h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On last night's Masterchef the three finalists trundled off to Denmark to work the kitchen at Noma- purportedly the number 1 restaurant in the world.

They set off foraging for ingredients, picking wild flowers, herbs, grasses etc from the hedgerows and beaches.

Most of these were used raw in the recipe's.

No thought seemed to be given to the fact that dogs, cats, badgers etc could have wee'd and pooed all over these plants.

I appreciate the fact that the plants would have been rinsed, but if you touched raw sewage would you just rinse your hands, or give them a bludie good scrub? Would you pay good money to eat food that was foraged, and that could potentially give you one hell of a bad stomach, or even kill you?

Badger wee?

Drizzled, I imagine.

Mmmmmmmmmm...

Hoom, IIRC -- sometimes I don't -- a study somewhere showed increased illness from eating "organic" food.
I imagine folk believe that since it isn't covered in "evil" chemicals that they don't wash it properly or at all. As such they get the kinda infectious bugs that live in the soil or the wholesome manure the food is grown in.

Hm. If it's wild it *must* be healthy

I'd imagine that a trace amount of dried, windblown and then rinsed fox urine wont tend to kill you or make you ill, and if it does, there's a chance you were over-sterilised as a child?

I don't think I was 'over-sterilised' as a child,(though my mum did make me sit in some pretty hot baths when I were a lad, come to think of it... might be why I never had children....) I just wouldn't fancy eating something that may have been 'cocked' on by a family spaniel. Not unless it was properly washed and cooked.

It just seems strange that a restaurant that is reputedly the best in the world would serve up something with the potential to make you ill. I bet the chef doesn't come out and say "Here is your starter of scallops served on a bed of Golden Retriever wee drenched sea-grass, served with wild garlic that a seagull has cacked on,with a puree of chestnut mushrooms I found growing on some weasel poo, with a side order of botulism. Enjoy".

I've often eaten fresh herbs and such, sometimes from the garden, other times from the forest (wood sorrel is lovely).

I'm not dead yet.

There isn't anything, in any animals urine, that I'm aware of that could have any detrimental health effect on a human, Might make it taste a bit odd if your eating it raw, but a quick rinse of the most briefest time would remove it as its water soluable, and cooking likewise wouldn't need to be much in order to remove any potential contaminants... I'd far rather eat horse, badger, or fox urine covered veg than vegetables coated in a good spraying of chemicals designed to distroy and kill certain pests... I'm pretty such, even without looking it up, which is most likely to have detrimental affects

This is of course, on the faulse notion that because its 'wild' or forraged, its more* likely to have any natural contanmiants on it than it is if farmed in more 'normal' ways...

Urine is antiseptic - at least, at the point of delivery.

It's the shit that'll kill you.

RF

Probably right, there. Mental note to self- stay out of the shit.

I don't know what all the fuss is about Michelin stars. I mean, I've got three myself.

Hardest part is cutting the shapes out of the tyres....

Part of the secret of foraging for edible plants is knowing which ones can be picked with a minimal number of contaminants on them. You can't just go graze along the roadside.

You've never heard of the Roadkill Cafe then...

>>Hoom, IIRC -- sometimes I don't -- a study somewhere showed increased illness from eating "organic" food.

Yeah, I'd really like to see that one

Increased illness from eating food is, in the vast vast majority of cases caused by a result of a lack of brain power in whoever it was doing the cooking... It really can't be that* difficult to not* give yourself food poisening I've managed for 34 years without poisening myself once, 17 of those years spent cooking for myself without being able to see, and a lot of the time being drunk, off my head or otherwise not really totally conscious... Whilst at the same time I'll never* throw any item of food away if I think there is the remotest chance of being able to salvage it from wahtever state of past its bestists it is... But, whilst we live in a world where a worryingly high percentage of people working in food factorys preparing 'ready meals' and other 'convenience' food, can't even be taught* that its a jolly good idea to wash their hands after they deficate... Its no wonder that the low level of basic inteligence must make a high percentage of the population prone to poisening themselves..

Hear hear

Well said. I don't get involved in drinks rounds at work as some people seem to think it's ok to use the loo and not bother washing their hands, even though the sinks have automatic taps on them so it's not like they need to expend any energy to do so. We even have posters up reminding people to wash their hands.

I don't pay much attention to 'use by' dates. If it's not gone green or has things growing on it, it should still be ok to eat. I've worked in the catering trade in the past and it's criminal the things that do get binned because a label tells you it's no longer good to eat, even when it's clearly still ok.

And I used to eat worms as a kid (or so my mum tells me, don't have any clear recollections on that score!) so I suppose a bit of fox wee won't really do me any harm. There's a big difference between 'organic' animal poo and some lard arse in the office who can't be bothered washing his mitts after a 'number two'.

The worse example I have of people not washing their hands after deficating is... astonishign to say the least, going back a few years err.... a decade or more I guess now; When my Father worked on Quality control err... best not mention the firm, but I think they are either the biggest or one of the biggest producers of branded frozen goods in the UK, from peas to sweetcorn, burgers to natural fish, and processed products from burgers, to fish fingers, and all the horrid various 'ready meals' that seem so popular these days.... Anyhow...
This one time they kept getting high readings of contamination 'on the line', and of course my Father's job was monitoring and fixing such things... C.Dif and E.coli in particular (two bugs you really* don't want near food, and both indicitive of fecal contamination)...
They did all the useual stuff, redoubled the posters and information telling people to wash their hands etc, I think even doing some extra training on the staff about it all...
None of which had any effect whatsoever, and it was getting near the point where contamination levels on the line would ultimately have to lead to closure of the line and complete sanitation of the line from start to finish (This is like a really major and vastly (into the millions), expensive thing to do, as genreally the line ain't ever really stopped and opperates 24 hours a day all year).
Anyhow...
Ultimately my Father approached the bosses and asked them if he could try one last thing... they said yes Basically he began following people round teh factory every time they went off to the loo
And yes, women as well as the men (I think he nearly got in trubble over this)..
And, yes. people were going to the loo, having a dump and then returning to work in the factory; this seemed to be the case both for people who had direct* hands on contact with food product and those in more clerical/admin jobs where they probably didn't get that much contact with the products ... I don't know how much of a problem this still is; I think as this was a while ago, the processes in the factory were a lot more people powered, and I guess now a lot more of it may be automated and less 'hands-on' ...
Oh, and ultimately I think the situation was helped by basically embarassing people with this following them to the loo until they eventually got the hang of washing their hands after they went...

It does, unfortuantely still go on, another recent example, is that hospitals are getting a bit hotter on cleaning hands; I am all in favour of the hand creams (antibacterial I guesss), or gels, that I saw last time I was in hospital; each bed had one, and the nurses in particular were exceptionally good at using these every time they came up to a patients bed....
However... and I really wish I'd said something at the time (this was on a surgical ward), the 'big honcho' doctor/consultant when he came roudn, went from bed to bed, inspecting the patients, often lookign at their opperation scars/wound etc, and never once, after going round all six beds on the ward, did he use the gel or wash his hands between patients....

I don't know.. it's enough to put you off bottoms for life!

naa... bottoms are great.... it oughta be putting you off frozen ready meals though Oops sorry ... was thinking about bottoms

2legs- do you hear the theme tune to the Benny Hill show all your waking hours????

In the heat of the kitchen mayhem, we often see the competitors wiping the sweat from their brows. One has to wonder just how much of it ends up on the plate.