Not surprised
If you're fed semi-digested fishy vomit from a very young age, a keen sense of taste is not a survival trait.
[and yay for the penguin icon!]
Penguins may be immaculately tailored but it seems they may be a bit tasteless in other areas; specifically that of, erm, taste. This is according to new genetic research which indicates that the smartly turned out flightless birds of the Antarctic have the genes to detect only two of the five tastes (which are sweet, sour, …
"Penguins is practically chickens..."
Note: before the Grammar Nazis blitz, it's a quote from a 1950 cartoon
NW Cynic
"Shirley they taste like chicken?"
Apparently so in yesteryears ....
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/Whats_On/Virtual_Exhibitions/To_the_Ends_of_the_Earth_Norfolks_Place_in_Polar_Exploration/Antarctica_Finds/NCC082667
The Roast Penguin sounds OK, but the "Savoury Seal Brains (on toast)", would see me off out back doin a technicolour yawn ......
EVERYTHING'S smaller than it was 30 years ago - and thinner; like a lot of chocolate on yer biscuit (is it just me, or doe that somehow sound really filthy written down…?), tough! I don't eat 'em anymore, but Dad does - and you can see the biscuit through whatever it is that Jacob's pass off as chocolate!
Mum used to buy Picnics all the time as a kid - she came over all nostalgic t'other day, and bought one; it was about 3mm thick, with one - I kid you not, ONE - solitary peanut!
Bring back Aztec bars! And Texans! And Secrets!
I only eat raw chocolate these days, the less stuff's been buggered about, the better… I'm munching on a trail mix made with 100% raw Ecuadorian cacao drops, macadamias, coconut shavings, and a few goji and golden Inca berries.
I eat most of my food raw, cooking decreases the nutrition.
re: "taste receptors required for detecting sweet, umami, and bitter tastes are temperature sensitive. They don't work when they get really cold"
Any spiritous beverage wearing a "Serve well chilled" advisory should thus be seen as "tastes like kerosene but without the fine bouquet".
Technically there's no such thing as a 'salty' taste receptor. All taste receptors can pick up 'salty' flavors via the ion channels, which is a big part of why salt is so effective at enhancing certain flavors and blocking others. That being the case do penguins lack ion channels also or does the fact that they swim open mouthed through salt water to get their food just overload them?
I can't tell, as I don't have access to the full paper, but from the supplemental data it looks like the testing was only done on Antartic penguins. It therefore may not apply to Tux (the linux penguin - see icon). Tux was based on a little penguin at Canberra Zoo which is far too hot to have Emperor penguins in residence.
- Note for El Reg - icon selection on iPad is broken - choosing penguin gives black helicopter! had to edit from desktop to get this right.
Penguin tastes like a cross between seagull/rat and old, oily fish. And it's really, really stringy. Quite narsty, actually.
The scene: Accident with a cage door at the San Diego Zoo in 1983ish ... A two year old tried to poke his head back at us just as the door was closing. The otherwise healthy bird died instantly (broken neck) and we decided "waste not, want not", and fired up the hibachi ...
"#532 Zoo Keeper"
AC is wrong again. As always. Actually, I was pre-vet, dabbling in exotics. I went with the money, computers & networking.
Do you actually have a life beyond reading my posts, AC? Just askin'