Things I Eat: Pea Fettuccine

Fettuccine - people crave that buttery, cheesey, rich sauce over some flat noodles 

I mean, I don't. But, I hear some do.

You want to knock your socks off with a quick, easy and potential vegan pasta fettuccine dish that's. . mm. . .really good and good for you - as most foods are?

Yeah you do. You're here, come on!

Dinner this time had to be quick and we needed to clean out what I had. I had peas. Why not turn this into a delightful sauce? I have a blender. The mother of all invention.

What You Need

• Peas: A package thawed.
• Noodles: You know my brand, Tinkyada.
• Olive oil: You could add a little flavored oil if you would like.
• Veggies: In general, you can add more. My husband added in some steamed asparagus.
• Meat: If you want to add in chicken or something, sure. We added some Seafood Blend from Trader Joe's.It has scallops, shrimps and calamaris. And love.
• Garlic: 'Cause. . .garlic.

You can add in whatever spice blend you would like - basil and whatnot. You could also add in some cheese. I wouldn't know about that, though. I used a little salt and onion powder. You could add in chicken, too! Spinach. . .go nuts.

What You Do
You're going to laugh at how simple this is. Make your noodles - I suggesting cooking them up in a stock rather than plain water, but, you live your life, man. Live it.

Take your peas and put them into a food processor with some olive oil and maybe basil and a touch of salt.

Puree!

Wee!

You can taste this at will - you will find it is very fresh and sweet. A good oil adds a nice richness of flavor. I added some garlic, of course. You could use powder or a clove or two. Maybe a touch of onion powder? I like the general sweet-fresh taste.

Add in a little of the starchy liquid from the pot of noodle you made to warm it up and thin it out.

And, don't rinse your noodles.

Then, cook up (maybe microwave?) any of the veggies you want We did asparagus but you can add in corn, Brussels sprouts, maybe some chopped up spinach?

Mix it up and serve! Delicious - and you're getting a ton of good stuff in there! My pictures are always riveting, but, we probably didn't have to use ALL the noodles - I was going to save some for later. The husband just mixed everything together.

Yes, I ate two bowls!

Polite Society, Food & Me

Really, all I want to do in life is avoid people and eat food. Is that too much to ask? I can't explain it any easier - and people are still baffled.

As part of being a member of polite society, I attended my company's holiday party. I think these types of events are "voluntary" but required. They suck for me because I have no control over the food, which was a sit down dinner, and it's really just spending extra hours with people I am already forced to spend 40+ hours a week with.

People are fine. I don't dislike my coworkers, I just don't even like hanging out with my friends. I mean, after 40+ hours a week - what's left to really do?

AVOID PEOPLE AND EAT FOOD!

That was a trick question, if you didn't know.

If you have to do something, though. Might as well make it fun! It was a nice, formal event and a lot of work went into it. It was a formal sit-down dinner for 500 some people - it included a date for each person. I brought my husband. 'Cause we're just the cutest.

While other people could just put on clothes and show up - I had to do some more planning!

Mission 1: Eat
I'm a huge fan of pre-eating. That's eating so you don't have to eat when people are eating what you can't eat. Being that this was a "formal" dinner, I didn't want to stick to my work lunchtime ritual of not eating and/or not eating with anyone.

Formal dinner with only five total utensils, by the way.

One of my main problems with integrating into society is the huge value placed on eating together. So much value is placed on food that nothing else can matter. We have to eat someone's food to prove the host's soul has worth and that we also carry the light of God. To refuse community public eating in anyway can result in some pretty stiff physiologically and social punishments. It's incessant and, frankly, dangerous.

The way my company handled the eating was to send out a survey (though Survey Monkey) where we each picked what we wanted from a wedding-esk menu of chicken, fish and beer, and could add comments about - whatever. This works well enough for my husband's choice, not for me.

The last time I was in this situation I picked "chicken" and listed my allergies. I was served a plate of chicken in heavy cream sauce and. . .well. . no one really cared that I had listed the 500 things I can't eat.

This time, I merely noted - "I will bring my own food."

The day of the event - which was held after hours - I got an email from one of the admins asking me "what was your food choice?!" I told her what my handsome husband was having and I would bring my own food.

At the event, I was pulled aside - "Did you really bring your own food?"

Do I look like a liar? This ain't my first rodeo, girlfriend.

Missing 2: Picking My Dinner
When bring your own food, it's important to think about what resources you have. Sometimes you have access to a lot of helpful tools. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes, you don't know. It's best never to assume you have access to anything unless expressly told. It also is of the highest concern to never interfere with the timeline or resources being used for everyone else.

For example:

• I will have no access to refrigeration: If it was a longer day, I would have requested this. It is also winter and cold outside. I could have left anything in my car. See, resources.
• I will have no access to a cook top: Sure, I could have asked, but, let's not get all cross-contaminated or make things complicated for a professional kitchen trying to feed 1000 some people. It is not my place to barge into a kitchen and demand some type of service.
• I will have to transport my own items: At a nice event like this, I want to be discrete. Nothing offends and/or makes people more uncomfortable than bringing your own food. Remember, community eating demands you eat the food there, not bring your own. Bringing food to an event or household can be the equivalent of a huge insult to the host and/or other guests. So, transportation is important - and covered in my next point.

I normally opt for a raw salad. Nothing fancy, nothing smelly. Simple, raw - nothing needs to be cooked and nothing needs to be refrigerated.

A lot of people think the leaves from nature need to be in always be kept cold and if they sit at room temperature, they will rot and give you botulism, ebola or zombieism. You can come to terms with that on your own. I don't hyper-refrigerate my stuff.

I went with spinach with sweet potato ribbons, parsnip ribbons, dried julienne tomatoes and a swirl of white truffle oil and olive oil. This is based off my Salad Remix concept. I didn't do the noodles - that might be the largest difference. Noodles tend to get sticky - they are much better warmed on a salad.

It's delicious and also easily fits easily in a Ziploc Twist 'n Loc 32oz container - but I made a huge mess making it. Just saying I am a mess. How do you keep all your food in a bowl? It's really hard, man!

Mission 3: Transportation
The picking of the dinner and transportation are sort of. .mm. .married. I do have a variety of food transportation units.

I have this Kotobuki Two Tiered Bento Box - which is pretty cool.

And something that is very similar to this Yumbox - which I do not use and don't really like because of the small compartments. Don't try to fit me into a box!

And this - which I used a lot at my old job - Two Tier Stack Bento Box

I would totally recommend these for your food transportation needs. Or anything made by Zojirushi. Also, I'm an adult. Not a kid.

Anyhow, I used the Ziploc container because it had the room for the most food. I haven't really gotten anything bigger as far as a bento box, so - there you go!

How did I transport this? In my fab-bag. This Zenness Canvas Hiking Traveling Satchel Messenger Bag I got for my birthday.

Which looked great with my dress! Gimme a kiss!

Mission 4: Plate and Eat
The place we had this function was really nice. A little too nice.

At least two people asked about what I could eat and I told them I brought my own food and then the manager of the place came over to talk to me - and I was like "STOP THE MADNESS I BOUGHT MY OWN FOOD BACK OFF!"

Kidding, I appreciated the concern. I didn't want to inconvenience these hard working people who had 1000 people to take care of. I was happy as a clam!

I had one request - just a plate. It was brought over in a flash! A little shake-shake-shake-and-dump and my food was on my plate as everyone was being served. Evidence back in my bag!

P.R.E.S.T.O, suckas.

Other Thoughts - Food Transportation Specialist
This is not my first event doing this. This type of event was super easy though.

I find wedding are the most difficult because they tend to be long days. This means long days - normally of traveling from one location to another (ceremony, long pause, cocktail, reception, etc).

That bag I have - while not swanky - sure can hold a lot of nuts and dried fruits for snacks and then whole containers of food. My go to is also unsalted peanuts and raisins which I fest on most of the day. I do not do pre-packaged mixes - I stick to my own mix. You want to make sure your finger food is not salty or oily during all-day wedding deals because you don't want to get that on your clothes. You want to avoid overpowering smells like garlic or seasonings which are common on pre-packged mixes. These can marinate and then be a little off-putting to people.

You also want to make sure it won't make you super-thirsty. You might not have access to water. I don't carry water. It's a thing.

I always pack a lot of the raisin-nut combos because it's a hit with the kids and adults.

I used the same salad concept for my now-but-in-the-past-future-brother&sister-in-law's wedding. One of the huge perks - while everyone was waiting to be served while the DJ was being an ass, I had my food.

Kidding, that's rude. I don't eat until everyone is served.

Emotional Passwords

Nothing ruins your day more than this. . .

No, I don't want to change it now. I'm not emotionally ready! I don't care if it's for my own good - how can I let go!

Things I Eat: Summer Rolls

Got it? I made summer rolls. And without the meat. And I don't know what Nước chấm is. I also can't say what a summer roll is because it looks like this: Gỏi cuốn. I called them "Glen Coco" and that's wrong.

This is not REALLY my idea in anyway. Obviously this type of food assembly has been around for a really long time. At least since 1980, right? It's a really good raw vegan type food so it's super easy and great for lazy people. Like me.

I also find it kind of fun. If you like the "make your own" idea for food, you can set up a little summer roll station with tons of fixin's and have your friends, family, crashers, house guest or your own personal pure gluttonous self belly on up and make some magic.

With that said, this is how I did up my rolls.

What You Need

• Avocado: Cado is my motto! (that makes no sense, why did I write that?)
• Red peppers: The sweetest of all peppers.
• Scallions: Just the green top part. Scallions are great – why don’t I always eat them?
• Parsnips: The white carrot. Ancient favor vehicle! 
• Spinach: I nom-a-nate this green. (That was funny!).
• Basil oil: Maybe I drink it, you don't know. Basil if fun, fresh and not just for Italian things.
• Garlic oil: Too lazy to get garlic powder from just out of arms reach. . .totally able to reach the garlic oil.
• Rice wrapping paper roll stuff: I don't know what the world calls it, I say rice paper.

What you could do:

• Any veggie.
• Any meat.
• Any seafood.
• Any seasoning.

BONUS! Dipping sauces? Yeah. You can do that.

The Rice Paper Situation
Let's chat a moment about that rice paper wrapping stuff. I sent my beloved husband to get me these without knowing where they might be. Ended up Whole Foods was a good choice. He got me brown rice wrappers which I didn't know existed - they are the Happy Pho Vietnamese Brown Rice Spring Roll Wrappers. I don’t know who Pho is, but, I want whatever rice wraps makes Pho happy.

The rice wrappers are very stiff and annoying and mine were mostly broken before I opened the package. Sure, they look like tortillas, but, you gotta be careful, man! Anyhow, once you get them out of the package, you submerge them in water for a bit and as they absorb the water, they soften a lot until they are like. . mm. . heavy. . .plastic? That sounds bad. Just, they get very pliable.

I was lucky enough that a friend of mine made a friend with a first generation Vietnamese girl who made summer rolls for me once - with pork belly. I never had this stuff before. It was fantastic. And I watched her do it. She was skilled. I am not.

Anyhow, whatever size you get you want to make sure you can submerge it in water. I used a pie plate.

You put the rice paper into water right before you make the roll. So, just set this up first, maybe. You got a lot of chopping to do. Yays!

What You Do
Chop, chop, chop! If you don't like chopping, I guess you can buy pre-chopped stuff. Or you can get good at chopping.

I chopped up the red peppers into strips and the scallions were beheaded and then I cut the greens into thin strips. I did cut my finger, sorta. I have a gel manicure going on right now and it totally saved my nail. Awesome! I also chopped up the spinach a bit. If you are using lettuces, make sure you remove any spines or stems else it might tear the rice paper.

For the parsnips, I used my veggie peeler to make ribbons of it. Parsnips absorb flavor - not unlike raw sweet potato - so I dosed it in basil oil and garlic oil. I wanted it to be the vehicle of basil and garlic. I mixed that all up and let it sit.

And, yes, my nail did completely recover from the Parsnip Snip of 2014.

For the avocado I mashed it up. I ended up using my Cuisinart Hand Blender because they were not quite ripe enough for me to mash. And I'm an American. I used a little basil oil to soften it up, too.

Good to go, I soaked my rice paper until it started to get more pliable. I'm not good with wraps of ANY kind so I Googled how to actually assemble a burrito type thing. I also read the How to Wrap Rice Paper Rolls.

Then I was like ****-it.

I did a good scoop of the 'cado.

Then I threw in everything else. Now, the "experts" and "Internet" will tell you not to "over stuff" your wrap. This is a good illustration of how to totally over stuff your wrap. This is NOT considering the amount of food that bypassed the wrap and went straight into my mouth.

I would have taken pictures of the assembly, but, I'm sure you can imagine. . .

This was the outcome!

I gotta be honest, I am use of seeing white rice paper. I also really don't do a good job at presentation. I do think if you are one of those "I've never starved before" people, you might be turned off by the brown rice wraps. I would use the white ones for people who are finicky.

If you Google stuff on these types of summer rolls, you'll see better examples.

Like from The Food Network

Or this from What's Cooking America

No worries! Into my mouth it went! And it was fantastic!

My charming husband only had one because he had been at the gym and had a protein bar. I think protein bars are disgusting and his body would have totally preferred these fresh, delicious, slightly chilled health-bombs - but, whatever. More for me!

The Next Day!
(I made them the next night, because I had leftover wraps!)

In this case, I used a leafy green blend (spinach, kale, Brussels spouts) and some sun-dried tomatoes with Trader Joe's Garlic Herb Chicken Sausage from Trader Joe's. Little of my "over stuffing" technique changed. I did get a little more aggressive with the rice wrap - using less water and more aggression was a good step up.

I also didn't share any of these because my hubs was at the gym. . .

That's right, baby. Sausage salad in a rice wrap. I think I'm actually winning a life. Not photography. Just life.

Conclusions
So, anyhow. Yeah. Ditch the salad, man. Eat as many of these as you want. They are pretty easy to make and very customizable. You could make a little dipping sauce or just use soy sauce. How fantastic?!

Because you have layered fresh veggies, your mouth will not be tired - one bite you get leafy and crunchy, the next bite you get rice-y and mellow. Then you get a hit of basil, and then garlic. .and then a sweet kick of red peppers. It's good. IT'S GOOD.

I want some right now.

Remember when I wrote how my work had this lady come in and had a talk with us called "Strive for Five: How to Creatively Consume your Fruits and Veggies" (Things I Eat: Wonder Pot post) and one of the ideas was putting black beans into brownies and I. . like. .lost my ****.

EAT. THIS.

UPDATE:
I got a little better at this situation. I also tried out another brand of rice paper, Blue Dragon - the white rice paper was a little easier to work with, I think.

As you can see, I got better at my wrappings. Or I was just really hungry and they looked really good.

NOM NOM NOM! (I also did not share, again)

Nail(ed) to the Couch: Bord Sparkle

Ah, the joy of adrenal fatigue. Tired, achy. .and ready to do my nails.

As anyone with a chronic illness or battle will tell you, finding some type of joy in every situation is key. Maybe right now sucks, but, at least you can have a little fun with it. Maybe that's "attitude" but I think it's "sanity."

I was over at Beans Beauty buying my uber expensive Pureology shampoo - 'cause it make my hair fab - and they put up the Essie nail display RIGHT THERE. I am a huge fan of Essie. I think the polish goes on really easy. I sort of suck at fine motor things so having a product that glides on easily and is forgiving is huge.

I had been rocking the Cocktails & Coconuts because it goes on so nicely, I am horrible at judging what neutrals go with my skin the best and it grew on me. I like it. I do. It's pretty subtle and I wish I could alter it a little, but, it's good.

I'm not ready to buy MORE polishes that I'm not a huge fan of. Actually, that's a lie, I'm totally ready to buy a lot of polish.

Another reason I do like this polish is I had lost all my faith in putting polish on nicely when I got Bordeaux and I totally cannot make it look good on my nails. Not the color, the color is gorgeous and I love it, I just have a tough time applying it without getting it on my cuticles or something. I do try to remove those spots with a q-tip, again. .find motor skills are not my thing.

Anyhow - there I was, at the Essie display and I thought - I need this. I need this thing right here - Summit of Style

Keep your golds and silvers and whatever - I want coppers and bronzes. I want the rich metallics. And, apparently, I really wanted sparkly. Needed. I needed sparkly! My adrenals don't work.

I flipped on some Law & Order: Criminal Intent and got down to the biz.

I gave the Luxeffects a try on my chipped polish which was the Coconuts & Cocktails. It looked really good. It's a really snazzy way to add some umph to a neutral. But, I wanted to do it on my red! You can see the filing block I also got - and I have this cuticle moisturizing pen because.. .it's a pen.

I'm pretty surprised how easily the Luxeffects goes on - I thought it would be like a layer of glitter that would be raised an annoying, but it's not. There are a couple sizes of the glitter so you get a really cool look.

I did it randomly on some nails - not all of them. I think it's damn snazzy! Here is me pretending to be a hand model holding the Bordeaux.  

This angle lets you appreciate the horrible nail painting skills I have. I swear, I'll clean it up. But, this is another angle and me holding the Luxeffect. Nice, eh? 

So, that's me. .nailed to the couch!

Game Review: Outlast

Holy horror, hotman – I have been indoctrinated into the world of Outlast and Outlast: Whistleblower. Sure, it’s been out since September 2013 on my only gaming platform – the personal computer – but I only really found out about it in like. . .December 2014.

And then Outlast: Whistleblower was released May 6, 2014. I just got on that band wagon with gusto!

These are both designed by Red Barrels Games - and I hope they make a lot more stuff that is this good! They are not available on a variety of platforms, but, I stick to my PC for everything.

As a non-warning – there are NO spoilers in this entry. Unless you click links.

Premises - Outlast
I play mild-manned dumbass Miles Upshure who is sure he is going to get the story of a lifetime after some equally mannered and dumb guy emailed him that weird crap has been happening on Mount Massive Asylum - a remote psychiatric hospital situated deep in the mountains of Lake County, Colorado and owned by the Murkoff Corporation, known for its corrupt dealings.

Lake County, Colorado

I mean, I guess it’s assumed “Miles” couldn't be a girl’s name, right?

Let’s just take a moment to review how I would deal with this situation:

Not Miles Upshure. Nope. He’s going for that investigative journalist of the century award. All he needs is a positive attitude and a camcorder!

Upshure has some important “psychiatric hospital situated deep in the mountains” life skills. These include:

• Sweet parkour moves.
• A steady hand (to record the horror with the night vision feature on the camcorder).
• Pockets for batteries.
• Champion hiding-under-the-bed abilities.
• Not being a screamer.
• Writing personal thoughts while on the run from malevolent nanite-driven beings. 

Let’s review my life skills - in photographic form:

I'm incompetent

Game Play
The game play is my fav – first person shooter (guns, vomit, tears – all can be shot out of you and at you in this classification of game). You basically wander around softly crying to yourself and screaming. If you are me, you wonder why everyone is covered in pizza. Oh wait. . .that's. . not. . .oh.

Because this is America, you can play at night, alone with the lights turned down and a pee-pad.

Unlike other types of horror or first person shooter games, Upshure has little to no skills (see above). He’s a tough dude, though – he takes a good amount of beatings and keeps getting up. He cannot survive beyond what a “normal human” can, though, and he has no combat skills – there is no hand-to-hand combat here. This might be a little different than those classic games where you get shot and whatever - like in Doom or Call of Duty - and you keep moving. You don't have a life meter - such things would be as pointless as a positive attitude.

Upshure can endure only about four strikes of a baseball bat to the head. The first make the other three possible.

Most of his skills seem to really come out due to the motivation of the situations, such as:

• A huge sadistic self-mutilator with superhuman strength.
• Blood.
• Cannibals. 
• Delusional doctors. 
• Mass-murdering psychopaths.
• Mutilated corpses of  SWAT team members.
• Pastels. 

Super Game Points
Watching other people play this is another game all in itself. I was very impressed with the whole game. Seriously.

• Graphics: Spot on. Gory, horrible, excellent. There is a lot of detail in this game and a lot of Easter eggs from some Army of Darkness references to the use of “Red Barrels.” And the gore. I totally had to watch this on YouTube a lot to pause and really take in the features of the characters and even items. I even really liked how your own vision fades or panics.
• Sound: Awesome again! Even the hard breathing, the chatter of other characters and ambient music is immersive. I think I can see and hear this place in my dreams. I think it would smell a lot like lilac and bacon, though. 
• Story: The story is not super-dramatic or involved – which is good for this type of game. You can get by without knowing anything, but, every file and conversation will tell you more about the situation and history of Mount Massive. If you are someone who wants that level of detail, it is there. If not, it won’t hurt your game play to not know. 
• Characters: Believe it or not, the dialog is very character specific. Even though you don’t spend a lot of time – hopefully – with each character, they are very distinctive. This is super awesome because a lot of times these games treat your threats as a pre-packaged deal. Adding this true element of character to these inmates really ups the horror. No minions here, my friends. You can even read more about the characters and what they have gone through if you want to fully engage in the story.
• Scare factor: 10 out of 10! Not only is the premise of running around and hiding from people who want to kill you in the dark a classic scare factor, the characters scary. Even the ones who aren’t really out to kill you – just seeing them walking, lingering and occasionally leaping out at you is enough to make you change your pee pad. The game almost laughs at you by scaring you – who didn’t jump at the TV turning on? Hmm? Or feel really odd walking past inmates just. .sitting there. . .

Parting Thoughts
I think this is a game you should probably play with a friend on a Sunday afternoon with all the lights on. Or at night, alone, with headphones on and all the lights off – and a pee pad under you. This game will make you cry.

And it is beyond awesome. The bar has been raised.

Things I Eat: Mashed Yuca

Hello food warriors - maybe with tummy issues!

This is my BOOM stick

I recently saw this in my store and was like - I bet I could eat that. But. .what is it?

Turns out it's a yuca. Or yucca. The two names are used interchangeably yet they are names used for two different things.

What I am holding in the picture is a yuca - also known as a Cassava. Improper preparation of cassava can leave enough residual cyanide to cause acute cyanide intoxication and goiters, and may even cause ataxia or partial paralysis. The more toxic varieties of cassava are a fall-back resource in times of famine in some places.

A yucca - is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40-50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flowers. They are native to parts of North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. It is also colloquially known in the lower Midwest United States as "ghosts in the graveyard", as it is commonly found growing in rural graveyards and when in bloom the cluster of (usually pale) flowers on a thin stalk appear as floating apparitions.

Yep. Lot's of death*. So - let's get started! Oh, if I said this is the same item that tapioca is made out of, would you feel better? It is!

*I mean, not really. But it enchances my street cred.

What You Need

• 1 yuca: It's fun!
• Water: Good ol' tap
• Salt: Like my salty personality!
• Garlic: YES

What You Do
First - you want to peel it. While the outside looks really woody and tough, it peels easily. The insides are white and kind of potato-ee I ended up chopping it up and peeling the sections because sometimes I peel my own hand and that's not a good thing.

You also want to remove the wooden core-strip from the center.You can't REALLY see it - it might be a little grayish or something. It won't actually cook right, so, you can remove them before eating. You'll see these wooden string like thing in your pot and be like, "oh noes."

Then make it like you would mashed potatoes - put it in a pot and cover with water. Salt it a little. Boil it for about 30 minutes or until it's very tender. I used my super-awesome Dutch oven. Seriously, I love it.

In the meantime, you can take a nap or something. Or watched Dog: The Bounty Hunter because you don't have cable or Netflix or whatever you popular people have.

Once you can pierce it with a fork with ease, remove it and drain and rinse it. Then return it to your pot (turn off the heat) and add your fixin's.

I used garlic (this is an old picture, do not eat the Gourmet Gardens Garlic - It does contain dairy! Use minced or powdered garlic), Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery spread and salt. The flavor of the yuca on its own is pretty sweet. It's denser than potato, it holds up pretty well, and it has a light sweet flavor.

Mash it or process it as you see fit. I used a fork because I wanted some chunks in there and I know I didn't get out all the cores - and this is what it looks like when you mash it. It doesn't really fall apart. You don't want to eat it.

Once you have it smashed, mashed or processed to your heart's content - serve!

So, right, that toxin stuff.

You don't want to eat this raw – and I like to eat things raw, so, I know the horror. You want to make sure it's cooked really well. Don't use the water you cooked it with, and make sure you rinse after cooking since the water might have some of the toxins in it. Other than that, you should be good to go.

This does remind me a little of tapioca - which is what you make with this root. It is very high in calories having twice as many as potatoes. It has almost no fat and it's got a good amount of vitamin C. It's a nice change up from mashed potatoes or can be made into a sweet dessert. I think that's what it is mostly used for.

About Death
Cassava is the third most important source of calories in the tropics, so, millions of people eat this stuff happily. The secret is cooking the root thoroughly. In fact, bitter or wild cassava contains enough acid so that it can be fatally poisonous if eaten raw or under-cooked. To escape the Conquistadors, many natives were known to commit suicide by eating raw cassava.

Don’t commit suicide by eating raw, wild cassava.

Got that? Don't eat it raw. Cook it until tender. Rinse. Then again, I’m not using the wild/bitter cassava. It’s the stuff they sell in Giant.