The inherent evil of pine nuts

Gaze upon the tiny blank faces of evil.

I have something rather random to talk about today, but it is driving me crazy and I can't stop myself from posting about it. PINE-MOUTH. Have you heard of it? No, me neither. At least, I hadn't heard of it until a couple of days ago, when I ate a salad containing pine nuts and pretty much lost my sense of taste. I had (have) a bitter, metallic taste in my mouth that wiped out everything else, making most food and drink distinctly unpleasant. After a bit of Googling, I uncovered dozens and dozens of sites devoted to this bitter mouth-taste caused by eating pine nuts. Not everyone gets it, but for those who do it can last for one to four weeks. FOUR WEEKS. I will go mad(der).

This is a recent phenomenon - apparently the FDA has only started to track cases in the last couple of years. One theory is that pine-nuts from China contain inedible nuts alongside the edible ones ... but some people feel no effects at all. And I have eaten pesto containing pine nuts frequently with no ill-effects. It is a mystery, and a very annoying one. I hope I fall into the one-week category and not the up-to-four-weeks category.

Curse you, pine nuts! Curse you and your delicious nutty flavours!