eating orchids

Let me just preface this post by saying, that some people in New York City are craaaaazy. Today at a lunch presentation we had at work, I was sitting next to a man who I just met - all of the sudden I glance over and he takes a huge bite of a FLOWER that is on his plate - and a bright purple orchid at that. I noticed when I was going through the line that there were flowers garnishing the cookie tray and thought it was a little strange...and then I saw the man EAT the flower. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do to try and not erupt into laughter. So then after the presentation I asked the other intern Belinda, "do people in New York eat flowers? or is that weird?" She started laughing too, and then said - that's weird.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchid#Uses - after some minor research, as I suspected, orchids aren't really primarily for eating.

This is Fernando Lopez, known to Perkins Eastman employees as the "Orchid Eater"

- courtesy of the Perkins Eastman seating chart office map (which I had to search long and hard for to find my little friend Fernando, since I didn't know his name until I found his pic)