Subjects provided plain and asparagus urine for evaluation by themselves and by other subjects and in turn were asked to detect the asparagus odor from the urine of other people.
Whether one begins with something plain -- asparagus vinaigrette with smoky mozzarella, that Black Forest ham and fresh tomato -- or something fancy -- those sautéed scallops, black bean sauce, fresh ginger and pine nuts tucked into the curl of a radicchio leaf -- it's hard to go wrong.
Vegetables will cost you: plain grilled asparagus is $7, or about a dollar a spear; thick, lightly roasted and delicious king oyster mushrooms are $10.
The heat is less fruity and more pungent than chili oil, and works well with lemon juice to make a dressing for grilled vegetables or steamed asparagus, or plain in a curry or on pork.
A pile of frisee lettuce topped with perfectly cooked shrimp and thin-sliced asparagus sounded plain but stood out as one of the most satisfying appetizers on the menu.
For perception, proportion correct refers to the number of times the subject correctly chose the asparagus from plain urine out of the total number of trials.
To that end, we used a 2-alternative forced-choice technique in which subjects had to choose between the asparagus or plain urine.
Likewise, fewer people failed to produce the odor in this study compared with previous reports, and this may be due, in part, to the use of the 2-alternative forced choice method, which allows subjects to directly compare asparagus and plain urine.
"The Perfumed Garden," a 16th-century Arab erotic text, refers to dishes like asparagus omelet and plain chickpeas.
But there is as much on the menu for those who want to eat plain fish and unadorned roasted asparagus as for those who wish to indulge in foie gras and creamy puréed potatoes.
Because there are no standard methods of testing for odorous urine, earlier investigators sometimes asked subjects to distinguish between plain water and a dilute asparagus urine sample (Hoffenberg 1983).
