Controversial Cuisine

This savory-sweet pairing is a classic school lunch.

After being banned for a decade and a half, this Roman classic is back on the table.

A Faroese dish that includes pilot whale meat and blubber, this traditional food requires weeks of preparation.

This flat, silver spoon holds an exalted place in the mystery and ritual of absinthe drinking.

With this Dutch liqueur, you can now drink licorice.

A Newfoundland tradition that comes with history and controversy.

These sacred leaves taste like peppery soda.

This cocktail is a New York City summertime staple, albeit an illegal one.

Essential to South Asian cuisine, the flavoring is illegal in some countries.

During Hong Kong winters, crowds flock to small diners with serpents in their cupboards.

A delicacy in Indonesia, the reptile's meat is a meal and a medicine.

Early 20th-century chefs used beaver musk to give sweets a vanilla-raspberry flavor.

The toxic pufferfish steals hearts, despite its ability to stop them.

The pickled Baltic herring has an explosive reputation.

With extra-gooey cheese and a cracker-thin crust, some say it's more like nachos.

This vintage dessert of bread, cheese, and syrup nearly disappeared from Peru.

In the 1960s, Royal Air Force pilots made a startling discovery about their sweets.

One vine unlocks the powers of a psychedelic shrub.