History Macadamia Nut

2010-12-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

Botanist Walter Hill watched his young assistant in horror. The boy had just eaten nuts from the newly discovered species of the tree growing in the sub tropical rain forests of southeast Queensland, Australia. Hill had heard that the nut was poisonous. But the lad neither became ill nor dropped dead. Instead, he found the nuts to be delicious. So Hill tried one himself and agreed. Soon thereafter he began distributing macadamia seedlings to friends and botanist around the world. Years earlier, explorer Cunningham (1828) and Leichardt (1843) collected macadamia nuts, but their specimens were placed in storage and not described. In 1857, a colleague of Hill’s, Melbourne botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, named the genus Macadamia after his good friend Dr. John Macadam.

Today, some 150 years later, macadamia nuts are popular worldwide-and for food reason. The journal Chronica Horticulturae explains: “The macadamia is considered one of the world’s finest gourmet nuts because of its unique, delicate flovour, its fine crunchy texture, rich creamy colour.” Little wonder that macadamia nuts are Australia’s most successful indigenous food crop!

2010-12-18T15:50:00.000-08:00

Humble Origin of Pizza

Today, pizza is a favorite food of young people and I am one them. Specially when there is a hot sauce and complemented with a cold drink. But a word of caution is in order. To be considered as nutritious, pizzashould be made from healthful ingredients that are balance in carbohydrates, proteins, and fats and that are rich in vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. Olive oil is recommended ingredient in pizza. It promotes the formation of HDL, describes as "the good type of cholesterol that helps clean the arteries"

It is said that pizza originated in Naples, Italy about 1720. Back then, pizzawas primarily for the poor, a "fast food" or should we say a "street food" that was sold and consumed outdoors. A story has it that King Ferdinand I (1751_1825) loves to eat pizza but because it was banned by the Queen from the royal court, King Ferdinand I disguise himself as a common man and visited a poor neighborhood in Naples just to eat pizza. Eventually King Ferdinand I made his penchant pizza known to the royal court. Before long, this street delicacy won such favor that even members of the wealthy elite and royal class began flocking to pizzzerias. Ferdinand'sgrandson, King Ferdinand II, went so far as to have a wooden-burning oven built in the gardens of Capodimonte Palacein 1832. Thus, he was able to keep his aristocratic guests happy.

If king Ferdinand were alive today, he would have no trouble indulging his appetite. Currently, there are some 30,000 pizzerias in Italy. So the next time you indulge your penchant for pizza, recall its humble origins. And be glad that KingFerdinand I did not keep his love for pizza a secret.

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History Macadamia Nut