This is just in from our correspondent Ben: Ben säger: I hear there are some wonderful things called fruit and vegetables which can be eaten raw
I can't think of many fruits that actually benefit in any way from being cooked. There are certain vegetables, however, that are largely unpalatable without some form of heat-application. And, on that note, I once had an argument with someone who insisted that 'microwaving' was not 'cooking', because it only heated things by stimulating energy in the water molecules. So... bugger. There goes boiled rice, poached fish, and steamed vegetables. Guess I'll stick with cooking my cold cereal and jam on toast.
I dunno, I would normally define 'cooking' as a multi-faceted process to make a meal. A microwave is an implement to heat stuff, as is a pan or a grill. You wouldn't say these things are doing the cooking, they are part of the cooking process but aren't the process of cooking itself. You cook rice with boiling water and a sauce-pan. You cook eggs by liberating them from their shells and placing them on a frying pan containing hot oil. You cook micro-chips by sticking them in the microwave for a minute or two. Ok, in the last case microwaving pretty much takes up the whole cooking process, but it's not the same... Wait... I'm not getting annoyingly over-analytical again, am I?
you eat microchips ? Some fruit can be improved by being cooked, although still eddible and not too bad raw. And rhubarb is not particularly nice eaten raw, although I'm not sure it's technically a fruit.
I don't eat micro-chips, but they were the only 'food' I could think of that can only be heated by microwave.
NEWSFLASH! Ben Lambourne is secretly responsible for the webcomic xkcd. See the proof here: Image:Randall Munroe.jpeg - Wikimedia Commons
I can see it in the face but the hair is all wrong... Although the last photo I saw of Ben he was heading into Spinal Tap territory with the quiff... Is making a sorbet cooking? Cos there are plenty of fruit that do well in a sorbet... mango for one.
without even mentioning the thread, I showed the pic to Reg, who promptly said "that looks like Ben, without the hair". You have a lost twin, dude...
Whereas I had to be linked by the thread, then view the picture for several seconds and then double-check by placing my fingers over the hair. Obviously the Carly Simon song wasn't about me.
