Semi-random response: I grew up in a river town in Southern Ontario Canada. My wee town had the largest textile mill in the British Empire in WW2 era. My grandfather was some kind of manager there. My mother was a wee school girl then. My mum had to walk across the bridge every day to get to school. Wondering what color the river might be on any given day was what my mum remembered and told me.

Mollusks!

As an aside, in the guitar world, higher-end guitars use mother of pearl for inlays and fret markers etc. Cheaper, mass-produced guitars use a synthetic version commonly referred to as MOTS - mother of toilet seat lol.

Interesting nonetheless. I have wondered at least once what common people had for buttons on clothing for several millenia before plastic was around. I suppose wood and plants such as gourds would have been used also depending on where you lived.

I don't think those are pearls bruh

Looks beautiful, but that's barely 2 bites If you're trying to be dainty about it.

I understand that some (very affluent) people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to be served a long succession of micro-servings of overly expensive and overly aggrandized plates according to the whimzies of some hoity-toity artisan chef, but most of us just want to eat good food and be fulfilled. If the shit was any good, I'd be pissed I only got 1. It just kinda reeks of elitism and caters to a tiny minority of uppity mfkrs, and that's not what sharing of good food means to me nor any chefs I follow and respect.