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Comment by nathanvanfleet | Hacker News Reader

I read this article elsewhere. I don't quite get why it says no one know's, then it's genetically and visually matched to a type of agave, and then they go back to not knowing? It seems some of the counter argument is assuming that "Agave" are all the same when specific types will have specific traits. Otherwise it's an interesting read.

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Hi. I am the author of this article :) To sum up, most research as of now points to Agave but botanists who did the DNA barcoding don't want to commit to Agave. For two reasons: 1) It is 89% close to Agave, the Sisalana variety but 11% is open to doubts and research. 2)The Agave expert, who tried to make a beverage out of it and has worked on it for years, says it's can't be agave. He has eaten both the snack, as well as agave, that's why.

To complicate things, I have inspected agave (its length and girth) closely and I find it impossible to believe that it can hold within it such a fat and smooth thing. But I am no scientist.

I went to a village recently, which has agave growing left, right and centre. One woman suggested it could be Eetha Gadda, a palm, and my heart sank because its stump did look very fat. But then other villagers said it wasn't possible. They think it's most likely Agave and their ancestors probably ate in the past, during drought.

I plan to do a behind-the-scenes vlog for the article to explain what all I have tried and what all you may take further. For starters, a reader from the US says something similar from Agave is eaten in Mexico. A reader from Iraq says this may belong to a palm tree but the stump isn't as fat.

I hope you and botanists will tell me more.

Good luck.

I Just looked up photos of agave sisalana and it actually has a palm like trunk/stem about the size of what is shown being served.

Whereas the agave americana doesn't and seems to grows it's leaves right out from the ground.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisal

Edit: well I guess after looking further I shouldn't say agave americana doesn't have a trunk coming out of the ground. Probably all agaves could if they grow long enough. But it does look like this snack is the trunk of an agave.

where can we find your vlog?

Interesting article. I also can’t imagine that it’s either sisal or Americana exactly, both are so tough & fibrous, and are in such widespread cultivation that this preparation would be more well-known. The agave heart or “piña” used for mezcal is somewhat similar but not that similar. Agaves very quickly grow some massive asparagus-shaped flower stalks before they die, is it possible this is the base of an enormous stalk rather than a stem? Never seen one this big but maybe it’s out there.

I also would not discount the possibility that these are not raw exactly but prepared/treated somehow. Obviously the fact that they taste like water limits the possibilities, but maybe a stem is placed in water for awhile to make it way more engorged than it would ever become naturally. Or maybe it’s soaked or boiled after harvesting, and flushed with clean water to improve the texture and reduce toxic effects. Raw agave contains calcium raphides, a painful irritant (experienced by another commenter upthread, btw) so some kind of preparation might be necessary.

I always love a good nerdy mystery story. Good luck on your search :)

We have the americana all over central Texas; the stalks that grow here are more like vertical rope, smell like death & are green/brown all the way through. They’re also segmented & don’t get nearly fat enough as shown.

Hi, I appreciated your article. Do you know when Agave was introduced to India? Perhaps a timeline may assist with determining the identity of the food, since Agaves are from central and South America and were presumably brought to India sometime in the past few hundred years. Is this a food item that has a long tradition?

Small note of feedback since I couldn't find a way to comment on the Atlas Obscura site. Species names are conventionally written with the specific epithet entirely in lower case, like 'Genus species'. In the article, you have frequently capitalised the specific epithet. This is a small issue but made the article quite hard to read for a details-focused botanist such as myself.

Came to say the same about naming. Just want to add that after the first full naming, they should be shortened as 'G. specie', and not 'Specie' like they do.

With those 2 simple rules you have your needs covered. Corner cases add complicatiins, but unless you are in the bussiness you shouldn't need it.

Have you looked into any processing steps between harvest and serving? I am curious if they are soaking/fermenting/acidifying it in some way which would account for the differences described from straight agave.

What does it mean to be "89% close to" Agave when it comes to DNA? Are we talking genetic similarity, or estimated likelihood of a match?

Considering that a human's genetic similarity to a cat is 90% and even to a banana is about 60%, 89% doesn't sound like all that much.

But nobody knows which agave, and at least one botanist insists that neither of the 2 likely agave candidates are quite right. Maybe some special selectively-bred version?

It seems like we will get more answers after Covid when field research (eating parts of various agaves) can recommence.

Look at the wikipedia article for agave. The varied species are quite different from each other.

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