The KaiKai Book

Once popped, water lily seeds look just like popcorn. But a bag of these seeds, also known as fox nuts, will cost you much more: over $170 per kilogram. Farmers in India work tirelessly for over four days, partially submerged in 4-foot-deep water, kneeling in the scorching sun, and roasting the seeds in blazing-hot woks. Even when everything is done just right, there is no guarantee that a seed will actually pop. So are water lily seeds worth it? And why are they so expensive?

How the Fast Food Industry is Making Poor Countries Fat

Dianxi Xiaoge, a Yunnan native demonstrates how some ingredients have different name when she was growing up. Take soybeans for example. We call them edamame when they are "young" and tender, but soybeans when they are "old" and ripe. Soybeans can be grinded to make soybean milk, or made into various foods such as tofu jelly, tofu pudding, tofu, dried tofu, stinky tofu, etc. To make dried tofu, just press harder than that of making tofu, until most of the juice has been extracted. She made two flavors of dried tofu. She also marinades the rest to smoke until half-dry, which is delicious nevertheless.

Did you know that the wasabi you eat with your sushi is not the real thing? A Canadian botanist has the secret recipe for growing genuine wasabi in North America. Chef Ricardo Larrivée visits his farm and gets a taste of the world’s most expensive Japanese plant – and the most difficult one to grow.