The Lady or the Tiger?

The Lady or the Tiger (1882) by Frank Stockton was one of my favorite stories as a kid. It involves a person arrested for a crime. The king of the land places before the alleged criminal two curtained areas: Behind one is a lady, the other a tiger. Depending on which curtained area he chooses, the end result will either be an immediate marriage or a fatal mauling. And the story ends there, a cliffhanger from the 19th Century. For those, like my 10-year-old self who can’t get enough of this kind of philosophical teaser, there’s a follow-up tale by the same author called The Discourager of Hesitancy.

But we’re here to talk about my soul food kitchen, not literature, right? So the attached picture is homemade roasted sessame seeds to make raw tchina. Or is it homemade roasted peanuts to make peanut butter? Which is it? The latter I could not get enough of growing up in Savannah, Georgia. The former was part of the formative years for my kids growing up in Israel. They both love them both. I do too.

Just to make this a bit more fun, consider the nutritional value of 100 grams of the following two foods, one pure tchina, the other pure peanut butter, both made in my kitchen:

Food A: 567 Calories, 25.8 gr Protein, 16.1 gr. carbohydrates, 49.2 gr. fat

Food B: 573 Calories, 17.7 gr. Protein, 23.4 gr. Carbohydrates, 49.7 gr. Fat

Which, dear reader, is which? And a very happy birthday to my son, today, who loves them both. And probably knows the answer.