We’re discussing some of the weirdest food facts out there. Some of them will surely shock you. People still have different opinions about some of the facts you’ll see today, and there are many ongoing debates about some…
Ketchup didn’t always contain tomatoes
Ketchup is believed to have originates from China. Back in the day people made ketchup from fermented anchovies, rather than tomatoes. Tomatoes weren’t even in use until the 1800s, when people started using them in a few recipes. Before people started making ketchup using tomatoes, they had to use different fruits and veggies to prepare it. This was mainly because they believed that tomatoes were poisonous, and didn’t want to include them in their diet. What people used instead of tomatoes were: different kinds of berries, mushrooms, or grapes.
After a scientist proved that tomatoes are not only safe for eating, but are also very healthy and nutritional, people started preparing recipes and including them in their everyday meals. Ketchup was at first even more popular than the fruit itself. In the 1800s there were people who still believed that the raw tomato could be poisonous, and even deadly.
Fortune cookies are not a tradition in China
Among some of the weirdest food facts is the long disputed myth that fortune cookies originate from China. Many of us thought of the fortune cookie as a symbol for traditional Chinese food. Fortune cookies are quite a popular dessert in Chinese restaurants in the States, and many European countries. Nevertheless, they are not a tradition in China. The fortune cookie has its origins in Kyoto, Japan, although the cookie differs from the Chinese version in some ways. Fortune cookies were actually imported in China in 1989, and they first sold them as ‘genuine American fortune cookies’. People in China even considered them to be “too American” and were not really interested in them.
80% of avocados in the US come from a single tree
The tree’s name is the Hass avocado and is actually the most commercially popular avocado. The Hass tree descended from a seed that a postman Rudolf Hass planted in 1926. It actually accounts for 80% of all avocado crop in the States, and 95% of the California crop. The Hass avocado mother tree lived for 76 years, until 2002. It’s the tree’s offspring that is now grown in California, and supplies most of the markets, and homes of Americans. This means that there is a huge possibility that all the avocados you’ve eaten came from that tree.
READ MORE: 5 surprising health benefits of garlic.
Tea bags were discovered by accident
Back in 1908 a tea importer from America used to ship out tea samples in silk pouches. He did not intend for consumers to put them directly into hot boiling water, but some did. They probably thought they should use them the same way they used the metal infusers, and put the entire bag in the pot. After they got used to this way of drinking tea, they asked Mr. Thomas Sullivan, the importer, for more of the same tea bags.
A few years back, two women from Milwaukee tried to patent their new invention, which was called a ‘tea leaf holder’. They didn’t want people to waste tea leaves, so they designed a tea leaf holder, which had the exact amount of tea leaves needed for a cup of tea. Both them, and Sullivan helped solve 2 problems at once. They designed a tea bag that’s both easy and convenient to use, so you won’t ever need to waste any extra leaves.
The banana isn’t a tree, it’s a herb
The banana that you peal and eat is definitely a fruit, simply because it contains the seeds of the plant, the same way a tomato is a fruit. Still you might be wondering where the banana’s seeds are actually hiding, as they can be hard to find sometimes. This is due to the fact that most commercially sold bananas are actually sterile. It’s not at all hard to find the banana seeds if you look at a banana herb that’s growing in the wild.
Even though most people call the banana plant a banana tree, the truth is that it’s a herbaceous plant, or a herb. According to this, it would be more accurate to start calling the banana trees – banana herbs. That’s because its stem doesn’t contain woody tissue, therefore, even the produce can might as well be considered a herb. What this means is that you won’t be wrong to call a banana either a fruit or a herb.
Some of the weirdest food facts indeed…
