Cafe Einstein - LPTPW 17 - animal, vegetable, and/or a minerally type chemically thing, and maybe some other things as well, yes :)

Y-e-e-e-e-s.... missed that window by quite a margin. So my sincere apologies einsteinians :)

Okay... here we go:

For the duration of Lizzie I's reign - potatoes were not a feature of court dining, despite Raleigh having presented her with whole plants of the things, and whilst it was alleged (in shows like Blackadder) that it was because they didn't know they could eat them, or considered them not to be food, it has also been alleged (on a history of the potato website - which went down about a week ago :/ and, annoyingly, has yet to return) that there may have been another reason.

Like the allegations that the potato reached the shores of Britain thanks to the Spanish, there is a compelling ring to this one too... so I chose it as my sort of historical event, even though it may be completely wrong. I hoped then that you wouldn't mind too much. Now... I don't care if you do :)

Anyway. Here's the case for the allegation:

What potatoes looked like during tudor times, compared to what we see in shops now, may have contributed to some confusion on first coming face to tuber with them in the palace kitchens. They certainly hadn't been welcomed on their arrival elsewhere in Europe either and what with Lizzie and her court of armed groupies accustomed to gorging on aesthetically pleasing food, to the extent that some of it would be ostentatiously gilded with gold and draped in peacock feathers and all manner of other pretty, dead things... and serving a queen as capricious as the one they were working for... a new vegetable that was not only vaguely leprous in appearance, but also decidedly brown... may have seemed a leap of faith too far for those who were kind of fond of balancing their heads on their necks and not sure how they might feed their family if it happened to fall off.

And so it came to pass that the only things missing from the potato dish served to the royal court on its debut, were the potatoes themselves... because they had been thrown away and only the green parts of the plant retained for cooking... which would have made the entire court exceedingly unwell due to the solanine in its above-the-ground bits.

And that could account for the potato not becoming a firm favourite at court and certainly would back up the allegation that the sort-of-historical event I was hoping I had given sufficient clues for, was that... for the remainder of Lizzie the wunth's time on the throne, potatoes were...

...yes :)

But that is all completely irrelevant!! :) Because David won on a countdown :)