Tropical tubers.......

I'm not talking about YouTubers.  I'm talking tapioca.  Tapioca is the starch extracted from the Cassava plant.  This is a highly toxic plant and can be fatal for humans and animals if not prepared properly and yet half a billion people around the world still use this super starchy, poisonous tuber and foods containing it.

Tapioca a.k.a. Cassava plant, manioca, mandioca, Brazilian arrowroot, and yuca dates back 12,000 years to South America while today, Thailand is the highest importer of Cassava and Nigeria is the greatest manufacturer.

Tapioca can be made into chips, ground into flour, baked into crackers and breads, and grated.  While tapioca is gluten-free, it is also heavy in calories.  The process to form the Cassava pearls that you see in the US is an extremely important process.  The moistened starch has to be pressed through a sieve, either small or large depending what the finished result will be used for.  The most important goal is to properly treat the plant to avoid cyanide poising but in reality only between 80% to 95% cyanide loss occurs even under the best circumstances.

Cyanide poising (linamarin and lotaustralin) can occur with improperly treated Cassava plants.  Rapid pulse, rapid respiration, dizziness, headaches, vomiting, convulsions, confusion, thyroid problems, neurological problems, pain, and diarrhea are all symptoms of cyanide poisoning.  This is a cheap source of starch and carbohydrates but I'm not sure the risk/benefit ratio is worth eating it.

Back in 2010, a total of 27 children died and more than 100 children became ill after eating Cassava at a Philippine school.  You can read about that here.  The Japanese Ministry of Health prohibits the use of Cassava plant in any form for human consumption.  There have also been recalls on many food items containing Cassava plant (tapioca) all over the world, as well as illnesses and deaths.

The proof is in the pudding.  Here are a few tips to hopefully help you avoid eating toxic Cassava if you prepare it yourself.  You will have to take your chances if it is an included ingredient in foods you are buying.  Always check the labels on your food.  Prolonged soaking, boiling, peeling, grating, and then sun drying are all necessary to encourage fermentation.  The smaller the piece, the better.  Many nutritionist and dietitian do not recommend Cassava-containing foods.

Shark week is here again, and I love it!

I just cannot help it, I.love.sharks.  I have always been fascinated by these misunderstood creatures who appear to extract fear and panic in the majority of the world's population.

So in honor of Shark Week 2016, lets take a look at the Wobbegong, the common name for the 12 species of carpet sharks in the Orectolobidae family. Orectolobidae is Greek for stretched-out lobe.

You can read my other shark posts here and here including shark dissection.

I decided to start out with the Wobbegong mostly because the name sounds like a Dr. Seuss book character.  The name actually was given to the species by Australian Aborigines.  In Australian the word Wobbegong translates into shaggy bearded (wobbies).

Factoids:
~There are 12 species of Wobbegongs, a.k.a. Carpet Sharks.
~Documentation dates this species of shark as far back as 100 years.
~The live in coral reefs, seagrass, and sandy bottoms of the ocean usually in the West Pacific Ocean (shallow waters around Indonesia and Australia for 11 of the Wobbegong species and you can find the Japanese Wobbegong (Orectolobus japonicus), obviously, around Japan.
~Their size ranges between 2 feet and 6 feet long.  The record for largest Wobbegong is 10 feet with the smallest being 2.5 feet.
~They graze on octopus, crab, lobster, and fish.
~Wobbegongs easily blend in to their environment making meal time very easy for them which is a good thing because they are said to be extremely lazy.  They have brownish or greenish skin, they are highly patterned, and they lay flat on the ocean's floor.  Perfectly camouflaged.
~Wobbegongs give birth to pups (Ovoviviparous).  Each litter consists of 20 pups.  Total gestation period is between 10 months and 11 months.  They are around 8 inches long at birth.  The current record for most live births by a Wobbegong is 53 pups.  After they are born, they are on their own.  They stick together until they learn to find food on their own.
~Their lifespan is not exactly known.
~The status is near threatened due to habitat destruction.
~They are nocturnal.  It is believed they have poor eyesight.
~Like the Great White, Wobbegongs breath by taking water in their mouths and pumping it through their gills.  They have five gill slits.
~Rumor has it that Wobbegongs make good pets.  Pet Wobbegongs only need to be fed twice a week but it has to be a live fish on a stick.
~Wobbegongs are caught for their meat, and their beautiful skin is used to make leather. BOO!

 Eucrossorhinus dasypogonTasselled wobbegong shark

Northern Wobbegong

Spotted Wobbegong Shark

Japanese Wobbegong

As you can see, the Wobbegong is a pretty unique and special fish.  Find out more from the links below. 
Happy Shark Week.............

Shark Sider
Shark Savers
Wildscreen Arkive 

Random New Year's facts/trivia.

A little bit of randomness about the New Year's celebration.

~Happy New Year, Julius Caesar!  Thanks for creating this celebration 4,000 years ago making this the oldest holiday.  Yep, he gets credit for yet another major event.  Caesar made Janus (January) 1st, a national holiday to celebrate the new year.  Background:  Janus was an interesting Roman god.  He was the god of doors and gates.  He also had two faces, one was the face of the future and the other, the face of the past.

~If you are in New York for New Year's Eve, you can check out the dropping of the ball which signifies the new year has begun.  New York has hosted this event since 1907 with the exception of 1942 and 1943 due to World War II.  This massive ball currently weighs in at almost 12,000 pounds and has more than 2,500 Waterford crystals (made in Waterford, Ireland) attached to it.  It is a whopping 12 feet in diameter.  The original ball was over 700 pounds and 5 feet in diameter.  Here is a peek of the ball for 2015 from USA Today.

~In Sydney, Australia, you can watch the more than 80,000 fireworks set off from the Sydney Harbour bridge.

~If you just happen to be in Japan, you will find homes decorated with bamboo stalks for prosperity, a plum blossom to show nobility, and pine branches which symbolize longevity.

~Of course, we have all heard the song Time Goes By for Auld Lang Syne (Time Goes By) a million times.  The song was written by a Scottish poet named Robert Burns in 1788.

~When the clock strikes midnight in Britain, people gather around and sing Auld Lang Syne.

~In Norway, a whole almond is added to rice pudding, the one who gets the serving with the almond is guaranteed to be wealthy for the year.

~In Greece, a coin is baked inside a loaf of bread.  When the loaf is cut and if the almond is in the third slice of bread, spring will come early.

~If you are in Sicily, you will be served lasagna for good luck.  Other types of pastas are considered to bring bad luck.

~More black-eyed peas are eaten on January 1st, than any other day of the year.

~It is thought that the reason for the noise/noise makers is to ward off any bad spirits at the beginning of the new year.

My previous blog post about New Year's can be found here and here.

Kitsune-Japanese folklore.

Recently, thanks to the XBOX, we have been trying to find new things to watch on TV until all of our favorites start back so we decided that we would give Teen Wolf a try.  Not the older Teen Wolf with Michael J. Fox, the newer version by MTV.  I had no idea what I was getting into when we started it, there is more than a lot going on but once you catch on, you get hooked.  We actually ended up watching 4 full seasons quickly so now we have to wait for the new season to come out.

There are several different supernatural forces at play including werewolves, screaming banshees, shapeshifters, berserkers, nogitsune, and kitsunes.  What?  For some reason, I became very interested in all of these but especially the kitsunes.

image from the web

The word Kitsune キツネin Japanese indicates the sound a fox makes when it yelps even though usually

when the word kitsune is used it refers to a fox.  There are many stories in the Japanese culture that pertain to foxes.  A kitsune is magical being that possesses abilities that increase in time.  These kitsunes can assume human form.  Kitsunes are highly intelligent and mischievous.  They have long lives usually around 900 years. There are 13 types of kitsunes.  A kitsune can also have many tails, as many as nine in some cases but having all of these tails can also prove problematic at times (when they take a human form for example, it is hard to hide all of those tails).  Kitsunes hate dogs and are very fearful of dogs.  Kitsunes have the power of kitsunetsuki which is the ability to generate lightening from their tails or breath fire, fly, bend time, they can create illusions, and manifest in dreams. They also have the ability to drive humans crazy.  I think it is clear why the kitsune is so fascinating but I just scratched the surface here.  I added links for more reading.

Kitsune Pinterest
Read more here.
wiki
Teen Wolf wiki

The Legend of the Kitsune

The Kitsune Page