Trivia Makers and Breakers - Kitchen trivia

It was the 1980's.  It seemed like everyone I knew was into Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit.  The goal almost seemed to be the one person in the neighborhood who knew a little about everything.  I mean when you have parties, and people pick teams for games, the goal is not to be the last person picked, but rather the first person picked.  :)  granted these were college and adult parties and a lot of the trivia revolved around the Rocky Horror Picture Show, MTV and Days of Our Lives, but book knowledge needed for trivia games was good too.  Trivia was something that anyone could access and use.  The flip side of trivia is that if you didn't know it was kind of like, "Wait, how can you not know that?"

There are things in the kitchen that almost everyone thinks they know and are more than happy to share with you like mothers with birthing stories.  So, here is some kitchen trivia (all based on fact) that may be of help to you in your UnChef adventures.

1 - The thing about the tongue having certain areas that capture certain tastes like sweet, sour, etc; some people call it the tongue map: False.  Your whole tongue can taste every taste.  So the only way you are going to get some not so flavorful food past people without saying, "Oh, your sour flavor receptors must be off" is to pray that they have a cold.

2 - It is important to knead bread: True. One of the most important things that takes place during the kneading process is the development of gluten, a type of protein. As the flour that makes up the dough is moistened and stirred, the gluten begins to form and also gains in strength as the dough is subjecting to the kneading process. This protein acts as a binding agent within the dough, allowing the loaf to take on a cohesive texture that will allow the substance to not fall apart during baking. It also helps in the process of making a light and flavorful bread.

3 - There are 2 cooking methods:  True. Okay so this is a bit of a trick question, but essentially cooking is either Dry or Moist.  For an AWESOME breakdown of cooking methods follow the link.
http://chasingdelicious.com/kitchen-101-cooking-methods/

4 - It is good to add salt to sweets and sugar to spicy foods:  True.  Believe it or not, salt is not only good in chocolate, but a little salt helps to enhance all of the flavors in your sweets.  Sugar in spicy food like chili, does the same thing.

5 - Fruits are sweet and vegetables are not: False.  Fruits are the mature ovary of a plant. Fruit, normally fleshy, contains a large seed within, such as an avocado or peach seed, or numerous tiny seeds, such as a tomato or an orange. All produce that contains seeds is botanically classified as fruit.
A vegetable is a plant's edible stem, root, bulb, tuber, leaf or flower. For example, celery, carrots, potatoes, lettuce and cauliflower are botanically classified as vegetables.

So there you have it, a few things to think about and to put you on your way to becoming a food trivia beginning expert.  Next time, fun with allium.  Wait, how can you not know what allium is?  :)