Ultra-Secret UYE Impeccable Palates

«Hey guys, wanna taste my nuts? I promise I won’t poison you.» I mean, who would say no to that?
Okay, maybe that’s not *exactly* what he said.
The great, the best, the one and only Darren Nordahl invited a few of us snotty Elites with self-​proclaimed «impeccable palates» to come out and try a handful of Appalachian foods like black walnuts, butternuts, spicebush berries, pawpaw, and American persimmon. Darren is currently writing a book on foods that are indigenous to the United States, and wanted help from us with describing some of the flavors.
We arrived to the courtyard between Temple Coffee and Revolution Wine, soaked up some sun, grabbed some Unilocal swag provided by Michelangelo (because what Unilocal event would be complete without swag?), and then took the party inside. Revolution would not let us use the paper plates and napkins that Darren had brought, because they have an image to maintain, but were kind enough to provide us with approved plates and napkins, even though we were just ordering wine and no food.
We were all a little concerned that the Savignon and Chenin would poison our palates, but they actually turned out to be the perfect cleanser between the fruits and nuts. So, we pass the foods around and smell them, sample them, and then call out what we are tasting.
«Okay, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but, I think this tastes like cologne.»
«Wow, that’s great, I got perfume.»
«So I take it you’re in to licking?»
It was kind of like the drunken Unilocalers thread come to life, and it was fantastic.
Thank you Darren for a truly unique and wonderful experience! I doubt that any of us would have even known what spicebush berries were had you not come into our lives.
Side note: After two glasses of wine with a 14% alcohol content, I decided that it would be a great idea to invent «The Spicebush Berry Challenge: like the cinnamon challenge, but Appalachian!» I paid for that one later. It really should have been a YouTube video. (The moral of the story is, never eat a huge handful of spicebush berries.)
Thanks again to Darren, Revolution Wines, and all of my new Unilocal friends for a wonderful, memorable day.

Impeccable Palates Intensely Pleasured!
SITREP
Talk about a major series of tonguegasms! While lounging at Revolution Wines, several of us Unilocalers spent a wondrous afternoon enjoying incredible FOOD PORN with creative Foodie Author Darrin Nordahl & his Nuts! His current projects can be found on his website:
THE SET-​UP
Several of you may remember when Darrin first came onto the threads with his Talk Post from March 6 entitled «Looking for Cooks and Foodies with Impeccable Palates»:
Today was the culmination of these thread-​discussions which launched this first test-​tasting of different food paradigms — it’s purpose: a «reintroduction» of lost natural foods from decades of underutilization.
TASTE-​TEST GROUP
From the interest indicated by many Unilocalers on his thread-​post, Darrin screened, then contacted, then interviewed, and then selected a handful of us to participate in trying some delicious tasty nuts & fruits, in various stages of consistency.
The protocol consisted of Darrin giving each of us testers a food items, and then dutifully reporting to him the scents, the tastes, the textures, the after-​tastes, etc. that we experienced from these various items.
TASTE-​TEST ITEMS
The items tested were in mostly in their natural form. But in the case of the Persimmon & PawPaw, both were puréed into jam form to heighten their taste awareness, and for easier taste-​access on a delicious cracker Wild Leeks Cracker:
Other Items tested/​tasted:
* English Walnuts, Black Walnuts, and Shell Hickory Nuts
* Shaft Hickory Nuts, Appalachian Persimmons, and Appalachian PawPaw
* Appalachian Allspice
The flavors were delicious. It was amazing to feel the taste buds just explode with these hints of watermelon, citrus, acetate, etc., from these nuts and from these fruits.
REINTRODUCTION OF LOST FOODS
Because of the mainstream processed food industry, many kinds of nuts, many kinds of fruits, many kinds of grains, and many kinds of vegetables have fallen by the wayside because they aren’t the «most profitable» for the agri-​business and the food industry to continue to maintain.
In addition, there seems to be a preponderance of favoring laboratory produced foods that have been genetically-​modified, placing an emphasis on factors such as «longer shelf life» at the expense of such factors of natural health benefits and taste.
In the Appalachians (West Virginia, Kentucky) many of these natural food items still grow in their traditional organic forms. Darrin and others have been cultivating these «lost items» and seek to shed light on their intense viability as being part of our diets again.
BURSTS OF FLAVOR
The purpose of these efforts is to create a movement that would reintroduce many of these lost flavors (and healthy food items) that have fallen by the wayside due to the processed food industry. Along with their organic benefits, these flavors would enrich our palates with depth and variety that has been missing by the «dumbing down» of many processed foods.
THE LOWDOWN
Darrins tasty research will help create a healthy movement reacquainting us to great flavors and foods.