Sunday, September 30, 2007

Looky here what I bought at Berkeley Bowl yesterday:















They're called water caltrops, or more appropriately, Devil Pods or Batnuts:















Strangely enough, you can eat them, but you must cook them as they contain toxins in raw form, and the nutshells are hard like stones. I was told that if I boiled them, they would split open eventually and I could then easily get to the white nut inside. So, I commenced the boil:















And I boiled. And boiled some more. For over an hour and a half, until the water looked like this:















Guess what? Demonic looking little buggers they are, they were still hard as rocks, but I was able to crack one open and taste it. Like raw potato -- not really worth it. So I gave them out to friends at Trevor's reading last night as good luck charms. Great fun for Halloween!

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4 Comments:

Blogger Willard said...

I have the same problems with my demons as well..
Bland potatoes when the interior is finally revealed.

But, on the upshot-
I witnessed two crickets frolicking in the sunlight today. One was making sensual, strange chirping sounds, ambient techno music, and then the other cricket mounted.
They chased each other around and then did it again. A few times.

While I did not zoom in for the details of the whole exchange.. it was pretty much the same thing that goes on with people.

Only, with my regular Sunday Morning regular puff of Ganja, it came across as somewhat disgusting to watch, with the black antennea flailing about and such, and the idea of it and relating it, anatomically, to my human experience of such.. but I forced myself anyways to keep watching, to break the bias I was experienceing towards cricket-f*cking.

September 30, 2007 at 7:37:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Willard said...

oops, sorry about that long disgression from the topic- well
it's just a temporary arranement of rgb patterns anyways- but then again the local weltanschauung is an undiluted stream from your mind, and I suppose I'm sitting here on the side, occasionally appearing out of the brush aside-
drink a 40 and watching the fish dart about in the river- though these aint fish you can fish for, they ain't fish you can outsmart and catch with bait on a hook. That being.

Then I throw my backwashed 40 at the bank and leave. Sorry about the littering, if you see it as such. I don't, but then again I'm a big fan of landfills-
Them 'fillsies:
Nowhere else can you see the collected productions of regional mankind- the specimens of which carefully have cultivated and drawn from the land (that within proximity to the, in common usage labeled as "The Dump") though itself is a carefully cultivated and groomed mass, as with cropland, corn, potatoes, and such, but in the inverse, somehow, wherein the growing information is to be concealed and buried rather than bloom and grow
bloom and grow forever

Edelweiss
Edelweiss




and

October 2, 2007 at 7:45:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Yesterday's Ester said...

Look! It's me! COMMENTING AT LAST! For I do so love your blog, Saudade.

And here is my comment:

As one recipient of said Batnut, I would like to include that they also make excellent moustaches. I have been carrying mine in my purse on the offchance that I will have to go undercover.

October 3, 2007 at 11:46:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Ammie said...

JOY! Glad you are here, Yesterday's Ester. Yay!

You're going on my blogroll, girl.

I'm glad to hear the Batnut has not rotted and is still moustache-worthy.

October 3, 2007 at 4:06:00 PM PDT  

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