Food Trivia Quiz

1) All of the following took place during one year. Can you guess what year?
- Hershey Chocolate changes its name to Hershey Foods Corp. after acquiring some pasta companies.
- The passenger line Queen Elizabeth II went into service, replacing the Queen Elizabeth.
- Frank Perdue opens a processing plant and introduces Perdue brand chicken.
- The fist major locust plague since 1944 devastates crops around the Red Sea.
- U.S. farms have 5 million tractors and 900,000 grain combines.
- 'Chinese Restaurant Syndrome' is traced to overuse of MSG.
- The British Ministry of Health bans the classic use of newspapers to wrap fish-and-chips.
- The first Michelin guide to New York appears, with ratings of restaurants.
- The first Red Lobster seafood restaurant opens in Lakeland, Florida.
- Fetzer Vineyards are founded in California's Mendocino County by lumberman Bernard Fetzer.
- A nationwide boycott of table grapes is organized by Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers.

2) This palm tree is a member of the coconut family, and it's fruit takes 10 years to mature, looks like a Siamese coconut (2 joined together) and weighs up to 50 pounds. It is found only on the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. Empty shells were washed ashore in India long before the source was known, and they were considered to have magical properties.

3) Cheese has been colored with various plant substances for hundreds of years. Yellow/orange coloring may have originally been added to cheese made with winter milk from cows eating hay to match the orange hue (from vitamin A) of cheeses made with milk from cows fed on green plants. Can you name 3 plant substances which have been used to color cheese yellow/orange?

4) The native habitats of this herb are wide indeed, covering the temperate and northern parts of Europe, Siberia, and North America. It has a long history of use in the kitchen, with some recipes from China going back at least 5,000 years. Rumanian Gypsies used it as part of their fortune telling rituals, and when dried bunches were hung in the house it was believed to drive away disease and evil influences.It is a hardy, fast growing herb in the lily family, having clusters of usually pink to purple edible flowers and is cultivated for its long slender leaves. This herb is used in salad dressings, herb butters and vinegars, soups, stews, and croquettes. The flowers are also edible, and make a nice addition to salads.It contains significant amounts of Vitamins A and C, potassium, calcium, iron, and sulfur. It is believed to strengthen nails and teeth, and has antibiotic properties. It is said to be an appetite stimulant, relieve high blood pressure, and is a natural insect repellent. It inhibits mildew, and is used in feed for turkey hatchlings.

5) A thistlelike Eurasian plant (Carthamus tinctorius) of the daisy family, having heads of red or orange flowers that are the source of a red dye. The seeds, which look like small pine nuts, contain an oil used in foods (especially margarines), cosmetics, paints, and medicine. The flower petals are sometimes used as a substitute for saffron.

6) An aromatic herb, a member of the parsley or carrot family, and indigenous to the regions around the Black and Caspian Seas. It is an essential ingredient of fines herbes, widely used in French cuisine. Some varieties also have edible roots which are like small turnips, and were enjoyed by the early Greeks and Romans, and in England during the 14th to 17th centuries.

7) They are the product of a southeast Asian evergreen shrub or tree with a rough bark, cup-shaped flowers and dark, glossy leaves with or without serrated edges (from 2 to 10 inches in length), and in the wild the plant can reach a height of over 60 feet. The fruit is a smooth, flat, rounded, three-celled capsule with one seed in each cell, the size of a small nut. The seeds contain a volatile oil.Some believe the holy Buddhist saint Daruma grew the first plant in the 6th century. He cut his eyelids out to stay awake while meditating (for 5 years) and where he threw his eyelids, the plant grew. Others believe that they were first discovered in 2737 B.C. due to sloppy housekeeping. Parts of this plant were used as a medicine in China for 4,000 years and the ancient Greeks used them for asthma, colds and bronchitis. In 1560 Father Jasper de Cruz, a Portuguese Jesuit, was the first European to personally encounter and write about this plant. In France, Louis XIV's doctor prescribed a tisane of the leaves for his royal headaches. Russian scientists were partial to them. Introduced to Dutch society in 1610, they soon became popular (initially they cost $100 per pound), and were the rage in Paris in the mid 1630s.

Answers
1) The year is 1968.
2) Coco De Mer or Double Coconut.
3) Annatto seed, carrot juice and marigold petals.
4) Chives.
5) Safflower.
6) Chervil.
7) Tea leaves.