Perr
y the 
Corpse Flower has inspired some fascinating constructions. I present, for your consideration, a botanical simulacrum and two compositions of resilient jiggliness.
The Perry Cake
Maria Jeremiason was approached with regard to application of her unique culinary skills to an ambitious project – re-creation of Perry, on a small and tasty scale, in celebration of the 40th birthday (coincident with Perry’s full bloom) of Jeannie Peterson of the Gustavus Library. Jeannie’s husband Evan made the approach and wrote the text for the cake. Creation of the cake is best described by Maria herself:
“…carving cakes for the terracotta pot, cupcakes for the green part, secured them all with a dowel then attached a jumbo muffin paper for the “pretty purple part” and then airbrushed the entire cake as close as I could get ….”
Click the thumbnail images above to see more details of this excellent effort. Happy birthday, Jeannie! I hope that Maria didn’t use genuine Perry flavorings… :)
The Call of Konjac
Konjac is a foodstuff derived from siblings of Perry’s cousin Ruby. As was reported earlier in this blog, a gift of konjac-derived comestibles was recently received from Corpse Flower Chat Room denizen Preesi.
Konjac jelly (a vegetable analog of Jello) was prepared, and konjac noodles were unbagged. Click on the thumbnail photos to see details of the results. Two results relevant to the aesthetics of presentation of the jelly are that it looks like a conventional gelatinized preparation if it’s turned out of the bowl upside down onto a plate (the normal fashion), but looks like a UFO if slid out onto a plate. Just sayin’…
The jelly is interesting stuff, quite a bit stiffer than Jello, and stable at room temperature. Here’s some essential advice: this jelly needs to be thoroughly chewed – advice not usually applied to jelly. Really, no kidding.
The flavors were orange and strawberry. The orange one didn’t last long, being that it was descended upon by three hungry and inquisitive people. More restraint was exercised for the strawberry version, and I’ve frozen segments of it for handing over to various Perryophiles. I’ll say here, though, that freezing results in expulsion of some liquid upon thawing, so I don’t fully recommend freezing. A nice chunk of gel remains after thawing, but it’s probably best to just eat the jelly after making it. It stores nicely in the refrigerator.
The noodles that are pictured are of tapioca shape (Preesi also sent some shrimp-shaped ones), and are rather like al dente pasta in texture – but just a little bit firmer, and more gelatinous. As forewarned of by Preesi, they have a slight fishy odor upon opening, but that completely disappears after rinsing them with cold water (per package instructions). I think that these will be excellent in a pasta-salad-type preparation, which is probably where these will end up. I can see them being used in place of pasta in other recipes, as well.
Great information! Thanks for sharing Brian…I will have to make a point of giving them a try. Lisa
Thanks OB! The Perry cake is awesome, Maria did a great job! I have to say that YT looks a lot less enthused about the orange jelly, and you do about the strawberry. Kudos to you guys for trying those….not sure if I would have!! Georgia and Ruby are looking great!! I think they are both very happy in their new pots.
Thanks for the comments! YT was actually quite pleased with the konjac jelly – the photo is with the trademark arched eyebrow pose. With regard to Georgia and Ruby, I agree that they’ve responded extremely well to repotting. From this point onward, we plan to crank them along with appropriate repotting and fertilization. Perhaps one of these days Georgia and Perry will bloom together. Ruby is her own yearly show, which is destined to become better and better.