkey Bread is its fruit.

2) Nasturtium, also known as Indian Cress.

3) Tamale. Spiced chopped meat on a bed of masa, rolled up in corn husks or banana leaves then boiled or steamed.

4) Garlic.

5) b) Sheep. The U.S. has only about 12 million, Australia has 155 million, USSR 141 million, China 94 million, New Zealand 72 million, India 55 million.

6) b) The science of growing snails for food.

7) c) Barley is grown at the highest cultivated plot of land in the world. Potatoes, quinoa and barley are grown at slightly lower elevations, and potatoes probably originated in the area.

8) Pansy.

9) Pavlova, named for Anna Pavlova.

10) Mahaleb.