Eating Flowers
Today I smelled food being fried in the kitchen and since I was feeling hungry, I thought I would see if there were any nibbles available.
Well I was surprised to find a friend had gone out to the river bank to pick some Acacia flowers to turn into Tempura. It tasted ok with some salt sprinked on it with a subtle, knd of sweet flavour from the flowers.
From this:
To this:
That’s actually safe to eat?
Comment by James — May 29, 2006 at 6:15 am
That look like Black Locust, which is actually a pseudoacacia. The bark and pods are very toxic, but the flowers can be yummy and eaten as tempura. I’ve even heard of the sprouts being boiled and eaten with goma dressing.
Comment by Paul — May 29, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Well I didn’t suffer any side effects so they must have been safe to eat. Of course they were thoroughly cooked to kill any bacteria. There are quite a few wild plants that are cooked and eaten here in Japan.
I often see people in the grass land collecting plants.
During a run this morning I actually spotted some wild strawberries growing on a bank near the side of a road. They seemed small though compared to ordinary strawberries. Also, I passed people that had removed bag fulls of what smelt like mint from a stoney wall near the river.
Thanks for the comments.
Comment by blogmaster — June 3, 2006 at 2:09 am