Bizarre food 【6】：Pineberry

        Have you ever seen white strawberries? It is sooooo cute!! I would like to try it, if there is a chance. The Pineberry is a strawberry cultivar publicized in Germany in April, 2009, as Ananaserdbeere, or pineapple strawberry. It is a hybrid of Fragaria chiloensis, originating in South America and Fragaria virginiana, originating in North America. "The fruit flesh can range from soft white to orange and is very fragrant with a slight pineapple flavor," said Greg Goddard, the co-creater. The plant is disease resistant, but is not very profitable. Due to small-scale farming, small berry size and low yield crop, the Pineberry has been marketed to European restaurants, bakeries and wholesale markets. It is also grown in Belize.
        The berry has been dubbed the Pineberry for the UK market where it will soon be available. White strawberries are not rare; garden supply stores in the UK have other white varieties of strawberry called Zach Gs white berry balls White Soul and White Delight.
Pineberries were bred from a wild strawberry originating in South America, but was nearly extinct until 2003, when a group of Dutch farmers banded together to save the plant. The Pineberry is said to have the same genetic makeup as the common strawberry. When ripe, it is almost completely white, but with red seeds. A pineberry is smaller than a common strawberry, measuring between 15 to 23 mm. They are grown in greenhouses, growing on coir like other strawberries. Pineberries begin life as green berries, then become slightly white. By the time its deeply set seeds turn deep red, the white fruit is deemed ripe.

Bizarre food【5】：Kumis

            I have been to Mongolia two years ago, Kumis made a good impression on me, I love it, though some people cannot get used to its taste. Kumis, also spelled kumiss or koumiss in English (or kumys, see other transliterations and cognate words below under terminology and etymology) is a fermented dairy product traditionally made from mare's milk. The drink remains important to the peoples of the Central Asian steppes, of Turkic and Mongol origin: Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Yakuts, Mongols and Kalmyks. It was also consumed by Baltic, Hungarian tribes.
Kumis is a dairy product similar to kefir but is produced from a liquid starter culture, in contrast to the solid kefir "grains". Because mare's milk contains more sugars than the cow's or goat's milk fermented into kefir, kumis has a higher, though still mild, alcohol content.
Even in the areas of the world where kumis is popular today, mare's milk remains a very limited commodity. Industrial-scale production of kumis, therefore, generally uses cow's milk, which is richer in fat and protein but lower in lactose than the milk from a horse. Before fermentation, the cow's milk is fortified in one of several ways. Sucrose may be added to allow a comparable fermentation. Another technique adds modified whey in order to better approximate the composition of mare's milk.

Mongolia  people are very hospitable!





Kumis is production of mare's milk：
A 1982 source reported that 230,000 horses were kept in the USSR specifically for producing milk to make into kumis.
A mare being milked in Suusamyr valley, Kyrgyzstan.
Rinchingiin Indra, writing about Mongolian dairying, says "it takes considerable skill to milk a mare" and describes the technique: the milker kneels on one knee, with a pail propped on the other, steadied by a string tied to an arm. One arm is wrapped behind the mare's rear leg and the other in front. A foal starts the milk flow and is pulled away by another person, but left touching the mare's side during the entire process.

In Mongolia, the milking season for horses traditionally runs between mid-June and early October. During one season, a mare produces approximately 1,000 to 1,200 kilograms of milk, of which about half is left to the foals.


Health
          In the West, Kumis has been touted for its health benefits, as in this 1877 book also naming it "Milk Champagne".
         Toward the end of the 19th century, kumis had a strong enough reputation as a cure-all to support a small industry of "kumis cure" resorts, mostly in southeastern Russia, where patients were "furnished with suitable light and varied amusement" during their treatment, which consisted of drinking large quantities of kumis. W. Gilman Thompson's 1906 Practical Diatetics reports that kumis has been cited as beneficial for a range of chronic diseases, including tuberculosis, bronchitis, catarrh, and anemia. Gilman also says that a large part of the credit for the successes of the "kumis cure" is due not to the beverage, but to favorable summer climates at the resorts. Among notables to try the kumis cure were writers Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov. Chekhov, long-suffering from tuberculosis, checked into a kumis cure resort in 1901. Drinking four bottles a day for two weeks, he gained 12 pounds but no cure.

Bizarre food【4】：Kenkey

         Today I will introduce you a bizarre food - Kenkey. I have not try it, but it looks good. I never knew banana leaves can be used in cooking food. Kenkey or Dokonu or Komi is a staple dish similar to a sourdough dumpling from the Akan, Ga and Ewe inhabited regions of West Africa, usually served with a soup, stew, or sauce. Areas where Kenkey are eaten are southern Ghana, eastern Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, western Benin and Jamaica. It is usually made from ground corn (maize), like sadza and ugali. Unlike ugali, making kenkey involves letting the maize ferment before cooking. Therefore, preparation takes a few days in order to let the dough ferment. After fermentation, the kenkey is partially cooked, wrapped in banana leaves, corn husks, or foil, and steamed. There are several versions of Kenkey, such as Ga and Fanti kenkey.

Ingredients
     6-8 cups of corn (maize) flour or cornmeal (ground corn or ground maize); (White cornmeal is preferred, it should be finely ground, like flour. Latin American style corn flour, as is used in tortillas, tamales, pupusas, etc. is the right kind) Banana leaves, or maize or corn husks, or aluminum foil to wrap dough in (the leaves or husks may be available at African, Asian, or Latino groceries)

How to make it?
           In a large container combine the corn flour (or corn flour and grated cassava) with just enough warm water to dampen all of it. Mix well. Cover the container with a clean cloth. Set it in a warm place, such as a warmed oven or on top of the refrigerator, for two to three days. Fermentation may take longer than two days, especially in cool climates. (Note: a warmed oven is an oven that has been heated for a few minutes then turned off. The flour should ferment, not cook.) When it is properly fermented, it should have a slightly sour, but not unpleasant, aroma, like rising bread dough. Overly fermented corn flour will not taste right.