Flavor Tripping Party

December 16, 2008 2:06 PM

My friend is having a flavor tripping party (with the miracle-fruit berry), and has asked everyone to bring something to try. I am shot for ideas. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Something creative, or clever, or anything, really. Just not lemons. Thanks!
posted by howgenerica to food & drink (49 comments total)

Baking chocolate!
posted by ian1977 at 2:12 PM on December 16, 2008

See if you can get your hands on some durian. Handle with care of course.
posted by tkolar at 2:12 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I hosted one a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed all of the following: sour-patch kids, rhubarb, unsweetened cranberries, and vinegar. Yes, the vinegar tasted like sweet white wine.

Guinness was pretty good too, it tasted like chocolate milk, which was great until the novelty wore off and we all just wanted it to taste like Guinness.
posted by MattS at 2:14 PM on December 16, 2008

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you looking for recipes involving a specific fruit, or are you just supposed to come up with "bring things that are ostensibly 'berry-flavored'?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:14 PM on December 16, 2008

Grapefruit was hands-down my favorite Miracle Change.
posted by Greg Nog at 2:17 PM on December 16, 2008

Blue cheese
posted by rmless at 2:17 PM on December 16, 2008

Magic Berry. Key limes, maybe?
posted by jquinby at 2:18 PM on December 16, 2008

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you looking for recipes involving a specific fruit, or are you just supposed to come up with "bring things that are ostensibly 'berry-flavored'?"

The miracle fruit is a a fruit that changes your taste buds' ability to...taste, and so things that are normally sour taste sweet, and the like. A flavor-tripping party is when you have the guests bring different sour and/or bitter foods, and you taste them after eating the miracle fruit.
posted by InsanePenguin at 2:21 PM on December 16, 2008

Vanilla extract.
posted by mattdidthat at 2:24 PM on December 16, 2008

When I hosted one of these parties, people were most impressed with strawberries. They didn't taste like alien fruit or unleash a whole new flavor sensation or anything, but the miracle berries did manage to make crappy pale enlarged supermarket strawberries taste like the sweetest strawberries ever. It hinted at a practical use for miracle fruit.

Lemons and vinegar were the other winners, however unoriginal they may be. Whenever we tried to branch out into new creative foods, the experience was underwhelming -- there's a reason that the standards are so standard. Goat cheese tasted like cheesecake; that was impressive.
posted by painquale at 2:25 PM on December 16, 2008

Yellow onions
posted by Flipping_Hades_Terwilliger at 2:25 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

9V battery is the obvious suggestion
posted by found missing at 2:26 PM on December 16, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

In addition to the suggestions above, I'll add tomatoes, and hot peppers/hot sauce. The tomatoes weren't good, really, more like blobs of corn syrup, but damned interesting.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:29 PM on December 16, 2008

baking chocolate is no good on miracle fruit, it just tastes waxy.

Citrus fruit, especially grapefruit, is fucking orgasmic, though.
posted by piratebowling at 2:33 PM on December 16, 2008

A bar of soap.
posted by ian1977 at 2:33 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Strawberries, grapefruit, goat cheese, pomegranate seeds (YUM).

Don't waste your time on beer or wine (except that I agree - Guinness is AWESOME on miracle fruit).
posted by AngerBoy at 2:39 PM on December 16, 2008

Wasabi paste
posted by mattbucher at 2:39 PM on December 16, 2008

Kombucha, it can't possibly make it taste worse.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 2:41 PM on December 16, 2008

oranges were delicious. we also had cream cheese and cottage cheese and tabasco.
posted by dithmer at 2:43 PM on December 16, 2008

Nthing grapefruit--it was the favorite when we tried the miracle fruit. I seem to be the only one, but I wasn't impressed with Guinness. To me it just tasted flat. I prefer my Guinness the old fashioned way.
posted by motherly corn at 2:45 PM on December 16, 2008

Brussel sprouts. Cornichons. Espresso. Pepperdews. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Kale. Radicchio. Rocket (Arugula). Beetroot (Garden/Red beet) leaves (cook them like spinach). A few sample bottles so people can try their own piss.
posted by i_cola at 2:47 PM on December 16, 2008

Cinnamon stick. Hot and sour soup. Miso soup. Parmesan cheese.
posted by The White Hat at 2:48 PM on December 16, 2008

nthing Grapefruit, its the best

Other interesting things we tried were raw onions, tequila shots (no chaser/lime needed), tabasco sauce, and sourdough bread.
posted by theDrizzle at 2:56 PM on December 16, 2008

Real (as in fermented) sauerkraut.
posted by Durin's Bane at 2:57 PM on December 16, 2008

Hey, not to derail- but where'd you guys get these berries? I wanna try too!

Also, how about tasting:
ketchup & mustard
pineapple
mint leaves
unsweetened coffee
red wine
posted by pseudostrabismus at 3:05 PM on December 16, 2008

Sour Cream? Fresh Basil?
posted by saxamo at 3:06 PM on December 16, 2008

Here's a second shout-out to rhubarb. It's awesome. Fantastic. Like candy.
posted by greatgefilte at 3:19 PM on December 16, 2008

ThinkGeek has the tablets which supposedly work better than the actual berries. If you want to stick with the real thing, try eBay when they're in season.
posted by Ugh at 3:20 PM on December 16, 2008 [8 favorites has favorites]

Worcestershire sauce changed far more than anything else I had at the flavortripping party.
posted by svolix at 3:22 PM on December 16, 2008

marmite?
posted by Sara Anne at 3:29 PM on December 16, 2008

A pure (non-fruit) Lambic! I've been dying to know what that tastes like after eating the miracle berry.
posted by jclovebrew at 4:04 PM on December 16, 2008

What about lemomgrass? Maybe that'd work?
posted by robotot at 4:05 PM on December 16, 2008

marzipan
yeast
pepper flakes
mayonaise
vegemite
beef bouillon
horseradish
tang powder

oh i just cannot wait to hear how this turns out! please post!
posted by junipero at 5:00 PM on December 16, 2008

Tamarind. Fine vinegars.
posted by ouke at 5:10 PM on December 16, 2008

Limes were my favorite that I actually tried. Goat cheese was my second favorite but it was more subtle. Things I haven't tried that might be good are Greek yogurt, kumquats, nthing tamarind, nthing rhubarb and fat free "miracle" whip. (Har har. But seriously!)
posted by abirae at 6:10 PM on December 16, 2008

Jalapenos?
posted by nax at 6:48 PM on December 16, 2008

That weird fermented shark meat that they make in (Iceland? Norway? I forget) that you bury in the ground for a while.

Or sardines. I guess those are easier to obtain. Vindaloo?
posted by backseatpilot at 7:12 PM on December 16, 2008

can you please go back and 'best answer' the ones that were great (or followup with a post)? I have the think geek tablets and I want to know which ones to try!
posted by filmgeek at 9:29 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Tomatillos? (Whole Foods usually has them.)
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 10:05 PM on December 16, 2008

bad beer. I'd also suggest maybe some ganache truffles out of baking chocolate.
posted by Large Marge at 11:43 PM on December 16, 2008

Chinese salted plums, unsweetened Dutch licorice, olives.
posted by evil_esto at 12:56 AM on December 17, 2008

Durian fruit.
posted by watercarrier at 6:07 AM on December 17, 2008

Tomatoes?
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:24 AM on December 18, 2008

Miracle fruit was totally on CSI: NY last night! They were analyzing the stomach contents of a victim and found things like lemon peels, coffee grounds, vinegar, blue cheese, and onions. The morgue guys were all "WTF?" but I knew what went down because of this post! Thanks Metafilter!
(BTW - One of the victim dies from drinking drain cleaner without knowing because of the berries. So, uh, I'd avoid drain cleaner at your party.)
posted by kidsleepy at 7:02 AM on December 18, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Note: It makes sour taste sweet. It doesn't change bitter (that I've heard of), it doesn't change aroma, it doesn't change astringency or heat or saltiness or alcohol-related burning. So fresh jalapeños are not going to taste much different. Pickled ones will. Mint leaves aren't going to change. Soap isn't going to change. Chocolate isn't going to change (much). Vanilla is not going to change. Durian is still going to smell like an outhouse.
posted by eritain at 8:12 PM on December 19, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I brought those Miracle Fruit Tablets and a bunch of sour things to a potluck tonight (thanks Ugh for the link! 10 tablets/pkg, and I cut them in half to make them go farther, don't know if half the dose shortened the duration of the effect, but it lasted for us about 20-25 min).

Tomatillos weren't terribly interesting (they did taste sweeter, but no one knew what they were to begin with, so meh). Anaheim pepper, meh. Kumquats did become sweeter, but not dramatically so. Tabasco sauce and various balsamic vinegars (raspberry, citrus, fig) were very interesting. Some people loved the goat cheese, others were underwhelmed. People reacted most dramatically to the limes, lemons, grapefruit, and not-terribly-ripe strawberries. The strawberries were definitely the hit of the evening, with the grapefruit a distant second.

Unsweetened kefir was delicious (tried by myself, not at the potluck). Probably yogurt would be too, but I didn't have any handy. I may try the kefir out on people next time, in shot glasses.

It also helped to print out a couple copies of the wikipedia entry to hand out. It helped reassure the few who were concerned about safety or just generally weirded out by the concept. The weirded-out hung back until they witnessed people freaking out over the strawberries.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 10:18 PM on December 21, 2008

oh yeah, and two people mentioned the CSI episode. The writers may not have done their research as one of the articles I read about miracle fruit indicates that it only really works with organic acids.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 10:27 PM on December 21, 2008

As a follow up, we had a flavortripping party last night and used a lot of these suggestions.

GREAT: Goat cheese, Guiness and lemon sorbet, grapefruit, limequats
OK/INTERESTING: Lemon, orange, apple
MEH: SourPatchKids, Kumquats
posted by k8t at 3:26 PM on February 1

We did this over the weekend, so here's a follow-up for posterity:

BEST: The most sour beer (a gueze) we could possibly find. I tried it right before taking the tablets and was so sour I could hardly drink it. Tried it again right afterwards, and it was amazing. Still a little sour, but didn't make my mouth pucker, and it was sweet, and there were a lot of other layers of flavor that had been masked by the sourness. Totally awesome.

RUNNERS UP: lemons, limes, and grapefruit. There was still a bit of sour flavor, so it wasn't just cloying sweetness, but you could taste the flavor a lot more than you can. They almost tasted like lemon, lime, or grapefruit flavored candy.

MILDLY INTERESTING: Strawberries (they just tasted like they'd been rolled around in sugar. A bit too overwhelmingly sweet for me. Blueberries were good. Pomegranate seeds tasted like pomegranate candy, but it wasn't a marked difference. We tried three kinds of vinegar (red wine, white wine, and plum), but they still just tasted like vinegar, which was unpleasant.
posted by booknerd at 12:42 PM on May 4 [1 favorite has favorites]