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EAT, DRINK & EXPLORE
East Oregonian
Saturday, September 21, 2019
‘I’ve got one!’
Hunting neon scorpions in the Arizona desert
AP Photo/Peter Prengaman
A scorpion appears in a tank after being captured in Lost Dutchman State Park, Ariz.
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press
L
OST DUTCHMAN STATE
PARK, Ariz. — As the setting sun
left a yellow tinge on dirt-colored
cactuses as far as the eye could see,
park ranger Anna Roberts gave us
a lesson on what we were about to
hunt.
“Scorpions know they will not kill us
because we are much larger,” said Roberts,
explaining that the animals’ fi rst instinct
would be to escape, not sting, and that fatali-
ties from bites in the U.S. were rare. “So, you
don’t have worry about that.”
The light-hearted preparatory chat also
came with a serious message: Don’t be dumb
with scorpions, which move quickly on eight
legs and are equipped with pincer claws and
curved tails that lash enemies and deposit
venom.
Closed-toed shoes were a must, the crit-
ters should only be picked up with tongs, and
they should not be played with — a message
I made sure my oldest children, boys ages 8
and 9, heard.
Having just moved with my family to Ari-
zona, the excursion struck me as a uniquely
desert-life thing to do. However, my wife,
who rightly said taking our 3-year-old would
have been a bad idea, thought I was nuts.
For whatever reason, I’ve always found
scorpions intriguing, if not a little terrifying.
A glance at popular culture tells me I’m not
alone.
In movies, on the skin of many tattoo lov-
ers and in one of the 12 astrological signs,
scorpions’ distinct shape and supposed attri-
butes are often on display. They are portrayed
as savage, lethal, true warriors — not far off
from what we were about to see on the hunt.
As we walked into the desert under the
moonlight, we carried fl ashlights to see where
we were stepping. The terrain was rocky,
dusty and uneven, mixed with rough under-
brush. Crucial to the hunt, however, were
black lights: Scorpions glow under ultraviolet
lights for reasons that scientists don’t know.
“Why they fl uoresce is the million-dol-
AP Photo/Peter Prengaman
Park Ranger Anna Roberts, center, talks about scorpions and how to catch them in Lost
Dutchman State Park, Ariz. Feared, admired and loathed, scorpions have roamed the earth
for 450 million years. An interesting way to learn about the critters, which glow under black
lights, is to go on scorpion hunts in Southwest states like Arizona and New Mexico. Wear
closed-toed shoes and pants, bring black lights and prepare to be awed.
lar question,” said Lauren Esposito, curator
of arachnology at the California Academy of
Sciences. Some theorize that the light scares
off would-be predators, while others think it
might attract pollinators, potential prey.
A few minutes into the hike, neon green
shapes began appearing. They ranged in
length from a small grasshopper to a human
fi nger. Upon our approach, the scorpions
would sometimes scurry away, sometimes
duck into a hole and, just as often, raise their
pincers and arch their tails in preparation for
battle. There is a reason they are apex preda-
tors in the invertebrate food chain.
“I’ve got one! I’ve got one!” people began
shouting, capturing them with tongs from
behind. “I need a box over here!”
A handful of people carrying plastic con-
tainers, including my sons, would come over,
opening the cap so a writhing scorpion could
be placed inside. Everybody around would
stop, shine black lights and stare as the scor-
pion began moving from one side of the box
to the other.
“This is awesome!” said James Brine, a
37-year-old machinist from Tempe, a Phoe-
nix suburb, who wore a black T-shirt with a
neon scorpion on the front. “I love it.”
Brine, who came out with two friends,
said it was fun to see scorpions in a differ-
ent way. When he was growing up, his family
considered them pests.
The hearty arthropods, which have
roamed the earth for millions of years, can
indeed be unwanted guests. Dozens of Phoe-
nix companies offer to spray, kill and seal
scorpions out of homes. Online ads include
pictures of smiling and unsuspecting little
children, and warnings that scorpions could
even show up in your bed.
While scorpion stings hurt — experts say
they are like a bee sting — they are rarely
lethal, especially in the United States. A 2008
study, “Epidemiology of scorpionism: A
global appraisal,” found that of about 1.2 mil-
lion stings annually, 3,250, or 0.27%, resulted
in death.
The highest risk areas are in parts of
Africa, the Middle East, South India, Mex-
ico and southern Latin America, and fatali-
ties were often a result of a lack of anti-venom
treatments, according to the study.
Esposito said that of about 2,500 species of
scorpions worldwide, only 25 or so are truly
dangerous. The most hazardous in the United
States is found in Southwestern states: the
Arizona bark scorpion, which is light brown
and blends into the desert landscape.
While scorpions get a “bad rap,” they are
an important indicator of the overall health
of the ecosystems where they are found, said
Esposito.
“If something is going wrong in an area,
scorpions are a place to look” to understand
what is going on, she said.
After an hour, our group had gathered
about 25 scorpions. All were placed in a large
plastic box, around the size of a home aquar-
ium. Roberts, the ranger, identifi ed three
kinds we had captured: straight tail, yellow
ground and giant hairy scorpions.
Watching them interact, I was awed by
their ferocity. Several attacked each other,
pinching and whipping their tails, while oth-
ers tried in vain to climb out, slipping on the
side of the box only to charge and continue
trying.
My 8-year-old, Lucas, and a few other kids
captured some moths and put them in the
box. A few of the bigger scorpions, thrust-
ing the smaller ones aside, circled the moths
in preparation for consumption. And then
something happened that made the group go
silent: One of the larger scorpions devoured a
small scorpion, thrusting its entire body into
its mouth.
“Why didn’t he go for the moths?” shouted
Lucas.
“Why go for moths,” Roberts joked,
“when they can eat each other?”
From common to cool: The lowly cabbage has become a star
That taken-for-granted veggie
is fi nally getting some respect
GET THE RECIPE
Katie Workman writes regularly about
food for The Associated Press. She has
this cabbage recipe on her blog. https://
themom100.com/recipe/one-pot-cod-
cabbage-and-edamame/
By KATIE WORKMAN
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Here’s a sentence that might
come as a surprise: Cabbage is cool.
That taken-for-granted vegetable, that
sturdy, dense staple of many a poor, ancestral
homeland, is fi nally getting respect.
“It’s all about how it is prepared, how it’s
elevated,” says Paul Kahan, a James Beard
award-winning chef in Chicago and self-pro-
fessed cabbage freak.
He thinks that because cabbage has mainly
been associated with sustenance, it hasn’t
been given its due.
Cabbage is part of most of the world’s
cooking history. Perhaps most famously, it
was one of the only sources of sustenance in
famine-ravaged Ireland in the mid-19th cen-
tury. Thus the classic Irish dish corned beef
and cabbage, not to mention colcannon.
In China, there’s cabbage sauteed with
bean curd. In England, cabbage cooked with
potatoes and other vegetables in bubble and
squeak. In Norway, the hot and sour surkal.
In the U.S., coleslaw. Fermented and pickled
cabbage dishes abound, including kimchi in
Korea, and sauerkraut in Poland, Germany
and other parts of middle and Eastern Europe.
Stuffed cabbage rolls are part of just about
every cuisine, from golabki in Poland to hol-
ishkes in Jewish cooking to sarma in Croatia.
There’s more, but the point is: In all times
and places, cabbage has been valued for its
plenteousness, cheapness, long shelf life, and
ability to be preserved for an even longer shelf
life. It can be eaten raw or cooked in pretty
much any way a vegetable can be cooked.
AP Photo/Cheyenne Cohen, File
This 2018 photo provided by Katie Workman shows a dish of cod, cabbage and edamame
taken in New York. Cabbage, that taken-for-granted vegetable, that sturdy, dense staple of
many a poor, ancestral homeland, is fi nally getting respect.
Now, it’s also trendy.
“It’s just delicious,” says Kahan.
He has been on the cabbage bandwagon
for years, serving it at his upscale Chicago
restaurants in various guises. At Publican,
they char wedges of cabbage in a wood-burn-
ing hearth and then fi nish them in a pan with
butter and shallots. Kahan remembers being
inspired by a dish made by New Orleans chef
Alon Shaya: “It was the fi rst time I ever saw a
chunk of cabbage served at a restaurant.”
Robert Schueller, the “Produce Guru” at
Melissa’s Produce, a specialty company out
of Los Angeles, says chefs and restaurants are
the clear drivers behind the cabbage move-
ment. Cabbage is being used as everything
from a taco topping (common in Mexico) to
a base or nest for menu items such as mar-
inated fi sh. Chefs like how cabbage main-
tains a crisper texture than other greens when
served with warm foods, he says.
“We have seen a rise in Napa cabbage, too,
which is used in Asian stir fries, fermentation
and pickling, all of which are gaining in pop-
ularity. The most interesting thing is that the
rise of Napa is not just in Asian groceries and
restaurants,” Schueller says.
Gabriel Kreuther gets creative with cab-
bage at his eponymous restaurant in New
York City. He purees well-cooked cabbage as
a base for some garnishes; uses it in a side dish
with trumpet mushrooms warmed in duck fat;
and serves up a simple slaw of shredded cab-
bage, onion, oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper,
maybe with some julienned gruyere cheese
mixed in.
“It goes with everything; it’s refreshing, it
gets better with a few days macerating time,
it’s soft and crunchy, it’s healthy,” Kreuther
says.
At the restaurant, they make their own sau-
erkraut, a dish he grew up with in his native
Alsace region of France. Kreuther serves the
sauerkraut in a smoked sturgeon; his sauer-
kraut tartlet topped with caviar mousseline is
in a fi lo pastry shell and served under a wine
glass fi lled with smoke.
Kreuther likes mixing poor man’s food
with luxury ingredients and seeing how they
play against each other. That explains another
dish on his menu: layers of squab breast and
foie gras wrapped with cabbage leaves, and
then encased in Tunisian brik dough and
seared until the outside is crispy.
And how do people react when they see
cabbage on this highbrow menu?
“People pooh-pooh cabbage,” he says,
“but when they taste it well prepared they
say, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize cabbage could be so
delicious.’”