pungency

Some streaming titles have the flavor and pungency of a laboratory-synthesized snack, creations too perfect to be mistaken for natural.

Rumphius identified the fruit's tough outer skin as the source of its pungency, noting how the people of Indonesia's Ambon Island had a habit of disposing of the noxious rinds on the shoreline.

Submerging sliced onion in ice water for 10 minutes can also reduce its pungency.

But, he argues, the pungency of ammonia is actually a benefit.

The books in this week’s newsletter, though, make bracing use of that famed predilection for pungency.