Potato Child ≠ Potato
“Do not eat the Potato Child, for it is not Potato.” – prolly someone great.
If a potato’s been kept around for too long, you will notice some sprouts popping out one day. It just so happened that I had some potatoes that were left to themselves for over a month. I returned to see my potatoes and saw that they were getting quite comfortable in the dark under the kitchen counter. A little too comfortable. While I was away, they had decided to start families and started sprouting all over the place. They had been growing for some time, and some of the sprouts were around 7-8 inches long.
The sprouts did not look too yummy. I snapped them off so I could prepare some potatoes for dinner, but an idea struck me. I figured that the sprout, having come straight from the potato, might taste like a potato as well. I grabbed the longest sprout I saw, gave it a light rinse, and popped the thing in my mouth. My initial reaction was, they were crunchy.
My second reaction? AAHHHGGGHHH!~!!! They tasted angry. The sprout did not taste anything remotely close to a potato. It was bitter, the kind of bitterness you’d get by eating instant coffee with some iron rust flakes. If I had to mention another flavor, I’d say earthy. Luckily, a swig of water washed the taste out, but there was a good long moment where I was chewing away at it, wondering whether I should cry, scream, or both.
If a potato is the adult, then the sprout is definitely the angsty teen. I tasted its rage. So while I doubt most of you would even contemplate such a notion, I warn the curious to not eat potato sprouts.
Reminds me of the time when I ate a bit of banana skin as a dare… wasn’t bad, just very chewy
That’s hilarious. I would never dare eat something that grew out of something I bought. I probably wouldn’t even eat the potatoes if they were left out that long. I like how you personified potatoe sprouts as angsty teens with rage you can taste. I’ll definitely remember to not eat potato sprouts…not that I ever would.
By the way, I found your site randomly one day. I’m not sure if I left you a comment before or not. I simply can’t remember, but I do like your pictures.
Jakash – I ate an entire banana (skin and all) a couple times. I’ve always gotten that cotton-mouth feeling each time. Not fun. Doesn’t taste too happy either.
Sue – I normally wouldn’t either, but I get curious time to time. Thanks for randomly finding my site. Hah.
Heh I found your site randomly too. I don’T remember how but it made it into my bookmarks so I come back from time to time.
About the potatoes, be careful with every part that isn’t “fruit”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanine (Solanine is in most parts of the potato that isn’t – well the “fruit”, I lack the term for what a potato really is in english ^^)
As far as I know the amount of solanine got reduced by careful breeding (I don’t know the right expression in english, the way of “forced evolution” that people use to make animals and plants fit their needs) by a factor of 10 or so over the last 50 years. So it’s not really dangerous but most people don’t want to get sick for a day