Places
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places
Random Place
Lists
Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Latest Places
View All Places »
Smygehuk, Sweden
Smygehuk Fyr
55.3386, 13.3528
Madrid, Spain
Commercial Signage on the Façade of Gruta 77
40.3909, -3.7314
Gainesville, Florida
Lubee Bat Conservancy
29.8261, -82.3409
Lansing, Michigan
Deadtime Stories Books & Gifts
42.7207, -84.5526
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »
Countries
Australia
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Cities
Amsterdam
Barcelona
Beijing
Berlin
Boston
Budapest
Chicago
London
Los Angeles
Mexico City
Montreal
Moscow
New Orleans
New York City
Paris
Philadelphia
Rome
San Francisco
Seattle
Stockholm
Tokyo
Toronto
Vienna
Washington, D.C.
Foods
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
Steaming Tender Restaurant
Tiptree Jam Museum
The Reading Room
The Mountain House
Jolly's Mill Pond
Stories
Recent Stories
All Stories
Video
Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Where to See the World’s Most Famous Preserved Body Parts
Atlas Obscura’s Guide to America’s Most Haunted Cemeteries
It All Comes Together in Chattanooga
Sponsored By Chattanooga Tourism
The Best Haunted Hotels to Book for a Spooky Getaway
Newsletters
Sign In
Join
Sign In
Join
Places near me
Random place
Food & Drink
Where to eat
Stories
Explore Unique Food & Drink
Category
Drinks
Food Festivals
Fruits & Vegetables
Ingredients & Condiments
Meats & Animal Products
Prepared Foods
Sweets
Region
Africa
Asia
Caribbean
Central America
Europe
Middle East
North America
Oceania
South America
Clear All
Nothing matches these selections.
Try a different combination of filters for more results or send us a tip.
Sweets
Leigh’s Favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
This AO user’s cookies come with a kick.
Sweets
Joan’s Crunchy Strawberry Shortcakes
An AO user’s tried and true recipe.
Drinks
Nectar Soda
This pretty pink drink is a Cincinnati specialty.
Drinks
Tiquira
This violet-hued liquor is Brazil's oldest spirit.
Prepared Foods
Maultaschen
Legend has it that a monk hid meat in these dumplings to fool God.
Drinks
Pont
A town in East France still makes a beloved green-anise liquor born after the ban of absinthe.
Sweets
Lancashire Courting Cake
Before dating apps, young people used this cake to express their feelings.
Sweets
Flódni
This multi-layered treat has become a potent symbol of Hungarian-Jewish identity.
Drinks
Fröccs
A seasonal Hungarian spritzer has a language all its own.
Sweets
Doberge Cake
This towering treat is a slice of New Orleans immigrant history.
Ingredients & Condiments
Hickory Syrup
A sweet regional alternative to the maple kind.
Prepared Foods
Johnny Marzetti
The casserole with a person's name.
Sweets
Lebanon Bologna
There's even a museum dedicated to this preserved meat.
Fruits & Vegetables
Tsakoniki Melitzana
This sweet, slender eggplant grows only in a Greek valley.
Prepared Foods
Spaceburgers
These UFO-shaped sandwiches debuted at the Seattle World's Fair.
Sweets
Tottenham Cake
This pink cake celebrates a long-ago football victory.
Prepared Foods
Brier Hill Pizza
A church bakes up hundreds of these regional pizzas once a week.
Sweets
Saskatoon Berry Perogies
When Ukrainian immigrants embraced a local crop, a sweet prairie perogy was born.
Sweets
Fasnachts
Pennsylvanians come out in droves for this pre-Lent delicacy.
Prepared Foods
Boova Shenkel
These rare traditional dumplings are as big as a plate.
Drinks
Génépi
A uniquely Texan take on Chartreuse.
Drinks
Tunglubuk Chi
A dwindling number of brewers still make this tapioca alcohol.
Sweets
Kalimpong Lollipops
These condensed-milk sweets come from a picturesque hill town.
Fruits & Vegetables
Purén White Strawberry
This rare berry grows only in two Chilean towns.
Drinks
Chocolate-atole
This traditional drink is made with a little-known variety of cacao.
Fruits & Vegetables
Arkansas Black Apple
This dark, rare fruit lasts a very long time.
Drinks
Green Chartreuse
Only two silent monks know all 130 plants that go into this herbal liqueur.
Prepared Foods
Nagashi Somen
Catch these floating noodles before they flow by.
Prepared Foods
K’alapurka
In the city of Potosí, a steamy soup bubbles from the heat of volcanic rocks.
Prepared Foods
Chitlins
These entrails identified safe venues for Black musicians during the Jim Crow era.
Gastro Obscura
Mad Honey
This hallucinogenic honey can sell for over $60 a pound on the black market.
Sweets
Korovai
The Ukrainian wedding bread is so beautiful, it's displayed near the altar.
Ingredients & Condiments
Oaxacan Mole Blanco
The fairest and rarest of them all.
Meats & Animal Products
Green Gill Oysters
North Carolina's seasonal delicacy is brought to you by algae.
Prepared Foods
Senegalese Nem
Senegal's popular spring rolls tell a story of war, love, and colonialism.
Prepared Foods
Threads of God
To eat the world's rarest pasta, you must first complete a 20-mile pilgrimage.
Drinks
Yaupon Tea
The mellow-buzz brew that once fueled Native Americans is making a comeback.
Ingredients & Condiments
Termitomyces Titanicus
The biggest edible mushroom in the world is also delicious.
Fruits & Vegetables
Peanut Butter Fruit
Its pulp tastes just like the creamy spread.
Sweets
Moon Mist
The Nova Scotia ice cream flavor is so beloved, women dye their hair to match its pastel swirl.
Prepared Foods
Pheasant Salad Sandwich
South Dakota's unique contribution to World War II soldiers.
Drinks
Kumis
Infants and Genghis Khan enjoyed this fermented mare's milk.
Sweets
Picarones
The sweet potato donuts are an integral part of the Afro-Peruvian community.
Prepared Foods
Hoppin' John
This New Year's luck-bringer has a controversial contemporary taste.
Gastro Obscura
Twelve Grapes
A New Year's Eve tradition of scarfing down 12 grapes for good luck.
Gastro Obscura
Réveillon Dinner
This French Creole Christmas Eve tradition takes midnight munchies to a whole new level.
Sweets
Cougnou
This Christmas bread is formed in the shape of the baby Jesus.
Prepared Foods
French-Fried Turkey Breast
In South Range, a decadent take on Thanksgiving dinner is served year-round.
Sweets
Pumpple Cake
Called the turducken of desserts, this multilayered cake hides two pies inside.
Drinks
Amaro di Sant'Antimo
At an abbey in the Tuscan countryside, monks specialize in a curative, flower-based liqueur.
Sweets
Trappist Mango Treats
At the only Trappist monastery in the Philippines, monks turn local fruit into sinfully delicious goodies.
Ingredients & Condiments
Mountain Maid Ube Jam
In the mountains of the Philippines, nuns raise funds with a sweet spread made from purple yams.
Sweets
Gata
Outside chapels carved from cliffs and caves, elderly women sell sweet, beautiful breads rooted in Armenia’s Christian traditions.
Prepared Foods
Death Noodles
A Jakarta hole-in-the-wall serves what may be the world's spiciest noodles.
Sweets
Butternut Squash Sweets
Near the exit of an old souk, a small shop has been making gourd-based goodies for generations.
Drinks
Bath Spa Water
Make like Jane Austen and sip from the fountain in this famed Pump Room.
Sweets
Maska Bun and Irani Chai at New Irani
Behind a bare-bones concrete exterior and amid crumbling walls, a cafe serves what may be Ahmedabad's sweetest buns.
Meats & Animal Products
Drunken Cheese
The aging process of this formaggio begins in a barrel of wine.
Meats & Animal Products
Bra Sausage
A veal-based sausage that survived a royal beef ban.
Fruits & Vegetables
Charentais Melon
The melon has its own sculpture, festival, and order of knights.
Prepared Foods
Chop Suey Sandwich
In the 19th century, Chinese immigrants developed an early New England fusion sandwich that is divisive as it is salty.
Sweets
Southern Jutland Coffee Table
These cake-laden tables fueled community meetings that helped bring Southern Jutland back into Denmark.
Meats & Animal Products
Liederkranz Cheese
This long-extinct pungent delight has made a comeback in Wisconsin.
Prepared Foods
Shimanto River 'Seaweed' Tempura
In Kochi, Japan, river laver gets deep-fried into an earthy, crunchy treat.
Ingredients & Condiments
Datil Pepper
Minorcans spiced up the food scene in St. Augustine with this fiery crop.
Sweets
Crystal Beach Sugar Waffles
These deep-fried dough daisies outlived the Fort Erie amusement park in which they were born.
Sweets
Nimish
Sweet-makers conjure up this light-as-a-cloud cream pudding on dewy nights in Lucknow, India.
Drinks
Chatham Artillery Punch
"As a vanquisher of men its equal has never been found."
Sweets
Agra ka Petha
The city of the Taj Mahal hosts another wonder: Crystallized pumpkin candy.
Meats & Animal Products
Montebore
By the 21st century, one lone woman held the recipe for what might have been da Vinci’s cheese of choice.
Drinks
Panther Milk
Developed by Spain's elite military unit in the 1920s, this cocktail is a favorite among Barcelona's college students.
Sweets
Vínarterta
Elusive in its country of origin, this multilayer cake has found a home in Manitoba's “New Iceland” region.
Meats & Animal Products
Okanagan Sockeye Salmon
Around British Columbia's Osoyoos Lake, community efforts have revived the population of a fluorescent fish.
Meats & Animal Products
Torta del Casar
In Spain's Extremadura region, local sheep and a touch of thistle make for an ultra-creamy, slightly bitter cheese.
Fruits & Vegetables
Blenheim Apricot
Snap judgments may spell trouble for what was once the king of California apricots.
Ingredients & Condiments
Chile Cobanero
This signature pepper has been a hot commodity since the Maya era.
Ingredients & Condiments
Baniwa Jiquitaia
Pivotal to the culture and cuisine of Brazil's Baniwa people, this piquant pepper-and-salt seasoning now provides the community with sustainable income.
Prepared Foods
Andarinos di Usini
Made only in one Sardinian village, these sun-dried pasta spirals are crafted twist by painstaking twist.
Drinks
Pure Kona Coffee
Grown only on the volcanic soil of Hawaiʻi’s Big Island, this coffee is known for its subtle, rich flavor and hordes of unscrupulous imitators.
Ingredients & Condiments
Merquén
In Chile's central Araucanía region, the indigenous Mapuche community still makes this smoky spice blend.
Ingredients & Condiments
White Kiawe Honey
This pristine honey with a cool menthol aftertaste is produced by honeybees that feast on a Hawaiian mesquite forest.
Meats & Animal Products
Canastra Cheese
This traditional Brazilian raw milk cheese is caught in the crosshairs of a battle over government regulation.
Ingredients & Condiments
Kapeshuna Beans
In the desert of La Guajira, Colombia, locally grown cowpeas hold spiritual meaning for the Wayúu tribe.
Fruits & Vegetables
Stromberg Plum
This protected German fruit has its own representative queen.
Fruits & Vegetables
Siwa Oasis Dates
Dates from this desert oasis have been sweetening Egyptian tables since pharaonic times.
Ingredients & Condiments
Farim Salt
An industry run almost entirely by women is developing new sustainable methods to harvest this highly coveted riverbed salt.
Ingredients & Condiments
Baleni Salt
A sacred tree, a secret language, and the labor of generations of women keep an ancient tradition of salt harvesting alive.
Fruits & Vegetables
Beaver Dam Pepper
A pepper so good, Hungarian immigrants carried it with them when they came to Wisconsin.
Ingredients & Condiments
Omajowa
Massive mushrooms spring from tall termite mounds during rainy season in Namibia.
Drinks
Horchata Lojana
Made from dozens of regional flowers and herbs, this tea reflects the unique flora of Loja, Ecuador.
Drinks
Chios Mastiha
Residents of this Greek island distill mastic sap, the "tears of Chios," into a piney-sweet liqueur.
Prepared Foods
Yakamein
Mixing soy sauce, Creole spices, and spaghetti, this hybrid soup is the embodiment of New Orleans' melting pot.
Fruits & Vegetables
Ridgeway Cantaloupe
This rare, distinguished North Carolina melon once fed presidents and kings.
Ingredients & Condiments
Tupelo Honey
Beekeepers in the United States' southeastern swamplands are fighting to preserve this smooth, sweet delicacy.
Fruits & Vegetables
North Georgia Candy Roaster Squash
Bred by members of the Cherokee Nation, this heirloom American squash gets sweeter in storage.
Drinks
Lanzarote Wines
On an island’s moon-like terrain, grapevines creep out of ashen volcanic soil and create extraordinary elixirs.
Meats & Animal Products
Colonnata Lard
As fine as the marble it's cured in, this pig fat salumi is a Tuscan masterpiece.
Prepared Foods
Fluff Screamer
An unusual combination of marshmallows and spice make this screamingly good burger.
Fruits & Vegetables
Belle of Georgia Peach
All but absent from supermarket shelves, this heirloom peach is a sweet secret in Southerners' backyard gardens.
Drinks
Jacu Bird Coffee
In the mountains of southeast Brazil, the droppings of invasive yet protected birds are turned into expensive, delicious coffee.
Meats & Animal Products
Louisiana Hog's Head Cheese
A porcine aspic that makes a perfect accompaniment to crackers and sandwiches is fast becoming a rare commodity.
Fruits & Vegetables
Acadian Summer Savory
This Canadian variety of a classic Mediterranean herb gives Acadian cuisine its signature fragrance.
Fruits & Vegetables
Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
This recently revived New York heirloom doesn't contain cheese, but it does make an iconic pumpkin pie.
Fruits & Vegetables
Louisiana Mirliton
After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleanians banded together to save a beloved heirloom squash.
Sweets
Sponge Candy
This chocolate-coated confection's crisp, bubbly structure is well-suited to the even crisper Buffalo air.
Drinks
Turnip Schnapps
The modest root vegetable makes a potent liquor in Wildschönau, Austria.
Prepared Foods
Savoury Slice in a Flat Roll with Sauce
In Murray Bridge, South Australia, the path to pastry glory is paved with a curious sandwich.
Fruits & Vegetables
San Marzano Tomatoes
Grown in the volcanic soil around Mt. Vesuvius, these tomatoes are one of only a couple varieties used in authentic Neapolitan pizza.
Fruits & Vegetables
Duruka
“Fiji asparagus” isn't asparagus at all.
Ingredients & Condiments
Bhutanese Red Rice
At 8,000 feet above sea level, glacial irrigation produces a unique heirloom grain.
Ingredients & Condiments
Brisbane Customs House Mushrooms
The basement of a 19th-century government building provides peak conditions for delicious fungi.
Prepared Foods
Mosbolletjies
These buns from South Africa's Cape Winelands are traditionally leavened with the must used to make wine.
Ingredients & Condiments
Jersey Black Butter
Once a year, communities on the tiny island gather to preserve the art of making licorice-flavored apple butter.
Sweets
Polkagris
A small town is home to a beloved candy invented by one of Sweden's first female entrepreneurs.
Drinks
Green River Soda
After thriving during Prohibition, this soda fountain staple was immortalized in a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Sweets
Roman Candy
This century-old New Orleans treat is still sold from a mule-drawn cart.
Prepared Foods
Chumuth
Tohono O’odham cooks finish these hand-stretched, buttery tortillas over a hot stone disc.
Meats & Animal Products
Arbroath Smokie
Lauded by poets, a Scottish town's hot-smoked haddock may date back to the Vikings.
Fruits & Vegetables
Redlove Apple
Apples are red, blueberries are blue / But these pommes d’amour are red inside, too.
Meats & Animal Products
Tenili
These rare, hand-pulled strands of cheese are making a comeback in southwestern Georgia.
Drinks
Raspberry Cordial
Immortalized by “Anne of Green Gables,” the drink is a must-try for lit lovers on Prince Edward Island.
Sweets
Cream Pull Candy
Kentucky's melt-in-your-mouth treats date back to the 1800s.
Ingredients & Condiments
Ligurian Honey
This famous Italian honey is now produced only on an Australian island.
Meats & Animal Products
Vologda Butter
This regional Russian delicacy once called itself Parisian.
Meats & Animal Products
Grimsby Smoked Fish
Five producers in one English seaside town use historic chimneys to cold-smoke salmon and haddock overnight.
Drinks
Pegu Club Cocktail
A cocktail that originated in a British officers’ club in erstwhile Burma now has fans across the world.
Meats & Animal Products
Callu de Cabrettu
Sardinia may be home to the oldest style of cheese.
Ingredients & Condiments
Boiled Cider
Popular in colonial New England, this “apple molasses” is now made by only a handful of commercial producers.
Sweets
Awful Awful
This Jersey-born frosty drink is now a Rhode Island favorite.
Meats & Animal Products
Divle Obruk
The rare, cave-aged Turkish cheese is one of the last vestiges of a dying cheese-making tradition.
Prepared Foods
Staffordshire Oatcakes
The portable breakfast food might've originated with British soldiers returning from India.
Gastro Obscura
D.C. Half and Half Marathon
In a supreme test of gut and gam, runners must eat a half-smoke sausage with chips before completing a 13.1-mile race.
Sweets
Coffee Cabinet
The uniquely Rhode Island treat is a relic from the era of soda fountain pharmacies.
Prepared Foods
Pueblo Bread
Baked in traditional adobe hornos, this bread is a staple of the American Southwest's Native Pueblo people.
Prepared Foods
Hot Cheese Sandwich
The original cheeseburger, hold the beef patty.
Prepared Foods
Kibinai
These savory pastries come from Lithuania's Karaim minority.
Drinks
Fish House Punch
This Philadelphia cocktail was invented at a fishing club that once declared itself a sovereign state.
Prepared Foods
Cudighi
Sandwiches stuffed with wine-and-cinnamon-spiced sausage have been a specialty of Michigan's Upper Peninsula since 1936.
Sweets
Marlborough Pie
A custardy twist on apple pie finds delicious use for fruit reaching spoilage.
Meats & Animal Products
Năsal Cheese
In a Romanian village, a cave's unique conditions produce a rare, funky cheese.
Sweets
White Potato Pie
This velvety, vintage treat still has a fan base in Maryland.
Food Festivals
Filderkraut Fest
Germans turn up for a rare, pointed cabbage.
Prepared Foods
Chicken Barb
This pulled chicken sandwich has a cult following in the Massachusetts towns of Methuen and Lawrence.
Prepared Foods
Masters Pimento Cheese Sandwich
The story of the golf tournament’s signature snack is one of secret recipes and controversial updates.
Prepared Foods
Doodle Soup
This unique soup of chicken drippings, vinegar, and cayenne pepper has been a Bradford, Tennessee, favorite for decades.
Prepared Foods
Debal Curry
Melaka's Kristang community makes a dish so spicy, it's known as “devil's curry.”
Prepared Foods
Nokia Kuuma Koira
A Finnish city specializes in sausages housed in sugar-dusted doughnuts.
Prepared Foods
Volkswagen Originalteil
The German auto maker’s “part no. 199 398 500 A” is a pack of sausages.
Fruits & Vegetables
Yūbari King Melon
The most expensive melon in the world is a status symbol in Japan.
Sweets
Hiyoko
These bird-shaped cakes once fueled miners in Japan's Fukuoka region.
Ingredients & Condiments
Cà Cuống Essence
An extract made from a rare water bug's pheromones makes for unforgettably pungent sauces in North Vietnam.
Drinks
Quoit Club Punch
Drinkers downed this serious cocktail while hurling heavy rings at posts in the 18th century.
Prepared Foods
Chả Rươi
This rare Vietnamese omelet incorporates a seasonal sandworm.
Drinks
Bristol Milk
Teething babies and royalty were fans of this British city's signature sherry.
Drinks
Riga Black Balsam
There's a legend that this Latvian herbal liqueur saved an ailing Catherine the Great.
Prepared Foods
Pan de Pulque
This shape-shifting bread has kept its traditional name, but continued to reinvent itself with changing times.
Prepared Foods
Fesikh
On Sham el-Nessim, Egyptians celebrate spring by gathering around picnic spreads of fermented fish.
Prepared Foods
Fafaru
To find this fermented fish dish of notorious scent, you'll need to venture beyond French Polynesia's resort kitchens.
Prepared Foods
New Jersey Sloppy Joe
It's not what you think it is, unless you're from the Garden State.
Ingredients & Condiments
Harenna Honey
In an Ethiopian forest, a dying breed of beekeepers scales dangerously tall trees to harvest nectar from handmade hives.
Sweets
Dole Whip
This pineapple soft serve has a cult following at Disney theme parks.
Sweets
Carrageen Moss Pudding
This sweet, silky Irish pudding has a secret ingredient: seaweed.
Drinks
Super Punch
An obscure Italian amaro became the pride of Pittsburgh.
Gastro Obscura
St. Joseph's Day Altars
Elaborate bread sculptures grace these edible annual altars in Sicily and Sicilian communities abroad.
Prepared Foods
Cao Lầu
Authentic renditions of this Vietnamese noodle dish rely on the terroir of a single coastal city.
Prepared Foods
Frejon
This thick bean soup is a Good Friday tradition for Nigeria's Afro-Brazilian community.
Sweets
Kouign-Amann
Some Bretons claim that their signature treat is the fattiest pastry in the world.
Sweets
Pine Cone Preserves
Soft young cones make a sweet jam believed to have health benefits in Russia and Georgia.
Prepared Foods
Son-in-Law Eggs
In Thai lore, these fried hard-boiled eggs are a delicious warning for a misbehaving husband.
Drinks
The Lunchbox
Oklahoma City's signature cocktail calls for a frosty mug, a shot of amaretto, Coors Light, and orange juice.
Fruits & Vegetables
Tsamma Melon
This wild fruit helps man and beast survive long treks without water in the Kalahari desert.
Sweets
Lanzi's Cashew Nut & Rice Crunch
Candy makers recently resurrected this crispy Chicago confection from the graveyard of vintage sweets.
Prepared Foods
Møsbrømlefse
This sweet, cheese-filled Norwegian flatbread keeps Nordlanders nourished during the long winter.
Drinks
Green Chile Lemonade
A roadside diner in Hatch, New Mexico, makes the most of the town's fiery crop.
Prepared Foods
Turtle Sauce Picante
This smoky, spicy dish comes straight out of Cajun country.
Sweets
New Mexican Sundae
Frozen custard gets topped with green chile sauce and salty pecans to make this Las Cruces specialty.
Sweets
Emily Dickinson's Black Cake
This brandy-spiked recipe reveals the reclusive poet was actually a well-known baker.
Drinks
Pocari Sweat
A pharmaceutical company developed this beverage as drinkable IV solution.
Ingredients & Condiments
Chimayó Chile Pepper
This pepper's sweet taste and long, slow burn is found in a single town.
Drinks
Persimmon Beer
This old American style is being resurrected by Indiana brewers.
Prepared Foods
Sushi Pizza
Sushi chefs in Toronto are just teasing lovers of actual pizza, but with delicious outcomes.
Drinks
Federweisser
Welcome fall in Germany with this fizzy, refreshing young wine and a slice of savory onion tart.
Gastro Obscura
Čarodějnice
Revelers roast wieners and “witches” at this annual Czech festival.
Food Festivals
Ohio Pawpaw Festival
This celebration of the largest edible fruit native to the United States features plenty of “pawpawpular” foods.
Prepared Foods
Klub
This stick-to-your-ribs Scandinavian dumpling is a favorite at Midwestern fundraisers.
Food Festivals
Hebo Matsuri
Every November, wasp-based dishes create quite a buzz in a Japanese village.
Prepared Foods
Pie Barm
Nothing to see here, just a humble pie sandwich.
Sweets
Chicken Bones
This hot-pink sweet treat that bears only a notional resemblance to poultry is a Canadian Christmastime staple.
Prepared Foods
Mexican Hamburger
This Denver specialty, a hybrid of Mexican and American cuisine, is peak comfort food.
Sweets
Khirret
This pollen-based candy comes from the marshes of southern Iraq.
Prepared Foods
Utopenci
These “drowning” pickled sausages may be named for their appearance or their inventor's untimely demise.
Prepared Foods
West Indies Salad
It's actually a crab dish from Alabama's Gulf Coast.
Ingredients & Condiments
Maple Hurricane Sauce
After a hurricane struck New England in 1938, one chef used windfall apples to make a sweet breakfast-topper.
Ingredients & Condiments
Desert Truffles
So strong is Kuwaitis’ love for this seasonal delicacy that an entire market gets set up just for its sale.
Sweets
Turkey Joints
These eerily bone-like candies come with bumpy “joints” of nuts and chocolate “marrow” inside.
Prepared Foods
Madfouna
This Saharan sand-baked fare is nicknamed “Berber pizza.”
Sweets
Marmite de l’Escalade
Smashing this chocolate cauldron is the best part of Geneva’s celebration of a historic battle win.
Sweets
Apple Cheese
This sliceable sweet treat is actually dairy-free.
Prepared Foods
Simit-Pogacha
A carb-lover's dream, this sandwich gets stuffed with flaky pie crust.
Drinks
Lithuanian Acorn Coffee
Ground nuts provide the base for this warm, caffeine-free drink.
Drinks
Black Tot Rum
The rare remaining bottles of the British Navy's rum rations can be yours for $1,000 each.
Prepared Foods
Guberburger
A now-shuttered Missouri drive-in brought local acclaim to patties topped in peanut butter.
Drinks
Banta
This sweet and salty Indian drink keeps an endangered soda bottle in business.
Drinks
Seven-Color Tea
Layers of flavored tea combine to create a drinkable rainbow.
Sweets
Pops' Root Beer Bread Pudding
This Route 66 institution goes the extra mile for soda-based indulgence.
Food Festivals
Kashan Rose Water Festival
Iran’s annual celebration of its signature flower makes this desert region fragrant.
Meats & Animal Products
Çiğ Köfte
Turkish legends trace these raw meatballs to the time of the prophet Abraham.
Sweets
Sour Orange Pie
Floridians baked this tangy treat before key lime took over the state's pie scene.
Sweets
Brioche con Gelato
Some Sicilians start their day with this decadent combination.
Drinks
Širvenos
This Lithuanian brew adds green peas to the malt.
Sweets
Shaker Lemon Pie
In this tangy treat, no part of the citrus is left behind.
Sweets
Glorified Rice
This Midwestern dessert salad draws on both Scandinavian immigrant and local Ojibwe influences.
Meats & Animal Products
Jibachi Senbei
Elderly villagers hunt the digger wasps that stud these Japanese rice crackers.
Sweets
Financiers
These almond cakes resembling gold ingots were sold near the Paris stock exchange.
Sweets
Xuixo
The original Cronut was named after a legendary acrobat's sneeze.
Sweets
Jam Roly-Poly
Once steamed in shirt sleeves and pant legs, this sweet roll took on the nickname “dead man's leg.”
Drinks
Ice Wine
Pressed from frozen grapes, this prized wine was a sweet accident.
Ingredients & Condiments
Canarian Palm “Honey”
On one small island, this golden liquid is both a local delicacy and traditional medicine.
Sweets
Watergate Salad
This salad named after a scandal has been traced back to Kraft and Helen Keller.
Prepared Foods
Buffalo Ribs
In Arkansas, this order will land you a plate of fried fish.
Meats & Animal Products
Kibbeh Nayyeh
This raw meat meze from Lebanon is as fresh as it gets.
Prepared Foods
Fried Onion Burgers
A Depression-era patty filler paved the way for an Oklahoma favorite.
Sweets
Franzbrötchen
Local lore claims that German bakers made these pastries as an act of quiet rebellion during French occupation.
Gastro Obscura
Chap Goh Mei
On the fifteenth night of Chinese New Year, Malaysian singles throw caution to the wind and fruit to the water.
Sweets
Peach Sliders
This sweet sandwich celebrates Georgia's favorite crop.
Prepared Foods
Āsh-e Miveh
A sweet-and-sour fruit soup from Iran makes for a comforting one-pot meal.
Prepared Foods
Fried Cow Brain
Cairo airport officials have seized hundreds of pounds of this smuggle-worthy delicacy.
Drinks
Mint Milk
Every March, Central New York shelves are stocked with glass bottles of green dairy.
Sweets
Fatafat
A complexly flavored post-meal digestive became the candy of choice for Indian children in the 1980s and ’90s.
Sweets
Pitos e Ganchas
This gendered sweet swap practically oozes sexual innuendos.
Meats & Animal Products
Mish
This sharp and salty Egyptian cheese ferments for months in a bath of milk and spices.
Gastro Obscura
Lovespoons
This ancient token of betrothal lives on as a Valentine's Day gift in Wales.
Meats & Animal Products
Trail Bologna
Typically made with pork, bologna gets the all-beef treatment in a tiny Ohio town.
Sweets
Baba de Camelo
In Portugal, a bowl of “camel’s drool” is a sweet treat.
Sweets
Louisiana Russian Cake
Recycling comes to dessert, with delicious outcomes.
Prepared Foods
Bheja Fry
In Hyderabad, vendors sizzle up spicy fried brains.
Prepared Foods
Stuffed Camel Spleen
Giant logs of offal become satisfying street sandwiches in the old city of Fes.
Sweets
Pashmak
This hand-pulled cotton candy treat from Iran looks like threads of unspun silk.
Prepared Foods
Pigeon Pastilla
This sweet-and-savory Moroccan meat pie can be tough to track down.
Prepared Foods
Tanjia
This meat dish slow-cooks in the embers that heat Moroccan bathhouses.
Sweets
Falooda
A 2,500-year-old Persian dessert evolved into this Indian summertime favorite.
Prepared Foods
Yusheng
The higher you toss this fish salad, the luckier your year will be.
Sweets
Plastic Chutney
Don’t be fooled by the name of this Bengali relish.
Prepared Foods
Jjajang Myeon
On April 14, lonely South Korean singles are encouraged to drown their sorrows in black noodles.
Drinks
Loganberry Drink
This dark, sweet refresher was born at a now-defunct amusement park on the shores of Lake Erie.
Prepared Foods
Frog Eye Salad
Don’t worry: This sweet, creamy Mormon potluck staple isn’t actually made of frogs.
Prepared Foods
Ham Salad
This retro sandwich filling was once a convenient, comforting funeral food.
Sweets
Muttamala and Kinnathappam
This two-ingredient Malabari dessert turns separated eggs into a striking delicacy.
Food Festivals
World Nettle Eating Championships
Get ready to feel the burn.
Sweets
Wagashi
These Japanese sweets demonstrate the ephemeral beauty of the seasons.
Food Festivals
RC-MoonPie Festival
Every year, one tiny Tennessee town celebrates this sugary Southern duo.
Sweets
Buchteln
These pull-apart rolls were once baked with lottery tickets in the center.
Sweets
Biscuits Roses de Reims
These pink cookies are destined to be dunked in champagne.
Sweets
Shahi Tukda
This sugar-soaked South Asian sweet isn’t your basic bread pudding.
Ingredients & Condiments
Warq
This edible silver garnish has long added bling to South Asian cuisine.
Prepared Foods
Dorilocos
At last, a street snack that brings together Doritos, veggies, pickled pig skin, and gummies.
Food Festivals
What the Fluff? Festival
The marshmallow spread's birthplace offers a quirky tribute to the sweet-sticky stuff.
Drinks
Prickly Pear Liqueur
This jewel-toned Sicilian and Maltese specialty is so sweet, it’s hard to believe it comes from a spiky cactus.
Gastro Obscura
Flora-Bama Mullet Toss
Every April, contestants fling a dead fish over the Florida-Alabama state line for charity.
Sweets
Pączki
These Polish pre-Lent doughnuts have taken on a life (and an eating contest) of their own in the United States.
Prepared Foods
Black Peas
No Bonfire Night is complete without a cup of this warm, vinegar-flavored snack.
Prepared Foods
Uierboord
Cow udder is enjoying a resurgence as a sandwich filler in Rotterdam.
Drinks
Chocolate Tea
Neither tea nor hot chocolate, this Caribbean cocoa drink is in a league of its own.
Drinks
Leidse Koffie
A distillery's abandoned barrels of cinnamon liqueur led to this new Dutch tradition.
Prepared Foods
Ketchup Chips
This Canadian favorite is relatively unknown elsewhere.
Sweets
Onam Sadhya
Celebrate the harvest and the return of a beloved mythical king with this 26-dish Malayali feast.
Gastro Obscura
OnDo Giant Noodle Sculpture
In Auckland's Mount Eden neighborhood, giant chopsticks lift noodles from the sidewalk.
Meats & Animal Products
Cherni Vit Green Cheese
A small village in Bulgaria is working to revive its nearly extinct moldy cheese.
Sweets
Kvikk Lunsj
The candy is huge with Norwegian hikers and skiers.
Prepared Foods
Dancing Shrimp
Thai street vendors serve this spicy seafood while it's still moving.
Fruits & Vegetables
Pequi
You can only nibble on this citrusy-cheesy fruit or risk a mouthful of spikes.
Sweets
Khapse
On Tibetan New Year, deep-fried cookies take the form of auspicious symbols and festive snacks.
Drinks
Hriatô
Slovakian winters call for a honey-and-bacon hot brandy cocktail.
Drinks
Kofola
The sweet-and-sour soda almost disappeared with the collapse of communist rule in then-Czechoslovakia.
Prepared Foods
Cornish Pasty
In the 19th century, tin miners ate these handheld pies and left their crusts to appease mischievous, mine-dwelling spirits.
Sweets
Bakewell Pudding
A sweet and sticky accident from Derbyshire, England.
Sweets
Ingberlach
Grandmas fashion this near-forgotten Passover treat from ginger and honey.
Prepared Foods
Rolex
Say “roll eggs” super fast in Uganda and you'll receive something far tastier than a luxury watch.
Sweets
Lampreia de Ovos
With this egg-based Christmas dessert, Portuguese pastelarias celebrate a bloodsucking fish.
Sweets
Peppermint Pig
Smashing this pink candy pig with a tiny hammer is a Christmas tradition in Saratoga Springs.
Prepared Foods
Gray Peas with Bacon and Onions
Finish all your Latvian peas for good luck in the New Year.
Sweets
Christmas Risengrød
This Danish rice pudding appeases wicked elves.
Prepared Foods
Pan de Jamón
In Venezuela, traditional Christmas bread marries ham, raisins, and olives.
Prepared Foods
Christmas Eve Carp
Some families keep their holiday meal fresh by letting it live in their bathtub.
Sweets
Puto Bumbong
During Christmastime in the Philippines, purple reigns with this colorful sticky rice snack.
Sweets
Christmas Cake and Cheese
In Yorkshire, the holidays usher in this salty-sweet combo.
Sweets
Castagne del Prete
To do Christmas right, Italians turn to heavenly chestnuts.
Prepared Foods
Drob de Miel
This haggis-meatloaf mashup is a Romanian Easter classic.
Sweets
The Persian
A Thunder Bay bakery misnamed this berry-frosted cinnamon bun after General John Pershing.
Sweets
Singapore Ice Cream Sandwich
Take the name of this street treat literally.
Sweets
Kohuke
Chocolate-covered cheese curds make sweet Estonian energy bars.
Prepared Foods
Pettuleipä
Scandinavia has a long history of stretching flour supplies with tree bark.
Drinks
Cheese Tea
Bitter, sweet, and salty collide in this cool Taiwanese treat.
Sweets
Luk Chup
Portuguese traders' love of marzipan paved the way for Thailand's vibrant mung bean candy.
Sweets
Eton Mess
This summery parfait has mingled with British royals and literary elites.
Drinks
Pasita
A small cantina is home to a sweet-and-salty shot of raisin liqueur with a cheese cube chaser.
Drinks
Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale
Birmingham's sinus-clearing soda was a popular way to enhance bootlegged hooch during Prohibition.
Sweets
Lemon Stick
This taste bud befuddler is a signature Baltimore sweet.
Sweets
Ozark Pudding
Bess Truman made this dessert for Winston Churchill after his “Iron Curtain” speech.
Sweets
Pickle Pie
A motel restaurant in a tiny Utah town bakes this sweet and sour treat.
Prepared Foods
Cou Cou and Flying Fish
When half of Barbados’s national dish migrated across maritime borders, drama ensued.
Ingredients & Condiments
Hartshorn
Deer antlers were once essential to light and fluffy baking.
Prepared Foods
Scouse
A sailor's stew that's come to define Liverpudlians.
Drinks
Rompope
Not even the 17th-century nuns behind this Mexican eggnog could resist drinking it.
Sweets
Smearcase
A few Baltimore bakeries still serve this cheesecake named after 19th-century cottage cheese.
Gastro Obscura
Feast of the Seven Fishes
For Italian-Americans, Christmas Eve is all about the seafood.
Sweets
Lussekatter
These saffron buns are eaten on Lucia Day in Sweden.
Sweets
Southern Butter Rolls
The sweet, spiraled pastries were once a staple on cold days in the American South.
Prepared Foods
Cancoillotte
This decadent cheese has frugal roots.
Prepared Foods
Khasi Ko Bhutan
Nepal's autumn festival season means crispy, stir-fried intestines for dinner.
Prepared Foods
İşkembe Çorbası
In Turkey, drinkers head off hangovers with creamy tripe soup.
Sweets
Springerle
These Bavarian cookies are also intricate works of art.
Prepared Foods
Gyuma
In Tibet, blood sausage is the byproduct of bloodletting yaks for healing purposes.
Prepared Foods
Tuslob Buwa
On the streets of Cebu City, strangers share bubbling woks of pork brain gravy.
Drinks
Blenheim Ginger Ale
The story of South Carolina's sweet-hot soda begins with a chance discovery during the Revolutionary War.
Gastro Obscura
Pee-Pee Boy
China's favorite urinating “tea pet” is actually a thermometer.
Food Festivals
Giant Paella
Outdoor festivals in Valencia call for traditional fare made in gargantuan pans.
Sweets
Pepernoten
Every December, Sinterklaas and his helper throw these little spiced cookies to Dutch children.
Gastro Obscura
Matcha Chasen
To make the perfect matcha, start with the perfect whisk.
Fruits & Vegetables
Strawberry Tree Fruit
The lychee-looking fruit appears in everything from jam and liqueur to the Aeneid and Madrid's flag.
Gastro Obscura
Corn Knives
Early American settlers invented new tools to harvest a new crop.
Prepared Foods
Gerber Sandwich
The St. Louis creation earned the "best use of the worst cheese" award.
Sweets
Bhatsa Marku
In Tibet, sweet mac and yak cheese makes a hearty dessert.
Sweets
Mari Lwyd
In Wales, midwinter is the right time to look a gift horse in its gaping skull-mouth.
Sweets
Paparajotes
Impress Murcianos by correctly eating these fried lemon leaves.
Gastro Obscura
Monkey Buffet Festival
The annual feast invites local macaques to dine on towers of fruit and vegetables among the ruins of a 13th-century temple.
Fruits & Vegetables
Finger Lime
Slice one open for some citrus caviar.
Prepared Foods
The Slinger
Satisfy your midnight munchies with this Franken-feast out of St. Louis, Missouri.
Sweets
Persian Ice Cream Sandwich
Saffron, rose water, and pistachios combine in a fragrant, sweet-savory treat.
Sweets
Cranachan
A now-archaic Scottish breakfast paved the way for this popular dessert.
Gastro Obscura
Butter Molds
These intricate stamps are relics from a time when dairy farmers beautifully branded their products.
Prepared Foods
Shivit Oshi
Once an important Silk Road stop, a fortified Uzbek city specializes in bright green noodles.
Sweets
Graffe
During Carnival, Neapolitans fill up on these fluffy potato doughnuts.
Drinks
Boost!
South Jersey's signature syrup has been flavoring sodas and shakes for more than a century.
Prepared Foods
Dill Pickle Pizza
This is one seriously polarizing pie.
Sweets
Russian Napoleon Cake
This traditional dessert commemorates the country's sweet taste of victory over the French emperor in 1812.
Prepared Foods
Fresh Duck Blood Salad
In this Laotian specialty, a medley of herbs, chilis, and peanuts swims in a sanguine dressing.
Drinks
Apple Beer
Utah's favorite nonalcoholic beer got its start more than a century ago as a German brew.
Sweets
Bebinca
Goa's signature baked pudding cake is multicultural and multilayered.
Gastro Obscura
The Christmas Pickle
The holiday tradition of hiding an ornamental veggie.
Meats & Animal Products
Crowdie
This ancient, spreadable cheese is disappearing from Scottish cuisine.
Prepared Foods
Dorset Knobs
Only one bakery still makes these hard biscuits that were once beloved by Thomas Hardy.
Sweets
Mozartkugel
Like the famed composer himself, this Mozart-homage bonbon originated in Salzburg, Austria.
Drinks
Julmust
This Swedish holiday soda outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas season.
Sweets
Joe Froggers
The legend of these rum-and-molasses cookies leads to a New England tavern owned by a Black Revolutionary War veteran.
Sweets
Eight Treasure Rice Pudding
The treasures are colorful fruits and nuts.
Prepared Foods
Lancashire Hotpot
This “hodgepodge” of affordable ingredients fueled local laborers during the Industrial Revolution.
Drinks
Skal
Meet Japan's first milk soda.
Fruits & Vegetables
Taro Stems
These absorbent stalks make perfect flavor sponges in Vietnamese cuisine.
Sweets
Malasadas
These Portuguese doughnuts have a fervent fanbase in Hawaii.
Gastro Obscura
Tinder Fungus
One of the earliest fire-starting “technologies.”
Gastro Obscura
Mojie Apples
Orchardists use sticky stencils and the power of the sun to turn apples into art.
Drinks
Soylent
One fantasy food's journey from sci-fi vegan steak to silver screen cannibalism to actual meal replacement.
Drinks
Bene’n’hot
Thanks to World War I veterans, a French liqueur has become the toast of a Lancashire town.
Sweets
Nan-e Nokhodchi
Thank garbanzo beans for the melt-in-your-mouth texture of these Persian cookies.
Drinks
Tulip Vodka
Flower bulbs are the main ingredient of this quintessentially Dutch spirit.
Prepared Foods
Trump Sandwich
In the wake of the 2016 American presidential election, political satire entered the local deli.
Gastro Obscura
Guksi
These beautiful wooden cups are traditionally carved from birch tree burls.
Gastro Obscura
Święconka
This Polish Easter tradition artfully assembles symbolic foods, from bread to lamb-shaped butter.
Prepared Foods
Ginabot
Deep-fried pork intestines make a crispy, salty snack on the streets of Cebu City.
Prepared Foods
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
Historians debate whether this dish actually originated with Italian sex workers.
Sweets
Struffoli
These Neapolitan Christmas sweets double as decorations.
Ingredients & Condiments
XO Sauce
This savory seafood condiment is named after the finest cognacs.
Drinks
Kaffeost
In northern Scandinavia, cups of coffee get enhanced with cheese.
Prepared Foods
Poutine Râpée
Not all poutine comes with cheese curds and gravy.
Drinks
Café Touba
In Senegal, black coffee meets sugar ’n’ spice in one heady brew.
Sweets
Sfogliatella
This layered pastry from Italy's Amalfi Coast may have origins in a 17th-century convent.
Prepared Foods
Juustoleipä
Finns treat this rich, baked cheese like bread.
Prepared Foods
Pihtije
Serbians prepare these cold, jellied pork cubes for even colder winters.
Gastro Obscura
Butter Cows
These dairy-based sculptures have been state fair traditions for more than a century.
Ingredients & Condiments
Yete
Senegal's national dish is incomplete without these fermented sea snails.
Gastro Obscura
Cake Pull
At some New Orleans weddings, bridesmaids predict their futures with these hidden charms.
Prepared Foods
Canned Dashimaki
These sweet and savory Japanese rolled eggs are sold in 6-packs.
Prepared Foods
Ambuyat
This gooey, starchy gel is Brunei's favorite flavor vehicle.
Sweets
Motiv Zuckerl
These detailed, dainty confections are made by hand with minimal tools.
Drinks
Scrumpy
This rustic cider's name derives from an English term for fruit thievery.
Gastro Obscura
Burying Bourbon
In the American South, some believe it deters rain on one's wedding day.
Ingredients & Condiments
Djon-Djon
The Haitian mushroom transforms rice into an inky, earthy delicacy.
Drinks
Scandinavian Egg Coffee
When faced with less-than-optimal ingredients, Swedes and Norwegians once clarified their brews with eggs.
Fruits & Vegetables
Banana Passionfruit
This tangy fruit flavors everything from ice cream to cocktails.
Drinks
Barraquito
This Canary Islands' specialty upgrades coffee with layers of condensed milk and liqueur.
Drinks
Vernors Ginger Soda
The Detroit favorite is one of the oldest sodas in the United States.
Fruits & Vegetables
Api Etoile Apple
This star-shaped fruit has been beloved for centuries.
Sweets
Marabou M Peanut
These chocolate-covered peanuts got M&M's banned in Sweden.
Meats & Animal Products
Basashi
The Japanese city of Kumamoto specializes in “cherry blossom meat.”
Ingredients & Condiments
Horlicks Malted Milk
This powder proved essential to Arctic exploration, war, and the ice cream parlor.
Prepared Foods
Kacang Pool
A “pool of beans” makes a hearty breakfast in Johor, Malaysia.
Drinks
Ammoniated Coca-Cola
Coke spiked with aromatic spirits of ammonia was once used to treat everything from hangovers to indigestion.
Sweets
Coffee Crisp
This candy rarely ventures beyond Canada's borders.
Meats & Animal Products
Shirouo no Odorigui
These live fish are said to "dance" down diners' throats.
Fruits & Vegetables
Yangmei
It's nicknamed “yumberry” for a reason.
Sweets
Dulce de Leche Cortada
This sweet, caramelized dessert comes from curdled milk.
Prepared Foods
Duck Blood and Vermicelli Soup
Congealed and sliced, the ferric addition is known for its purported health benefits.
Prepared Foods
Lancashire Butter Pie
The rich, potato-filled dish nourished Catholics on meatless Fridays.
Sweets
Persimmon Pudding
One southern Indiana town cooks up this unique, time-honored dessert every September.
Prepared Foods
Bonac Clam Pie
Long Island's rich history of clamming is packed inside a creamy, sea-scented pie.
Prepared Foods
Butelo e Casulas
Before Lent, residents of Trás-os-Montes indulge in a pairing of stuffed pork stomach and bean pods.
Prepared Foods
Papas Arrugadas
These salty potatoes were originally boiled in seawater.
Gastro Obscura
Trashing
For some students at the University of Oxford, the end of the year means getting covered with eggs, shaving cream, and champagne.
Prepared Foods
Grilled Bee Honeycomb With Larvae
The Laotian street food is mildly sweet and surprisingly juicy.
Prepared Foods
Moroccan Snails
The fragrant, intricately spiced street food is a medina specialty.
Ingredients & Condiments
Chocolate Gravy
Sweet sauce tops off buttermilk biscuits in the Appalachian and Ozark mountains.
Food Festivals
Guimaras Mango Festival
Themed buffets, parades, performances, and competitions dominate this Philippines island every May.
Ingredients & Condiments
Jezebel Sauce
Cooks in the Southern United States still whip up this spicy, seductively sweet condiment from the 1950s.
Gastro Obscura
Cojones de Caballo
Belizeans use this bulbous fruit to kill mosquito-borne parasites.
Sweets
Antwerp Chocolate Hands
These sweet hands come with stories of triumph and brutality.
Gastro Obscura
Tibetan Buddhist Butter Sculptures
Monks make this stunning, ephemeral art from yak butter and mineral pigments.
Fruits & Vegetables
Cherimoya
Growing this sweet, tropical fruit sometimes requires careful hand-pollination with a paint brush.
Drinks
Stroopwafel Liqueur
The Netherlands' most famous treat now comes in a bottle.
Food Festivals
Krobo Millet Festival
This harvest celebration culminates in a procession of drummers, palanquin-riding leaders, and vibrant colors.
Prepared Foods
Peanut Butter & Mayonnaise Sandwich
Now largely forgotten, the pairing was once as popular as PB&J.
Sweets
Mocadorá
Every autumn, Valencians celebrate their love by giving handkerchiefs filled with decorated marzipan treats.
Prepared Foods
Kars Goose With Bulgur Wheat
In Northeast Turkey, one special bird makes a cultural and culinary centerpiece.
Drinks
Black Habit Ale
Benedictine monks in Oregon brew and serve this dark, heady beer.
Prepared Foods
Fujisan Bread
Worlds collide in this braided bread that tastes like brioche and is meant to look like Mount Fuji.
Sweets
Tocinillo de Cielo
This heavenly custard was born from the leftovers of sherry winemaking.
Ingredients & Condiments
Long Pepper
This once-common spice is now almost completely unknown outside India.
Prepared Foods
Qarta
This simple dish of boiled horse intestine is prized for its unique and layered texture.
Gastro Obscura
Pachamanca
In Peru, layers of potatoes, meat, and sweets are steamed in a pit filled with volcanic rocks.
Drinks
Mavrud Wine
This ruby, tannic style is little-known outside its native Bulgaria.
Sweets
Anthill Cake
This beloved Russian dessert is the brainchild of Soviet-era housewives with meat grinders.
Sweets
Marzipan Easter Lamb
This sweet symbolic figurine is a Sicilian holiday tradition.
Sweets
Salzburger Nockerl
This dessert pays tribute to the snow-covered mountains surrounding Salzburg.
Sweets
Anis de Flavigny
Once made by monks, this candy spends 15 days rolling in sugar syrup to get its pearly-white shell.
Gastro Obscura
Koi-Koi Matsuri
A town harvest festival with a giant miso soup bowl.
Drinks
Licor Valvanera
This herbal liqueur is produced by a Benedictine monastery in the Spanish wine region of La Rioja.
Prepared Foods
The Horseshoe
The original “nails” have disappeared from this cheese-smothered, horseshoe-shaped ham dish.
Prepared Foods
Goma Dofu
This tofu alternative replaces soybeans with sesame and kudzu.
Prepared Foods
Spiedies
Binghamton celebrates its sandwich of marinated meat cubes at a yearly hot air balloon festival.
Gastro Obscura
Hāngi
Preparing a traditional Māori feast requires a rock pit heated by fire or hot springs.
Prepared Foods
Causa
Peru's strikingly beautiful mashed potato casserole.
Drinks
Prickly Pear Vodka
This small-batch spirit is distilled from cactus fruit.
Sweets
Trenary Toast
Finnish immigrants brought these crunchy, cinnamon-coated slices to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Drinks
Biska
One of the smallest cities in the world specializes in mistletoe brandy.
Ingredients & Condiments
Tempoyak
Fermenting raw durian is a better idea than you thought.
Drinks
Pu'er
Devoted fans pay thousands for bricks of this fermented tea.
Gastro Obscura
Doing a Vermouth
In Catalonia, the fortified wine has its own weekend ritual.
Drinks
Postum
This wheat-based coffee alternative has a cult following.
Fruits & Vegetables
Chapaya
This palm fruit has a surprisingly meaty flavor.
Prepared Foods
Pizza Montanara
Its deep-fried crust is part of a longstanding Neapolitan tradition.
Prepared Foods
Pork Skin Braciole
This old-school Italian dish comes in a rich and savory wrapper.
Meats & Animal Products
Yak Cheese
From hulking plains creatures comes a delicate, nutty cheese.
Drinks
Feuerzangenbowle
Nothing says “happy holidays” quite like mulled wine and a flaming, rum-soaked sugar loaf.
Prepared Foods
Smörgåstårta
Meet Sweden's savory “sandwich cake.”
Ingredients & Condiments
Stink Beans
These Southeast Asian legumes are famed for their lasting funk and deliciously nutty flavor.
Gastro Obscura
Port Tongs
Sabering champagne doesn’t hold a candle to this method of cracking open wine bottles with red-hot iron.
Gastro Obscura
Butter Lamps
In Tibetan temples, yak butter burns day and night.
Ingredients & Condiments
Luxardo Maraschino Cherries
Real maraschinos were born more than a century ago in an Italian distillery.
Gastro Obscura
Puzzle Jugs
These tricky pitchers turned pouring into a complex drinking game.
Food Festivals
Bau Nyale
Worm-catching and love come together at this Indonesian harvest and courtship festival.
Gastro Obscura
Shojin Ryori
Japan's traditional temple cuisine features meals that are nutritionally and visually balanced.
Sweets
New York Charlotte Russe
The dainty, cream-filled specialty is on the brink of extinction.
Drinks
Pinch 'n' Sip
At a subterranean Edinburgh bar, drinkers can assemble their cocktails via kitschy claw machine.
Prepared Foods
Bolo Lêvedo
Portugal's volcanic archipelago is home to addictively sweet and chewy muffins.
Drinks
Clairin
Small Haitian distilleries are producing some of the purest rum in the world.
Prepared Foods
Moose Tongue
A Lapland delicacy, this tender meat gets drizzled in sweet lingonberry syrup.
Drinks
Vinho dos Mortos
Facing invasion, the small town of Boticas buried their bottles and gave birth to a unique style of wine.
Prepared Foods
Pizza Fritta
Folding and deep-frying pies is a beloved Neapolitan tradition.
Meats & Animal Products
Tête de Moine
"Monk's Head" cheese requires a special shaver.
Drinks
Sturm
Fizzy, fruity, and still fermenting, this almost-wine is a celebrated part of Austria's harvest season.
Gastro Obscura
Mobile Bay Jubilees
In this summer phenomenon, fish swarm Alabama shores and waterfront residents scoop up the bounty.
Ingredients & Condiments
Zunda
Flavoring everything from dumplings to mochi, this sweet and salty paste shows another side to edamame.
Prepared Foods
Kuih Pai Tee
Tip your hat to whoever created this fashionable vegetable-and-spice-filled pastry.
Gastro Obscura
Pebersvend
The way to celebrate unmarried Danes’ 25th and 30th birthdays is to attack them with spices.
Prepared Foods
Syracuse Salt Potatoes
Even a local sports team pays homage to these white-crusted, savory spuds.
Drinks
Pox
This ceremonial Mayan brew has evolved into a sweet, smoky spirit in the Chiapas highlands.
Drinks
Cemetery Cider
Each batch begins with an apple tree overlooking Samuel Morse's grave.
Prepared Foods
Kak'ik
The ancestral soup of the Q’eqchi’ Maya packs heat and history.
Prepared Foods
Gibnut
A “royal rat” that's fit for a queen.
Gastro Obscura
Kagemand
At Danish birthday parties, you can have your cake and decapitate it, too.
Prepared Foods
Karelian Pie
Though its home region has been split by war, love for this hearty pastry transcends borders.
Prepared Foods
Ciorbă de Burtă
The secret to Romania's hangover-busting soup is tripe.
Drinks
Strasbourg Hospital Wines
You can still drink riesling and pinot noir from this medieval cellar.
Drinks
Russian Tea
This Southern church group favorite isn't Slavic at all.
Fruits & Vegetables
Bastard Oleaster
Northeast Indian markets sell this glittery, sour fruit in bags with salt chasers.
Ingredients & Condiments
Akabanga Chili Oil
The Rwandan condiment is so spicy, it's served with eyedroppers.
Food Festivals
Feast of the Hunters' Moon
The autumn event re-creates meals shared by French settlers and Native Americans at an 18th-century fort.
Drinks
Gunpowder Rum
A spirit that toasts a time when proofing your liquor meant setting it aflame.
Drinks
Samichlaus
This lager, once considered the strongest beer in the world, is brewed only on Saint Nicholas's Day.
Sweets
Bánh Pía
This mooncake's flaky exterior gives way to a creamy, sometimes stinky, core.
Ingredients & Condiments
Pasilla Mixe
This rare, smoky chile grows only in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca.
Prepared Foods
Kaleh Pacheh
This savory “head and hooves” soup makes a hearty breakfast in Iran.
Sweets
Bled Cream Cake
The decadent pastry almost outshines the Slovenian lake it's named for.
Drinks
Inca Trail Snake Liquor
In the Peruvian jungle, some families still make this homemade spirit.
Prepared Foods
Sugar Toad
Chefs carefully detoxify this East Coast pufferfish to create sweet, fried “chicken wings of the sea.”
Drinks
Canelazo
A sweet, warm cocktail to chase away the chill of Andean nights.
Drinks
Tchoukoutou
In Togolese markets, locals socialize over gourds of this sweet-and-sour sorghum beer.
Ingredients & Condiments
Beach Plum Jelly
This tangy East Coast spread is becoming increasingly hard to find.
Sweets
Yorkshire Parkin
On November 5, the British celebrate a thwarted assassination attempt with bonfires and deliciously dense, sticky gingerbread.
Prepared Foods
Mykyrokka
Blood-and-barley dumplings give this Finnish soup its iconic texture.
Drinks
Tokaji Eszencia
A wine so luxuriously sweet, it's consumed by the spoonful.
Prepared Foods
Smoked Reindeer Heart
The delicacy makes a rich, gamey appetizer in northern Sweden.
Sweets
Biscuits With Mice
After the birth of a child, Dutch families celebrate with a sweet and colorful treat.
Drinks
Chateau Jiahu
This modern adaptation of a 9,000-year-old brew combines elements of beer, wine, and mead.
Drinks
Lifeguard
This Japanese energy drink contains a controversial bee secretion.
Food Festivals
World Oyster Opening Championship
Welcome to the olympics of oyster shucking.
Gastro Obscura
The Puffing Gun
Many popular cereals exploded out of its chamber and into existence.
Prepared Foods
Whole Roasted Camel
Typically reserved for special occasions, the massive meal can be bought for a hefty sum at restaurants in Qatar.
Meats & Animal Products
Pacific Razor Clams
It takes patience and skill to harvest these delicious bivalves.
Drinks
Dung-Smoked IPA
The Icelandic brew is made with malts smoked over burning sheep dung.
Drinks
Marula Beer
In South Africa, women transform a tart fruit into a celebrated sour brew.
Meats & Animal Products
Hasma
This pricey dessert is made from frogs' fallopian tubes.
Ingredients & Condiments
Nam Prik Mang Da
Pounded water beetles are this spicy condiment's main ingredient.
Meats & Animal Products
Kalvdans
A rare, rich pudding made from the milk of a cow who's just given birth.
Drinks
Cemetery Wine
Bishop's Vineyard makes its products from grapes grown in California graveyards.
Drinks
Bakeapple Gin
A Canadian spirit made with Newfoundland's beloved berry.
Sweets
Ovos Moles de Aveiro
These seashell-shaped, yolk-filled candies are a symbol of Portugal's canal-lined city.
Gastro Obscura
Thorláksmessa
To honor Iceland's patron saint, feast on fermented skate.
Drinks
Grisette
Make like a 19th-century Belgian miner and cool off with this refreshing ale.
Gastro Obscura
Pongala
This annual offering involves four million women, one goddess, and incredible quantities of rice pudding.
Gastro Obscura
Pennsylvania Pretzel Art
In Langhorne, Pennsylvania, two brothers decided to take their doughy creations to the next level.
Sweets
St. Martin's Croissant
Bakers fold this Polish pastry 81 times into the shape of a horseshoe.
Prepared Foods
Emping
These beloved Indonesian chips are actually flattened, fried seeds.
Gastro Obscura
Bolludagur
On this holiday, Icelandic children earn cream buns by spanking their parents.
Prepared Foods
Sad Jelly Noodles
This spicy street food has a reputation for making people cry.
Prepared Foods
Khash
In Armenia, hangovers call for a hearty soup of boiled cow hooves.
Sweets
Bao Bing
This sweet treat has been cool for more than 1,000 years.
Prepared Foods
Edible Dormouse
A beloved dish in ancient Rome, these rodents are now grilled or stewed in select Croatian and Slovenian restaurants.
Drinks
Seaweed Gin
The essence of Canada's eastern coastline, distilled.
Gastro Obscura
Sharkskin Wasabi Grater
Traditional sushi chefs produce optimal condiments with this ancient tool.
Ingredients & Condiments
Honey Dill Sauce
A taste of home for Manitobans.
Meats & Animal Products
Trứng Vịt Lộn
In Vietnam, there are multiple ways to enjoy fertilized duck eggs.
Prepared Foods
Tebasaki Gyoza
Proof that dumplings and chicken wings are not mutually exclusive categories.
Prepared Foods
Piki Bread
This ultra-thin blue corn delicacy is traditionally eaten at Hopi weddings.
Prepared Foods
Faggots
There's much more to these offal-based meatballs than the unfortunate double meaning of their name.
Prepared Foods
Hangikjöt
With no trees left to burn, Icelanders turned to sheep dung for meat-smoking.
Prepared Foods
Moelas
In homestyle Portuguese restaurants known as tascas, savory stewed chicken gizzards are a flavorful favorite.
Prepared Foods
Flæskesteg Sandwich
The key to this colorful holiday sandwich is extra-crispy pork skin.
Food Festivals
Thorrablot
This midwinter food festival honors Iceland's pagan history.
Ingredients & Condiments
Real Wasabi
Most sushi fans have never tried this rare rhizome.
Drinks
Fresh Hop Beer
These seasonal brews gets made with an ephemeral ingredient.
Prepared Foods
Lángos
This Hungarian fried dough can make a rich breakfast or trusty hangover cure.
Drinks
Gazoz
A bit of the past bubbles up in Israel's reinvention of its classic summer sipper.
Gastro Obscura
The Boston Stabber
This praised oyster shucker is as elegant as it is dangerous.
Drinks
Camino de Santiago Wine Fountain
Pilgrims trekking across Spain can stop for free wine at the Monasterio de Irache.
Drinks
Salmiakki Koskenkorva
This Finnish licorice liqueur is as black as ink and as salty as seawater.
Drinks
Posset
Consisting of spiced, curdled milk and lots of alcohol, this boozy bedtime drink dates back to the Middle Ages.
Drinks
Kvass
You can find authentic versions of this sour Slavic brew at street stalls and monasteries.
Food Festivals
Festa des Vermar
On the island of Mallorca, locals celebrate their viticulture with parades, grape-stomping contests, and a massive fruit fight.
Drinks
Venom Sotol
Northern Mexico's lesser-known spirit gets a snake-based infusion.
Prepared Foods
Fried Beer
A crispy creation that lets you bite into your brew.
Drinks
Iceberg Beer
A Newfoundland brewery makes beer from glaciers that float along the shore.
Sweets
Maple Creemee
Vermont's version of soft serve celebrates their local dairy and maple industries.
Sweets
Amarula Brigadeiro
Pair a Brazilian confection with a sweet South African liqueur, and a unique treat is born.
Drinks
Beaujolais Nouveau
When the clock strikes midnight on the third Thursday of November, fans gather to celebrate the release of this fresh, fruity wine.
Drinks
Rauchbier
Only a few breweries still make smoky beer in this classic German style.
Ingredients & Condiments
Garum
In ancient Rome, this fermented fish sauce sparked a booming industry.
Fruits & Vegetables
Cholla Buds
Beneath a layer of spines, this cactus sprouts asparagus-flavored buds.
Gastro Obscura
Louisiana Egg Knocking
In small towns across the state, an Easter tradition becomes a competitive sport.
Sweets
Pão de Ló de Ovar
A cake so gooey, it requires a spoon.
Drinks
Vimto
This British temperance tonic is now a Ramadan favorite.
Prepared Foods
Japanese Navy Curry
This curry celebrates Japan's maritime history.
Prepared Foods
Harðfiskur
The pungent, wind-dried white fish is a traditional Icelandic food.
Drinks
Tomato Wine
Who said vineyards have to grow grapes?
Prepared Foods
Chili Bomb
Both a noun and an action, chili-bombing loads a pizza with tater tots, chili, and Cheez Whiz.
Prepared Foods
Hot Horse Burger
A popular Slovenian fast-food joint doesn't specialize in beef.
Drinks
Meteorite Wine at Tagua Tagua Observatory
This Cabernet Sauvignon is out of this world.
Fruits & Vegetables
Licorice Root
The washed and dried root of the licorice plant was once a popular natural “candy.”
Drinks
Jólaöl
It's not Icelandic Christmas without two sodas in one cup.
Prepared Foods
Shuzhuk
Once a delicacy limited to the wealthy, smoked horse meat sausage is now a centerpiece at many Kazakh feasts.
Prepared Foods
Smoked Puffin
This controversial meat is ingrained in ancient Nordic culture.
Sweets
Deep-Fried Jelly Beans
At the Big E, fairgoers can try guessing their candy's flavors through funnel cake fluff.
Ingredients & Condiments
Camp Coffee
Invented in Scotland in the late 1800s, this syrupy “instant coffee” is now a beloved baking ingredient.
Drinks
Brennivín
Anyone for a shot of “Black Death”?
Prepared Foods
Mechoui
In this Moroccan street specialty, whole-roasted lamb is cooked in underground clay pits and sold by weight.
Sweets
Fruit Sando
Fresh fruit is the main feature of this sweet sandwich.
Drinks
Vermont Gold Vodka
Soften the chill of Northeastern winters with a spirit distilled from local maple sap.
Prepared Foods
Moroccan Camel Burgers
Journey into the Marrakesh Kasbah to find this lean, slightly sweet favorite.
Gastro Obscura
Feeding Crows for the Shradh
In this Hindu ritual, families feed crows who represent deceased relatives.
Drinks
Rivesaltes
This French fortified wine is left outside for a year, aging amid rain and swinging temperatures.
Drinks
Amarula Cream Liqueur
A sweet and nutty liqueur made with the fruit of the "elephant tree."
Gastro Obscura
Courir de Mardi Gras
A Cajun tradition that combines costumes, gumbo, and chasing chickens.
Prepared Foods
Saezuri
In Japan, whale tongue is a disappearing delicacy.
Food Festivals
Whitstable Oyster Festival
Every July, a seaside town pays homage to its local mollusks with eating contests, a marine-themed parade, and plenty of fresh seafood.
Prepared Foods
Fried Chicken Gizzards
These muscular organs are a crispy, chewy Southern favorite.
Sweets
Ghost Pepper Ice Cream
In Rehoboth Beach, you need a signed waiver to satisfy your sweet tooth with this fiery dessert.
Prepared Foods
Jucy Lucy
This beef patty oozes cheese from within.
Gastro Obscura
Cucumber Straightener
Victorians used this glass tube to keep their cukes from curling.
Gastro Obscura
Amezaiku
This gorgeous sugar art is making a comeback.
Sweets
Bug Eater's Delight
Scorpions, mealworms, and crickets mingle with rainbow sprinkles on the Peculiarium's famous sundae.
Sweets
Mashed Potato-Filled Walnut Cakes
Korean hodu kwaja is normally stuffed with red bean paste, but one bakery in Toronto slips in a delicious surprise.
Prepared Foods
Detroit-Style Coney Dog Pizza
A greasy crossroads of history and culture.
Drinks
Blue Wine
Recently introduced to France, it's the color of pool water.
Gastro Obscura
Entierro de la Sardina
Murcians celebrate the end of Lenten fasting by burning a giant papier-mâché sardine.
Food Festivals
Pontefract Liquorice Festival
At this annual event, the bitter sweet enhances everything from sausages to pies to clothing.
Gastro Obscura
Selfish Samovar
This device bucks the Russian tradition of sharing a cup of tea and makes just enough hot water for one person.
Drinks
Sweet Potato Fly
Fermenting tubers with spices, eggshells, and sugar creates a fizzy, wassail-flavored drink.
Prepared Foods
Khorkhog
The true Mongolian barbecue.
Gastro Obscura
Materas
These purses help Uruguayans drink mate anytime, anywhere.
Drinks
Rabarbaro
Chinese rhubarb imparts an organic smoky aroma to this Italian amaro.
Prepared Foods
Birmingham Balti
Once ubiquitous throughout the city, shops serving this unique Pakistani curry are disappearing.
Prepared Foods
Smørrebrød
Denmark's open-faced sandwiches are equal parts decadent and decorative.
Drinks
Steam Beer
The unique style born out of the California Gold Rush blends the crispness of a lager with the flavor of an ale.
Drinks
Ranovola
When life gives you burnt rice, make tea.
Prepared Foods
Kapsalon
This melting-pot munchie combines fries, shawarma, melted cheese, garlic sauce, and spicy sambal.
Ingredients & Condiments
Iceberg Ice
In Newfoundland, the icebergs that float along the coast may end up in your cocktail.
Sweets
Capezzoli di Venere
A decadent dessert whose Italian name translates to “nipples of Venus.”
Sweets
Chocolate Letters
In this Dutch holiday tradition, Sinterklaas leaves good children sweet pieces of the alphabet inside their shoes.
Sweets
Clear Toy Candy
A Victorian favorite is hanging on in Pennsylvania.
Ingredients & Condiments
Kentucky Beer Cheese
A match made in heaven (and also Kentucky).
Food Festivals
Golden Spurtle
At this Scottish porridge-making competition, contestants vie to be the champions of breakfast.
Food Festivals
Batalla del Vino
Goggles are a good idea at this wine-slinging battle.
Food Festivals
World Champion Squirrel Cook-Off
An ardent celebration of a humble source of protein.
Meats & Animal Products
Picoroco
These giant, volcano-shaped barnacles house sweet, crablike meat.
Drinks
Żubrówka
The same grass that feeds massive European bison adds notes of vanilla and lavender to this unique Polish vodka.
Gastro Obscura
Wazwan
This Kashmiri feast features 36 dishes and takes more than two hours to eat.
Drinks
Liquore all'Alloro
If there is anything that should rest on its laurels, it’s probably this laurel-infused digestif.
Ingredients & Condiments
Fireweed Jelly
Alaska's wildflowers produce this vibrant jelly.
Prepared Foods
Carbonnade à la Flamande
Belgium's stew of beef and abbey-style ale is essentially bourguignon for beer lovers.
Sweets
Grape Pie
Making this wine-flavored treat requires peeling two pounds of Concord grapes.
Drinks
Yuenyeung
The perfect marriage of coffee and tea.
Gastro Obscura
Porrón
The traditional way to send a stream of wine straight to your mouth.
Fruits & Vegetables
Cotton Candy Grapes
A crossbred table grape variety that tastes an awful lot like spun sugar.
Prepared Foods
Vaca Entera
This Argentinian cookout involves grilling an entire cow.
Food Festivals
International Pizza Expo
Where the world's best pizzas face off.
Prepared Foods
Colcannon
A hearty Irish staple that can tell your fortune.
Sweets
Texas Kolaches
This tasty Czech pastry is now a Texan tradition.
Sweets
Gibralters Rock Candy
One of America's earliest candies is still available to buy.
Prepared Foods
Pineapple Bun With BBQ Pork
Two Chinese bakery specialties, combined into one.
Food Festivals
Giant Omelette Festival
A brotherhood is behind this 15,000-egg tradition.
Drinks
Svalbard Brewery Beer
The world's northernmost commercial brewery makes beer with water from a glacier.
Prepared Foods
Peanut Butter Dumplings
A unique take on Szechuan dumplings is now a Montreal specialty.
Prepared Foods
Chili and Cinnamon Rolls
This savory-sweet pairing is a classic school lunch.
Prepared Foods
Scrambled Brains ’n’ Eggs
This savory Southern staple is disappearing.
Prepared Foods
Pajata
After being banned for a decade and a half, this Roman classic is back on the table.
Prepared Foods
Chicken Rice Gelato
The savory, spiced flavor celebrates one of Singapore’s favorite dishes.
Prepared Foods
Bitters Burger
Who needs a burger and a beer when you can combine beef and alcohol in a single patty?
Food Festivals
World Custard Pie Throwing Championship
The townspeople of Coxheath have been hurling pies at one another since 1967.
Drinks
Cynar
Artichokes form the backbone of this vegetal liqueur.
Sweets
Basi Sweet Potatoes
Pulling apart this dish creates silk-like threads of melted sugar.
Prepared Foods
Cuttlefish Gum
In Singapore, dried, shredded cephalopod is a bubblegum alternative.
Sweets
Steamed Piggy Buns
These adorable buns hide savory and sweet surprises.
Drinks
Eisbock
Brewers freeze their beer to make this high-octane, sweet style.
Prepared Foods
Bone-In Pork Chop Sandwich
Mind your teeth when eating this juicy Chicago specialty.
Sweets
Squid Ink Gelato
A jet-black, vanilla-flavored treat with hints of its marine origin.
Prepared Foods
Czernina
Duck blood makes this Polish soup extra rich.
Prepared Foods
Fried Haggis
Scotland's beloved traditional dish is deep-fried and served up fast-food style.
Prepared Foods
Carta di Musica
Bread so thin, you can read music through the dough.
Gastro Obscura
La Merengada
This Spanish city gears up for Lent with a massive meringue fight.
Prepared Foods
Funazushi
Japan's funky, fermented sushi takes years to prepare.
Drinks
Coca-Cola and Peanuts
This traditional Southern pairing captures sweet and salty in a single bottle.
Drinks
Midas Touch Ale
A brewery consulted drinking vessels found in the ancient king’s tomb to recreate a 2,700-year-old elixir.
Meats & Animal Products
Shirako
Raw, steamed, or fried, these satchels of fish semen are creamy delicacies.
Sweets
Haggis Ice Cream
Batches of this Scottish flavor get a bagpipe escort into the parlor.
Drinks
Maple Seltzer
You can have your syrup and drink it, too.
Prepared Foods
Sheep Brains of Marrakesh
Delve into the inner stalls of the city's market and find this prized delicacy.
Meats & Animal Products
Muktuk
In Inuit cultures, using the whole whale is an act of respect, including consuming its blubber and skin.
Gastro Obscura
Burns Supper
Pay tribute to the poet Robert Burns with bagpipes, readings, and heaping helpings of haggis.
Gastro Obscura
Kräftskiva
Don your party hat, sing, and chow down at these seasonal Swedish crayfish feasts.
Prepared Foods
Stuffed Hen's Neck
This chicken “blood sausage” gets an unusual casing.
Prepared Foods
Lampredotto
The secret to this sandwich is the cow’s fourth stomach.
Ingredients & Condiments
Cramaillote
This jelly is made with dandelions and tastes like honey.
Gastro Obscura
Nimbu Mirchi
These dangling decorations of lemon and chili peppers are meant to ward off a goddess of misfortune.
Sweets
Mangonada
Slurp this sweet and savory summer treat from a tamarind-and-chili-paste-coated straw.
Sweets
Frutta Martorana
Sicilian nuns once hung these sugary "fruits" from tree branches.
Sweets
Necco Wafers
Produced since 1847, these classic New England candies almost disappeared in 2018.
Drinks
Juniper Beer
This grain-free beer was all but forgotten until folk festivals sparked a revival in Kurpie, Poland.
Ingredients & Condiments
Kaymak
Somewhere between butter and cream cheese, kaymak adds a fatty, creamy richness to everything.
Ingredients & Condiments
Rochester-Style Hot Sauce
This spicy, sloppy meat mixture is thinner than chili, thicker than soup, and perfect atop “garbage.”
Food Festivals
Jinshan Sulphuric Fire Fishing Festival
See Taiwan's dying art of fishing with fire.
Drinks
Boilo
Christmas in Northeast Pennsylvania calls for “the Champagne of the Coal Region.”
Prepared Foods
British Burrito
England's take on the Mexican meal wraps a Yorkshire pudding around meaty fillings.
Prepared Foods
Tvøst og Spik
A Faroese dish that includes pilot whale meat and blubber, this traditional food requires weeks of preparation.
Gastro Obscura
Pancake Racing
What better way to celebrate Shrove Tuesday than to run with a pancake-laden skillet?
Gastro Obscura
Pouring Moroccan Mint Tea
A gesture of welcome and respect, Moroccan mint tea gets poured from high above the glass.
Prepared Foods
Smiley
The cooked South African sheep's head is named for its bared teeth.
Gastro Obscura
Absinthe Spoon
This flat, silver spoon holds an exalted place in the mystery and ritual of absinthe drinking.
Prepared Foods
Patatje Oorlog
Atop every serving of Dutch “war fries,” a pile of spicy, savory condiments do battle.
Gastro Obscura
Kottabos
The ancient game of wine-flicking is as difficult as it is messy.
Prepared Foods
Morteruelo
This Spanish pâté was so inspiring, someone wrote a poem about it.
Drinks
Glögg
The aroma of this mulled wine has been compared to “a warmed-up bowl of Froot Loops.”
Prepared Foods
Muskrat Dinners
In Michigan's Downriver region, a few churches are maintaining a fading Lenten tradition.
Prepared Foods
Colombian Hot Dogs
You might not even see the meat beneath this pile of potato chips, sauce, and quail eggs.
Prepared Foods
Donkey Burger
A flaky, warm bun houses braised, shredded meat in this Hebei Province specialty.
Ingredients & Condiments
Hillary’s Sweet Lemon Mint
A distinctive herb named after a First Lady.
Sweets
Piccadilly Raspa
Kool-Aid and pickles make this Southwestern snow cone an unforgettable flavor bomb.
Sweets
Taylor Ham Ice Cream
New Jersey’s favorite breakfast meat forms the salty spine of this summer sweet.
Sweets
Cholado
The cool Colombian treat blends shaved ice with syrup, fruit, and anything from wafer cookies to cheese.
Fruits & Vegetables
Ají Charapita
The Peruvian pepper tastes like spicy citrus.
Meats & Animal Products
Cougar Gold Cheese
This canned cheddar is made using a secret 70-year-old bacteria culture.
Prepared Foods
Ubre Asada
Grilled cow udder is a Chilean specialty that tastes a bit like tongue.
Gastro Obscura
Liquor Offering at Kal Bhairav Temple
Devotees bring bottles of booze to a deity in Ujjain.
Fruits & Vegetables
Saskatoons
Nutty and sweet, these juicy gems were once a valued trade commodity in the northern United States.
Meats & Animal Products
Piacentino Ennese
This Sicilian sheep's milk cheese is colored with saffron and studded with black peppercorns.
Prepared Foods
Black Fire Scotch Eggs
This unusual take on a British comfort food hides two surprises inside.
Prepared Foods
Viet-Cajun Crawfish
In Houston, Vietnamese chefs offer a unique take on the “mud bug.”
Prepared Foods
Moose Muffle Stew
The animal's nose and upper lip make a savory, umami-rich soup.
Sweets
Gyeondyo-Bar
South Korea's grapefruit-flavored ice cream bar promises to help your hangover.
Meats & Animal Products
Pemmican
Touted as the original energy bar, the bison-based mixture kept for months.
Sweets
Doces Fálicos
One small Portuguese town celebrates a saint with phallic cakes.
Ingredients & Condiments
Red-Eye Gravy
Once described as a “divine elixir,” this Southern sauce typically gets its spunk from coffee.
Meats & Animal Products
Vakantiekaas
Dutch travelers who want the taste of home can always pack “vacation cheese.”
Meats & Animal Products
Sbirro Cheese
Italy's first beer cheese gets coated in spent brewing grains and soaked in lager.
Fruits & Vegetables
Pumpkin Spice Jalapeño
If you're expecting a fall-flavored latte, you're in for a surprise.
Food Festivals
Mashed Potato Wrestling
These spud showdowns are highly-anticipated events at tuber-focused festivals in the United States.
Prepared Foods
Cherokee Bean Bread
Bakers delicately wrap this corn-and-bean dumpling in hickory leaves before boiling.
Prepared Foods
Isi Ewu
This spicy Nigerian stew is made from a goat's head and served with its "particulars."
Prepared Foods
Caldo de Cardán
In Bolivia, this bull penis soup is considered an aphrodisiac and hangover cure.
Sweets
King Kong
The town of Lambayeque, Peru, specializes in a seven-layered sweet named for Hollywood's towering ape.
Food Festivals
La Tomatina
After the giant food fight is over, fire trucks are needed to hose down the sauce-filled streets.
Fruits & Vegetables
American Spicebush
The plant's fruit, leaves, and bark offer a spice rack of flavors.
Food Festivals
Watermelon Skiing
Ever wanted to slide down a slippery tarp while wearing watermelons?
Prepared Foods
Booyah
Ladled out of massive pots at feasts and fundraisers, the Midwestern stew binds communities.
Prepared Foods
Reindeer Dog
Made with reindeer meat and topped with Coca-Cola-glazed onions, this snack once drew lines down the block in Anchorage.
Prepared Foods
Tacos de Ojo
Cow eyes make a juicy and gelatinous taco filling.
Drinks
Lobster Beer
Saison dell'Aragosta is made with tasty Maine lobster.
Drinks
Raicilla
Meet tequila's fruity, fragrant relative.
Prepared Foods
Burgoo
It’s only fitting that a racehorse named after this Kentucky stew won the state’s signature Derby.
Prepared Foods
Broasted Chicken
This style of fried chicken is pressure-cooked while it fries.
Drinks
Prairie Oyster Cocktail
The hangover cure gets its oyster-like texture from a raw egg.
Drinks
Ginjinha
In Lisbon, tiny, standing-room-only bars specialize in this sour cherry liqueur.
Prepared Foods
Beer Can Chicken
This bird comes with a brew inside.
Prepared Foods
Pani câ Mèusa
You can enjoy this Sicilian spleen sandwich “single” or “married.”
Prepared Foods
Zelnik
This spiraled Balkan pastry requires painstakingly rolling dough into silky sheets.
Food Festivals
Roadkill Cook-Off
West Virginia's annual competition features the likes of squirrel gravy over biscuits and snapping turtle stew.
Prepared Foods
Patsas
This offal soup is a classic Greek hangover cure.
Drinks
Drop Shot
With this Dutch liqueur, you can now drink licorice.
Prepared Foods
Fried Cod Tongues
This chewy treat became a delicacy only after Newfoundland's fishing industry collapsed.
Sweets
Haggis Spice Chocolate
A very non-vegan dish inspired this vegan chocolate.
Sweets
Fried Coke
Reach peak Americana with these deep-fried balls of Coca-Cola.
Prepared Foods
Rocky Mountain Oysters
Battered and fried testicles make use of a cattle-country surplus.
Prepared Foods
Stigghiola
The streets of Palermo are filled with the smell of succulent, sizzling lamb intestines.
Prepared Foods
Santa Maria–Style Barbecue
Californian BBQ involves red oak, sirloin, and special grills.
Prepared Foods
Pondu
In the Congo, the cassava plant is also treasured for its leaves.
Sweets
Raw Herring Ice Cream
Even its creator says to stick to one scoop.
Prepared Foods
Taguella
A desert dweller’s delight, this bread gets baked in sand.
Sweets
Oliebollen
These Dutch doughnuts are classic New Year's treats.
Ingredients & Condiments
Amlou
Morocco's nutty, decadent spread is made from the prized oil of the argan tree.
Food Festivals
Spam Jam
Chocolate-covered mystery meat and dancing cans abound.
Ingredients & Condiments
Pork Floss
This cotton candy-like garnish is made of dried, candied meat.
Sweets
Salt Licorice Ice Cream
A Finnish treat that's sweet, dark, and herbal.
Prepared Foods
Sopa de Pata
This Salvadoran soup gets its rich, buttery flavor from cow hooves.
Ingredients & Condiments
Chicken Salt
Curry powder gives this savory seasoning its golden hue.
Prepared Foods
Livermush
North Carolina's “poor man’s pâté” is rich in flavor.
Prepared Foods
Rillettes
Spread this fat-poached meat on a crusty French loaf.
Sweets
Frog Cakes
The adorable amphibian treats are South Australian icons.
Prepared Foods
Kuli-Kuli
In Nigeria, ground peanuts become spicy, deep-fried nuggets and noodles.
Sweets
Clootie Dumpling
This sweet Scottish pudding gets boiled in a bag for special occasions.
Fruits & Vegetables
Pink Pearl Apple
Take a bite out of this apple to reveal its pink interior.
Prepared Foods
Tacos de Sesos
Grilled or braised, these brains make a tasty taco.
Prepared Foods
Spinialo
This Greek dish maintains an old fisherman's tradition of preserving one's catch in bottles of seawater.
Sweets
Guri Guri
Maui's sherbet-ice cream hybrid is a light, fruity, creamy delight.
Drinks
Muratina
This crisp, sour Kenyan brew is made by fermenting the “sausage” fruit.
Fruits & Vegetables
Canistel
The sweet and creamy “eggfruit” makes a great nog.
Meats & Animal Products
Peameal Bacon
The real "Canadian bacon" comes rolled in cornmeal.
Gastro Obscura
Kamayan
These epic Filipino feasts feature lavish spreads and forego utensils.
Prepared Foods
Crumble-In
This soggy Southern snack combines cornbread and buttermilk in a single glass.
Gastro Obscura
Wassailing
This wintertime serenade for apple trees also involves firing rifles and drinking cider.
Prepared Foods
Jellied Moose Nose
This nasal dish literally stews in its own juices.
Sweets
Pig Pickin' Cake
The Southern barbecue staple offers a sweet, tropical chaser to the main course.
Meats & Animal Products
Maguey Worm
This protein-rich legacy of the Aztecs makes for a savory taco filling.
Fruits & Vegetables
Hoshigaki
These exquisite dried persimmons are massaged for weeks.
Drinks
Habushu
These bottles of Okinawan rice liquor come with a coiled pit viper.
Prepared Foods
Sofkee
This Native American sour corn mixture can come as a cool drink or warm porridge.
Prepared Foods
Gallina Campesina
In Ubaté, Colombia, hens get cooked with their unlaid eggs inside.
Prepared Foods
TV Chicken
The Ugandan dish is so delicious, watching it roast is its own show.
Gastro Obscura
Termite Mound Ovens
Once the bugs have moved on, termite towers can be used for outdoor bread baking.
Sweets
Black Sesame Sweet Soup
This thick, jet-black soup is an amazingly fragrant and nutty Chinese dessert.
Meats & Animal Products
Würchwitzer Mite Cheese
You'll love it almost as much as the critters clinging to the rind.
Fruits & Vegetables
Cochayuyo
This hearty kelp has been feeding Chileans for at least 14,000 years.
Sweets
Roti Sai Mai
No visit to the ruins of Ayutthaya is complete without this candy floss crepe.
Prepared Foods
Karageorge's Schnitzel
This decadent schnitzel stuffed with clotted cream is named after the leader of Serbia's fight for independence.
Sweets
Tula Pryanik
These ornately decorated spice cookies developed alongside a Russian city's gun industry.
Sweets
Melktert
Four centuries ago, Dutch dairy farmers made this spiced custard pie into a South African classic.
Meats & Animal Products
Hongeo
Fermented skate smells like it urinates through its skin—which it does.
Prepared Foods
Papaitan
The Filipino stew gets its signature bitterness from bile.
Ingredients & Condiments
Amba
The spicy, sour mango sauce is beloved from India to Israel.
Prepared Foods
Lemang Periuk Kera
Carnivorous pitcher plants make excellent pouches for sticky rice.
Sweets
Possum Pie
Arkansas' unofficial state treat doesn't contain marsupials, but it does have several sweet layers.
Ingredients & Condiments
Mamba
The Haitian peanut butter first tastes creamy, then the peppers hit you.
Gastro Obscura
Shrimp Fishing on Horseback
This dying practice requires total trust between horse and rider.
Sweets
Beaver Tails
No rodents were harmed in the making of this fried Canadian treat.
Fruits & Vegetables
Bambangan
Find this rare, savory mango on the periphery of Borneo markets with other odorous fruit.
Sweets
Pizza Ebraica
This cookie is found only in Rome's Jewish quarter.
Drinks
Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout
What began as an April Fools' Day prank ended in a testicle-spiked beer.
Prepared Foods
Cozido das Furnas
In this island town, stew gets cooked by volcano.
Prepared Foods
Zanzibar Pizza
Vendors fill these crispy pancakes with as many meats, sweets, or vegetables as their imaginations allow.
Meats & Animal Products
Caracoles
For a brief seasonal window in Spain, snails go from dreaded pests to coveted tapas.
Drinks
Mauby
Caribbean tree bark gives this drink its bittersweet flavor.
Sweets
Kamatahvel
Created during a cocoa shortage, the grain-based “chocolate” bar became an Estonian classic.
Drinks
Turbo
The potent cocktail of beer, wine, and soda is a favorite in the bars of Addis Ababa.
Sweets
Boston Baked Beans
In the 1920s, confectioners thought the public wanted candy that looked like legumes—and they were right.
Meats & Animal Products
Penis Fish
South Korea's anatomically suggestive sea worm is a satisfying blend of salty, sweet, and chewy.
Fruits & Vegetables
Bitter Melon
This nightmarish-looking fruit has serious healing potential.
Drinks
Morir Soñando
“To die dreaming” tastes like an orange creamsicle.
Meats & Animal Products
Mopane Worms
Depending on how they're prepared, these caterpillars can taste like everything from tea to a well-done steak.
Meats & Animal Products
Tere Siga
This Ethiopian dish of raw, sometimes spiced, meat comes with a specialized cutting ritual.
Gastro Obscura
Papal Gelatin Molds
The competing papal and Napoleonic seals on the cookware tell the story of the battle between an emperor and a pope.
Gastro Obscura
Feria del Alfeñique
The most beautiful, striking sugar skulls can be found at this annual fair in Toluca, Mexico.
Sweets
Raindrop Cake
The beautiful dessert evaporates in 20 minutes.
Prepared Foods
Dakbal
South Korean eateries serve these intensely spicy chicken feet in luscious piles, with plenty of soju.
Prepared Foods
Red Tree Ants With Beef and Spicy Basil
Dine for a cause with this mammal and insect mélange.
Prepared Foods
Cherry Burger
In the '90s, fruit burgers almost took over American school lunches.
Gastro Obscura
Pythagorean Cup
A timeless practical joke, brought to you by the ancient Greeks.
Drinks
Api Morado
Cold mornings in the Andean Highlands are best met with a steaming cup of this sweet, purple drink.
Gastro Obscura
Molcajete
The Mesoamerican mortar and pestle has been made, and used, the same way for thousands of years.
Sweets
Irish Potato Candy
This sweet spud is neither made with tubers, nor of Irish origin.
Prepared Foods
Salt-Rising Bread
Bacteria that cause gangrene are the magic ingredient in this cheese-scented loaf.
Prepared Foods
Philly Taco
Wrap a slice of pizza around a cheesesteak to create this decadent mashup.
Ingredients & Condiments
Ají Negro
To make this hot sauce, first remove the poison.
Ingredients & Condiments
Kama
The thrifty Estonian grain mix makes creamy drinks and candy bars.
Ingredients & Condiments
Beef Dripping
You can roast your potatoes in this rendered fat, or just spread it on bread and eat it cold.
Prepared Foods
Hot Beef Sundae
Pretty please with a cherry (tomato) on top?
Sweets
Ubuyu
These sweetened, dyed baobab seeds will leave your tongue red and tingling with flavor.
Prepared Foods
Lorighittas
Making a pound of this pretty pasta can take an entire day.
Meats & Animal Products
Tetilla
The Galician cheese named for a nipple and brought to you by “blonde” cows.
Drinks
Mellow Corn Whiskey
Long relegated to moonshine jars, aged corn whiskey is finally getting respect outside Kentucky.
Meats & Animal Products
Muqmad
This camel jerky is a lifeline for Somali nomads during times of drought.
Prepared Foods
Scrapple
Pennsylvania's pork loaf embodies Amish resourcefulness.
Gastro Obscura
Podstakannik
These old-school metal tea-glass holders are a fixture on Russian trains.
Drinks
Țuică
Romania's all-occasion plummy spirit.
Fruits & Vegetables
Dabai
This Borneo specialty tastes like olives, carrots, and brie cheese—if you know how to prepare it.
Prepared Foods
Almojábano
The most venerated cheese curl in the world.
Prepared Foods
Dinuguan
A pork blood stew so rich and velvety, it's known as “chocolate meat.”
Fruits & Vegetables
Lúcuma
This butterscotch-flavored fruit has a way with desserts.
Sweets
Potato Doughnuts
The first American doughnut chain used spuds.
Prepared Foods
Okonomiyaki
A wartime rice scarcity made this versatile pancake a Japanese staple.
Prepared Foods
Goetta
From humble meat-hybrid to Cincinnati favorite.
Drinks
Seaweed Ale
The ocean-scented brew pays homage to an old Scottish style.
Prepared Foods
Soup Joumou
The once-forbidden stew now symbolizes Haitian independence.
Drinks
Rakija
The fiery fruit brandy of the Balkans.
Drinks
Chouchen
Ancient Celtic settlers brought this honey-based drink to Brittany.
Prepared Foods
Svið
In Icelandic cuisine, few things are more traditional than half a sheep's head.
Food Festivals
Marathon du Médoc
This French marathon has regular stops for wine, cheese, and oysters.
Sweets
Taiwanese Ice Cream Burrito
The deceptive, sweet-and-savory snack of Taipei's night markets.
Sweets
Romeu e Julieta
There's nothing tragic about this Brazilian pairing of salty, white cheese and guava paste.
Gastro Obscura
Door County Fish Boil
Because a fish fry lacks pyrotechnics.
Sweets
Three Big Cannons
Chengdu's loudest street snack is much less dangerous than its name suggests.
Prepared Foods
Seal Flipper Pie
A Newfoundland tradition that comes with history and controversy.
Prepared Foods
Chicken Mull
A buttery Southern specialty inspired by 19th-century seaside cookouts.
Sweets
Blue Moon Ice Cream
This cosmic-colored flavor is a Midwestern mystery.
Prepared Foods
Vigorón
The signature dish of “the Crazy Woman” and the city of Granada.
Sweets
Ruby Chocolate
The sweet is naturally a bubblegum shade of pink.
Meats & Animal Products
Skerpikjøt
Without salt or refrigeration, early residents of the Faroe Islands preserved their mutton with the cold wind.
Prepared Foods
Pizza Berlusconi
The award-winning Finnish creation was inspired by a diss from Italy's former prime minister.
Fruits & Vegetables
Glass Gem Corn
This jewel-like corn became an internet sensation.
Fruits & Vegetables
Coco de Mer
A delicious fruit with a suggestively-shaped seed.
Meats & Animal Products
Biltong
This spiced jerky is a beloved snack in South Africa.
Fruits & Vegetables
Antigua Black Pineapple
It's not actually dark, but it is the world's sweetest.
Sweets
Wasabi Ice Cream
The cure and cause of a burning tongue.
Sweets
Bean Pie
This slightly sweet dessert is a staple in some Black American Muslim communities.
Prepared Foods
Limburger Sandwich
The stinky, simple classic is still served at select Wisconsin taverns.
Fruits & Vegetables
Marsh Samphire
The briny “asparagus of the sea” grows along coasts around the world.
Prepared Foods
Cheese Zombies
The Yakima Valley's beloved school lunch takes grilled cheese to the next level.
Drinks
Lambanóg
We can thank coconuts for this lesser-known tropical moonshine.
Prepared Foods
Kokoretsi
On Easter in Greece, whole lambs roast beside succulent skewers of their offal.
Sweets
Lobster Ice Cream
Buttery lobster meets buttery vanilla in this classic Maine concoction.
Prepared Foods
Soup Number Five
The aphrodisiac subtly references the “fifth” kind of meat: bull genitals.
Prepared Foods
Kitfo
A melt-in-your-mouth mixture of raw beef, butter, and spices.
Drinks
Rock N' Rye Pop
A Prohibition-era flavor from a soda company beloved by Detroiters and Juggalos.
Ingredients & Condiments
Root Beer Plant
These sacred leaves taste like peppery soda.
Drinks
Tepache
This fizzy, tropical drink has ancient roots in Mexico.
Drinks
Black Ivory Coffee
There's an elephant in the room when it comes to the world's most expensive brew.
Meats & Animal Products
Buttered Eggs
When eggs hot out of the chicken meet butter, magic happens.
Prepared Foods
Urojo
In Zanzibar, Swahili and Indian cuisine swirl together in a hearty, complex stew.
Sweets
T'tu Lavash
Armenians were making these sweet sheets of dried fruit centuries before the Fruit Roll-Up.
Prepared Foods
Seattle Teriyaki
This once-ubiquitous fusion dish is fading into obscurity.
Drinks
Café Brûlot
The New Orleans cocktail is part pick-me-up, part pyrotechnics show.
Sweets
Kartoshka
Soviet cafeterias whipped up this chocolate “potato” to use leftovers.
Sweets
Benne Wafers
A crispy cookie from South Carolina, first introduced during the slave trade.
Prepared Foods
Mutura
Making this sausage of meat, tripe, and blood is its own festive occasion in Kenya.
Meats & Animal Products
Honeypot Ants
These insects swell with sweet, golden nectar.
Sweets
Brasadè
Make yourself delicious jewelry with these sweet Italian biscuits.
Drinks
Nutcracker
This cocktail is a New York City summertime staple, albeit an illegal one.
Gastro Obscura
Maslenitsa
Russian Mardi Gras features blinis, fistfights, and burning effigies.
Fruits & Vegetables
Marula
The intoxicating South African fruit is beloved by humans and elephants.
Prepared Foods
Heaven and Earth
This German comfort food unites earthbound potatoes with apples from above.
Prepared Foods
Rakfisk
Norway's notorious fermented trout is a tangy Christmas tradition.
Drinks
T’ej
Ethiopian honey wine is sweet, funky, and perfect with injera.
Ingredients & Condiments
Mustard Oil
Essential to South Asian cuisine, the flavoring is illegal in some countries.
Fruits & Vegetables
Pikopiko
These tightly coiled ferns also serve as a Māori symbol for unity.
Fruits & Vegetables
Bakeapple
Almost every Newfoundlander has a secret spot for foraging this honey-sweet berry.
Prepared Foods
Sonoran Hot Dog
This beloved piece of Mexican-American fusion coats a bacon-wrapped dog in beans, mayo, and jalapeño salsa.
Prepared Foods
Labskaus
A hangover cure that spans classes and centuries.
Fruits & Vegetables
Tejocote
On Day of the Dead, garlands of the tiny, apple-flavored fruit serve as offerings to the deceased.
Sweets
Mulberry Cream Bowl
Try this Indian seasonal treat after exploring Hyderabad's iconic mosque.
Ingredients & Condiments
Shidol Chutney
To make this pungent delicacy, Bangladeshis ferment a fish in a pot oiled with its innards.
Drinks
Mursik
In Kenya, celebrations for victorious runners often begin with a sip of fermented milk.
Drinks
Bilberry Soup
Hot, fruity, and an integral part of the longest cross-country ski race in the world.
Drinks
Boston Cooler
Detroit's signature soda shake blends Vernors ginger ale with vanilla ice cream.
Prepared Foods
Barmbrack
The Irish bread comes with raisins and omens.
Ingredients & Condiments
Henderson's Relish
Sheffield’s secret sauce has a cult following.
Sweets
Mandazi
Across East Africa, these cardamom-flavored doughnuts are the perfect pairing for chai.
Prepared Foods
Éclade de Moules
These marvelous mussels are cooked under pine needles.
Sweets
Nanaimo Bar
From postwar dessert to sweet slice of Canadian identity.
Prepared Foods
Ema Datshi
Chilies and cheese combine in Bhutan's incredibly spicy specialty.
Drinks
Mbege
On the slopes of Kilimanjaro, brewers make beer from bananas and finger millet.
Prepared Foods
Tacacá
This Brazilian soup might make your mouth numb.
Meats & Animal Products
Witchetty Grubs
In the Australian desert, the roots of the witchetty bush hold a savory treat.
Prepared Foods
Ugali with Termites
Kenya's classic corn porridge becomes the ideal pairing for crunchy, roasted insects.
Sweets
Huesos de Santo
These “saint's bones” taste like heaven.
Drinks
Wassail
This spiced, warming drink may have helped broker peace between warring tribes.
Prepared Foods
Snake Soup
During Hong Kong winters, crowds flock to small diners with serpents in their cupboards.
Prepared Foods
Boiled Green Peanuts
Roadside vendors in the Deep South soften fresh goobers with bubbling brine.
Drinks
Turkish Coffee
Locals joke that you should be able to “float a horseshoe” on the thick brew.
Fruits & Vegetables
African Horned Cucumber
The spiky, fruit cup-flavored orb made an appearance on “Star Trek.”
Drinks
Gruit Ale
Brewers are replacing hops with sweet, aromatic herbs to resurrect this extinct beer.
Ingredients & Condiments
Chocolate Daisy
This wildflower releases a cocoa fragrance each morning.
Sweets
Candied Hawthorn
To celebrate Chinese New Year, vendors sell skewered, sugar-coated berries.
Drinks
Commandaria
To taste the oldest wine still in production, head to Cyprus.
Ingredients & Condiments
Black Garlic
These inky cloves have aged like a fine wine.
Fruits & Vegetables
Hackberry
The little-known fruit tastes like peanut M&Ms.
Prepared Foods
Stinky Tofu
Follow your nose through Taipei for this crispy, warm street snack.
Sweets
Pickle Soft Serve
The briny, refreshing ice cream acts as a cooling chaser to spicy meals.
Drinks
Ramune
The Japanese soda still comes in a marble-stoppered bottle from the 19th century.
Prepared Foods
Sarde in Saor
Venetians celebrate the end of a 16th-century plague with sweet and sour sardines.
Sweets
Taiyaki
This pancake pays tribute to one of Japan's favorite fish.
Prepared Foods
Pig's Blood Cake
Beneath a blanket of peanut flour and cilantro, this Taiwanese street pop hides a savory surprise.
Meats & Animal Products
Tuna Eye
Japanese pubs serve the delicacy sautéed, braised, or in a cocktail known as “tuna’s tears.”
Meats & Animal Products
Geoduck
This phallic, giant clam is the culinary crown jewel of the Pacific Northwest.
Gastro Obscura
Khantsi
Grab life by the Georgian wine horn.
Meats & Animal Products
Chimay Beer Cheese
Beer-brewing monks make aromatic, ale-flavored cheese in the Belgian countryside.
Sweets
Pet de Soeur
French Canadians find “nun’s farts” addictively delicious.
Ingredients & Condiments
Pinhão
As Brazil's forests of Araucaria angustifolia dwindle, so do the harvests of their delicious seeds.
Meats & Animal Products
Mojama
Spain's salt-cured tuna is known as “the ham of the sea.”
Sweets
Pouding Chômeur
During the Great Depression, Canadian women made “unemployed-person pudding.”
Sweets
Sgushyonka
This gooey, sweet treat was a Soviet staple.
Sweets
Ice Cream Potato
In Idaho, even sundaes pay tribute to the state's beloved tuber.
Fruits & Vegetables
Blackberry Jam Fruit
Inside a hard, yellow shell lies a sweet, black spread.
Prepared Foods
Sült Szalonna
In this Hungarian campfire treat, roasted pork fat coats slices of bread in decadent drippings.
Gastro Obscura
Pig's Feet and Ginger Stew
The sweet and sour Cantonese meal restores new mothers after giving birth.
Prepared Foods
Caws Pobi
The fire-roasted cheese is the medieval precursor to Welsh rarebit.
Prepared Foods
Injera with Spaghetti
The fusion dish dates back to Italy's occupation of Ethiopia in the 1930s.
Sweets
Hevva Cake
The simple sweets welcomed Cornish fishermen after they returned with their catch.
Ingredients & Condiments
Wattleseed
This chocolate-flavored superfood falls from the Australian Acacia bush.
Prepared Foods
Egg Hopper
Sri Lanka's crispy, bowl-shaped pancake comes with an egg at the bottom.
Drinks
Araga
Traditional Tuvan booze is made from milk and distilled in a hollowed-out tree trunk.
Prepared Foods
Barbecued Mutton
The slow-smoked sheep is a Western Kentucky specialty.
Meats & Animal Products
Chicatanas
The seasonal treat that descends from the sky in swarms.
Meats & Animal Products
Water Monitor Lizard
A delicacy in Indonesia, the reptile's meat is a meal and a medicine.
Sweets
Portuguese Bacon Pudding
Royalty adored the Abbot of Priscos' porcine dessert.
Prepared Foods
Caldo de Piedra
On the riverbanks of Oaxaca, cooks make “stone soup” with hot rocks and fresh fish.
Ingredients & Condiments
Alkermes
Once an insect-dyed health tonic, this liqueur now adds a scarlet tint to Italian pastries.
Sweets
Eccles Cake
The traditional sweet currant cake has an incendiary reputation.
Sweets
Pista Burfi
The pistachio fudge makes a vibrant accompaniment to celebrations in Northern India.
Meats & Animal Products
Cured Tuna Heart
In Sardinia, pasta gets a savory sprinkling of the dried and grated organ.
Sweets
Saint Agatha's Breasts
This ricotta and marzipan pastry honors the Sicilian saint's most noteworthy body part.
Drinks
Eucalittino
Outside Rome, a tranquil abbey turns eucalyptus into liqueur.
Prepared Foods
Chislic
A circle of South Dakota towns specializes in these fried meat cubes.
Fruits & Vegetables
Sugarloaf Pineapple
Devour this rare variety without fear of post-pineapple mouth irritation.
Prepared Foods
Lutefisk
The lye-soaked fish recipe created by Vikings is now a holiday favorite at Midwestern church dinners.
Fruits & Vegetables
Kuwini Mango
Venture beyond the usual sour-sweet varieties with this funky, savory fruit.
Prepared Foods
Fool's Gold Loaf
Elvis Presley once flew across the country to eat this decadent Denver sandwich.
Prepared Foods
Zhavoronki
These lark-shaped buns herald spring.
Drinks
Chestnut Beer
The ultimate in nutty brews.
Meats & Animal Products
Capybara
During Lent in Venezuela, the world's largest rodent becomes a “fish.”
Gastro Obscura
Supra
This traditional Georgian feast is characterized by lots of food, lots of wine, and lots of rules.
Drinks
Tejate
Oaxaca's favorite morning beverage is an ancient blend of cacao, corn flour, and water.
Prepared Foods
Barbecue Spaghetti
Memphis adds a little Italian flair to its Southern repertoire.
Prepared Foods
Omurice
Japanese cooks riff on American diner food with this rice-and-ketchup omelet.
Drinks
The Toleen
Thai red beans and rum combine in a winter warmer inspired by a South American specialty.
Fruits & Vegetables
Naranjilla
Relatively unknown outside South America, the tart, tomato-like fruit makes beloved juices and cocktails.
Drinks
Lindisfarne Mead
The best place to find the “nectar of the gods” is Holy Island.
Drinks
Tongba
Every mug of Nepalese millet beer is basically bottomless.
Prepared Foods
St. Paul Sandwich
Don't think too hard about the name.
Meats & Animal Products
Timanoix
Monks and nuns elevate this soft cheese with a wash of walnut liqueur.
Meats & Animal Products
Jellied Eels
No traditional East Ender meal is complete without pie, mashed potatoes, and gelatinous river creatures.
Gastro Obscura
Barquilleros of Madrid
To earn a waffle from these vendors, you must first play a game of roulette.
Drinks
Lacryma Christi
The vineyards of Mount Vesuvius still produce the same wines enjoyed by the ancient Romans.
Drinks
Poire Williams
Before they're filled with brandy, these bottles get attached to trees so pears can grow inside.
Drinks
Tarkhuna
Tarragon provides the herbal kick to this neon-green Georgian soda.
Sweets
Túró Rudi
Hungary's favorite chocolate bar is filled with cheese curd.
Ingredients & Condiments
Heather Honey
A fragrant, difficult-to-harvest delicacy from the Scottish moorlands.
Gastro Obscura
Gematogen
A bloody good candy bar.
Prepared Foods
Tarantula Samosa
Tucked inside a flaky crust are layers of feta, spinach, and black, hairy legs.
Drinks
Unicum
A bitter liqueur that traces the history of a Hungarian-Jewish family.
Sweets
Terva Leijona
For those craving intensity beyond black licorice, how about tar?
Drinks
Irn-Bru
A citrusy cream soda with a hint of rust outsells Coca-Cola in Scotland.
Gastro Obscura
Staraya Russa Salt
Make like Dostoyevsky and restore yourself with this Russian mineral.
Sweets
Mämmi
Traditional Easter pudding, best served untraditionally.
Meats & Animal Products
Stinking Bishop
The story of Britain's smelliest cheese involves monks, drunks, and endangered cows.
Ingredients & Condiments
’Nduja
The fiery Calabrian meat spread also goes by "red Nutella" and "poor man's Viagra."
Drinks
Zoiglbier
In medieval Germany, drinkers followed a star to local lager.
Sweets
Peanut Pie
The Virginia treat can “make even your deepest-dyed Yankee start complimenting you with a southern accent.”
Prepared Foods
Lamb Fries
Breaded and fried, these testicles become tasty tenders.
Sweets
Mignon Chocolate Egg
Finns celebrate Easter with millions of real eggshells filled with almond-hazelnut nougat.
Drinks
Asiático Coffee
This is what happens when a bartender spices up a classic fisherman's coffee cocktail.
Meats & Animal Products
Kurt
These cheese balls have fueled Central Asian nomads for centuries.
Gastro Obscura
Eierschalen-sollbruchstellen-verursacher
“And eggs are open in the twinkling of an eye.”
Prepared Foods
Fried Brain Sandwich
Only a handful of restaurants still serve the retro Midwestern meal.
Drinks
Feni
This triple-distilled cashew fruit liquor is a source of Goan pride.
Sweets
Sugar Cream Pie
Indiana's unofficial state pie was once a desperate measure.
Drinks
Flämmli
After a long day of skiing, you deserve caffeine, fire, and alcohol—at the same time.
Prepared Foods
Morkovcha
The Soviet-Korean carrot salad is a sweet-and-sour testament to a diaspora's resilience.
Meats & Animal Products
Mangalica
These woolly pigs produce the “Kobe beef of pork.”
Gastro Obscura
Kopstootje
The Dutch drinking ritual begins with a glass of genever and ends with a “little head-butt.”
Meats & Animal Products
Bouncy Meatball Soup
This Chaoshan specialty makes it hard to resist playing with your food.
Gastro Obscura
Qvevri
These gigantic clay pots are the secret to Georgia's unusual wine.
Sweets
Soor Plooms
Sour green sweets commemorate a victorious Scottish skirmish of 1337.
Ingredients & Condiments
Castoreum
Early 20th-century chefs used beaver musk to give sweets a vanilla-raspberry flavor.
Prepared Foods
Nattō
These pungent fermented soybeans are coated in probiotic slime.
Sweets
Pineapple Bun
This sweet treat is so beloved in Hong Kong, it inspired an animated movie.
Drinks
Whistle-Belly Vengeance
Colonial Americans would try anything to revive bad beer.
Ingredients & Condiments
Chili Wood
Add a splinter of this vine to your meal for a tongue-numbing kick.
Drinks
Kali
Beer meets soda in this refreshing Estonian brew.
Gastro Obscura
Snake Wine
The traditional Chinese medicine can also be deadly.
Drinks
Espresso Coffee Soda
A dark soda with a dark history.
Fruits & Vegetables
Egg of the Sun Mango
How can a fruit be worth $2,000?
Meats & Animal Products
Fugu
The toxic pufferfish steals hearts, despite its ability to stop them.
Sweets
Prickly Pear Sorbet
A watermelon-and-bubblegum-flavored treat courtesy of Mexico's favorite cactus.
Sweets
Amish Funeral Pie
So sweet you forget to cry.
Gastro Obscura
Ika Tokkuri
A squid's body becomes an edible sake decanter.
Meats & Animal Products
Stroganina
This is Siberia's sashimi, a simple delicacy born in one of the world’s coldest climes.
Prepared Foods
Komplet Lepinja
Cream, eggs, and pork drippings combine in the ultimate Serbian bread bowl.
Prepared Foods
Fried Octopus Ink Sacs
To track down these delicate, flavorful nuggets, you'll need to ask a local fisherman.
Meats & Animal Products
Oscypek
In Poland's highlands, a small group makes a beautiful, smoky sheep's milk cheese.
Meats & Animal Products
Sagí
Rancid pork fat infuses Catalan cuisine with a blend of gamey, sour, and spicy flavors.
Meats & Animal Products
Beaver
Catholics once circumvented meatless fasts by claiming the semi-aquatic rodent was a fish.
Sweets
Cassata Siciliana
The seductively delicious Easter cake once made an entire convent neglect its prayers.
Gastro Obscura
Pickle Castors
Wealthy Victorians liked to flaunt their condiments.
Fruits & Vegetables
Santorini Tomatoes
The Greek island's volcanic soil produces an intensely fragrant, sweet crop.
Sweets
Chimney Cake
After rotating over hot coals, the Transylvanian treat unravels in a sweet spiral.
Drinks
Mlíko
In Czechia, a foamy beer is a sweet and creamy treat.
Gastro Obscura
Pie Birds
To release steam, Victorian bakers placed whimsical ceramics in their pastries.
Prepared Foods
Kulebyaka
The decadent, overloaded Russian pie once contained sturgeon spinal cord.
Prepared Foods
Espardenyes
Catalan chefs transform the slimy, bottom-feeding sea cucumber into subtle, succulent meat.
Prepared Foods
Gym Shoe Sandwich
The South Side favorite is a cross between a meat-lover's sub and a gyro.
Meats & Animal Products
Surströmming
The pickled Baltic herring has an explosive reputation.
Sweets
Leum Kleun
A treat so smooth, its name means “I forgot I swallowed.”
Drinks
The King's Ginger
The liqueur was created “to stimulate and revivify His Majesty” while he was driving.
Meats & Animal Products
Mortadella
Baloney's predecessor is sweet, delicately spiced, and bigger than your head.
Sweets
Dulse and Yellowman
An unlikely pairing of honeycomb toffee and purple seaweed.
Meats & Animal Products
Big-Bottomed Ants
Catch these fiercely guarded queens for a crunchy, caviar-flavored snack.
Prepared Foods
The Slopper
It's part cheeseburger, part enchilada, and smothered in a Pueblo, Colorado, specialty.
Drinks
Green Chile Wine
In Southern New Mexico, chiles add a kick to everything, including vino.
Prepared Foods
Jiānbǐng
Every morning, Chinese vendors sling savory, crispy crepes to lines of patient fans.
Sweets
Kissel
The dessert that's also a meal.
Sweets
Sanguinaccio Dolce
Italians make a bloody delicious chocolate pudding.
Prepared Foods
Gumbo Z'herbes
To some, the soup's greens represent key moments of the crucifixion.
Meats & Animal Products
Nakládaný Hermelín
The pungent pickled cheese is a popular Czech bar snack.
Prepared Foods
Collard Sandwich
Greens and crispy corn bread combine in this North Carolina specialty.
Drinks
Kopi Joss
You put the charcoal in the coffee cup and drink it all up.
Food Festivals
Black Pudding Throwing Championship
A medieval food fight supposedly inspired this annual competition.
Prepared Foods
Zarajos
In Cuenca, chefs transform offal into succulent tapas.
Prepared Foods
Cottage Loaf
Baking this dual-layered bread is a difficult art.
Ingredients & Condiments
Grass Jelly
Once a treatment for heat stroke, the herbal gel now flavors desserts.
Sweets
Lapis Legit
This Dutch-Indonesian cake contains up to 30 layers.
Prepared Foods
Dutch Baby
Fluffy, crispy, and large enough to share, it's no ordinary pancake.
Prepared Foods
Blaa Bread
This adaption of French refugee bread is now a protected Irish specialty.
Prepared Foods
Francesinha
A sandwich so decadent, it was once inappropriate for women to order one.
Fruits & Vegetables
Pimientos de Padrón
Eating these unpredictable tapas is a game of spicy-pepper roulette.
Sweets
Roudoudous
These French candies originally came in seashells.
Meats & Animal Products
Handkäse Mit Musik
The stinky cheese comes with onions and bathroom humor.
Prepared Foods
Carciofi alla Giudia
Created in Rome's Jewish ghetto, the fried artichokes herald spring.
Gastro Obscura
Noni
A fruit so foul, shamans use it to scare evil spirits.
Meats & Animal Products
Brunost
This “brown cheese” tastes like caramel.
Drinks
Mezcal de Pechuga
For a meaty essence, producers dangle raw chicken breast over their stills.
Sweets
Gooey Butter Cake
Everything St. Louisans love about this local specialty is in the name.
Gastro Obscura
Chunches
In the Turpan desert, wind-trapping structures turn grapes into raisins.
Sweets
Cajeta
In the city of Celaya, goat's milk caramel tops everything from ice cream to cereal.
Meats & Animal Products
City Chicken
The Midwestern mock-poultry classic is fading away.
Sweets
Trits
Costa Rica's iconic ice cream tub contains indescribably addictive cookies.
Gastro Obscura
Chiric Sanango
A vibrant, lesser-known hallucinogen of the Amazon.
Sweets
Floating Island
The 17th-century dessert plants an isle of meringue in a sea of custard.
Ingredients & Condiments
Traditional Balsamic Vinegar
Most people have never tasted the real thing.
Prepared Foods
Bamboo Pole Noodles
The dying art of flattening dough by seesawing on it.
Sweets
Cuberdons
The Belgian candy that sparked an epic vendor battle.
Fruits & Vegetables
Achachairú
Meet purple mangosteen's rare, complex cousin.
Ingredients & Condiments
White BBQ Sauce
In Alabama, smoked meat gets dressed up in white.
Sweets
Poke Cake
In the 1970s, housewives stabbed their cakes and filled the holes with Jell-O.
Ingredients & Condiments
Ambergris
Whale excrement once flavored ice cream.
Gastro Obscura
Peruvian Cylinder
An unassuming oil drum houses a three-tiered oven.
Fruits & Vegetables
Snakefruit
Beneath its serpent-like skin lies pineapple-flavored flesh.
Gastro Obscura
Spruce Beer
This Christmas tree elixir kept Vikings and Captain Cook alive.
Prepared Foods
St. Louis-Style Pizza
With extra-gooey cheese and a cracker-thin crust, some say it's more like nachos.
Drinks
Masato de Yuca
A sacred alcoholic drink made from chewed and fermented yuca.
Sweets
Spaghettieis
This German sundae masquerades as an Italian dinner.
Prepared Foods
Sánguche de Potito
Cow rectum gives Chile's favorite game-day sandwich its addictive flavor.
Fruits & Vegetables
Jaboticaba
The Brazilian tree gets covered by its tart purple fruit.
Sweets
Ranfañote
This vintage dessert of bread, cheese, and syrup nearly disappeared from Peru.
Prepared Foods
Cincinnati Chili
Spiced meat sauce meets spaghetti, shredded cheese, and beans in a Midwest cult favorite.
Drinks
Mamajuana
This alcoholic drink has medicinal properties (and sometimes contains turtle penis).
Prepared Foods
Seattle Dog
The city loves hot sausage slathered with cold cream cheese.
Ingredients & Condiments
Cassareep
Sauce that can preserve stew for days—no fridge needed.
Fruits & Vegetables
Pacaya
These palm flower clusters resemble tentacles of baby corn.
Prepared Foods
Bull Testicle Ceviche
You'll have a ball with this Latin American specialty.
Prepared Foods
Smith Island Cake
This dessert island is known for its refined layer cakes.
Prepared Foods
Guatemalan Fiambre
This 50-ingredient salad is for both the living and the dead.
Drinks
Doodh Soda
Soda mixed with milk creates this frosty, creamy drink.
Meats & Animal Products
Chapulines
Deep-fried grasshoppers make a tangy, crispy taco filling.
Prepared Foods
Kalakukko
Finally, an edible carrying case for fish.
Prepared Foods
Mozzarella Sticks with Melba Sauce
Only in Albany do people dip in raspberry sauce.
Drinks
Chicha Morada
Peru's purple drink made from purple corn.
Sweets
Chocolate-Covered Cinnamon Bears
The gummies are taking over Utah.
Fruits & Vegetables
Gấc
This lucky fruit tastes best in rice.
Fruits & Vegetables
Coquito Nuts
Chile is home to very, very small coconuts.
Prepared Foods
Maple Leaf Tempura
Why not fry a year-old leaf?
Sweets
Pudding of Noah
The first thing eaten off the Ark.
Prepared Foods
Aligot
These extra-cheesy potatoes resemble decadent fondue.
Drinks
Kanji
This fermented purple carrot elixir practically makes itself.
Prepared Foods
Fried Sea Anemone
On the Andalusian coast, once-deadly tentacles become crispy delicacies.
Sweets
Keso Ice Cream
Cheddar cheese flavors a classic frozen treat in the Philippines.
Prepared Foods
Angulas
What look like noodles are actually delicious baby eels.
Drinks
Job's Tears Tea
South Koreans turned this simple grain into a nutty energy drink.
Meats & Animal Products
Chilean Sea Urchin
Flip over these prickly treasures and find creamy, orange meat.
Gastro Obscura
Black Chicken Soup
In Asia, the black-skinned silkie chicken forms the base of a medicinal broth.
Prepared Foods
Acorn Jelly
The nut goes from oak tree to savory, sesame-topped side in a matter of days.
Prepared Foods
Bara Lawr
The seaweed tops toasts and enriches oatcakes in traditional Welsh breakfasts.
Prepared Foods
Lahpet Thoke
In Myanmar, fermented tea leaves make a tangy, caffeinated salad.
Ingredients & Condiments
Arcilla de Chaco
In the Andean highlands, clay makes bitter potatoes more palatable.
Food Festivals
Small Foods Party
The competition that shrinks shrimp cocktail to the size of your pinky and fits bento into a matchbox.
Meats & Animal Products
Beondegi
In South Korean markets, steamed silkworm pupae make a juicy, nutty snack.
Sweets
Exploding Chocolate Teacakes
In the 1960s, Royal Air Force pilots made a startling discovery about their sweets.
Prepared Foods
T’anta Wawa
On All Souls' Day, South Americans celebrate life and death with "baby bread."
Prepared Foods
Juane
Peru’s leaf-wrapped rice ball might be named after John the Baptist’s decapitated head.
Drinks
Egg Cream
A fizzy, chocolate drink that harkens back to the days of Brooklyn soda fountains.
Gastro Obscura
Els Enfarinats
In Ibi, “the Floured Ones” use food, face paint, and firecrackers to stage a commemorative coup.
Meats & Animal Products
Smiley Fritz
The meat that literally puts a smile on Australians' faces.
Sweets
Superman Ice Cream
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a classic Midwestern treat!
Drinks
Makgeolli
South Korea's oldest alcoholic beverage is making a comeback.
Gastro Obscura
Maca
The Andean root once fueled Inca warriors.
Ingredients & Condiments
Red Ant Chutney
Indian harvesters endure painful bites to make an intensely spicy paste.
Drinks
Mote con Huesillos
A syrupy cup of peaches and wheat kernels is a customary reward after a Santiago mountain hike.
Sweets
Texas Sheet Cake
Funerals in the Lone Star State call for this comforting chocolate treat.
Fruits & Vegetables
Olosapo
In Central America, custard grows on trees.
Food Festivals
The Great Fruitcake Toss
Why throw old cakes away when you can launch them by hand, slingshot, or cannon?
Fruits & Vegetables
Medlars
The anus-shaped fruit tastes like cinnamon applesauce.
Gastro Obscura
Ayahuasca
One vine unlocks the powers of a psychedelic shrub.
Prepared Foods
Ram's Head Soup
This widely varying dish may come with half a face, a lone floating jaw, or a chewy tongue.
Sweets
Garlic Ice Cream
In Gilroy, California, garlic flavors everything, including desserts.
Gastro Obscura
Boucan
This grill defined a new breed of pirates.
Ingredients & Condiments
Tonka Beans
A legume so loved, it’s caused a “fever” in France and made Americans break laws.
Meats & Animal Products
Balut
In the Philippines, fertilized duck eggs are savory snacks.
Fruits & Vegetables
Cucamelon
Mexico's “mouse melon” is actually a tiny cucumber.
Sweets
Churchkhela
These delicious strands of juice-coated nuts look like colorful candlesticks.
Sweets
Snow Cream
Ice cream made with fresh snow is a beloved Southern tradition.
Meats & Animal Products
Sannakji
These severed octopus tentacles wriggle on your plate.
Gastro Obscura
Swizzle Sticks
These natural cocktail stirrers sprout from the Caribbean swizzlestick tree.
Gastro Obscura
Mustache Cups
They helped Victorian men drink tea while protecting their precious facial hair.
Drinks
Palm Springs Date Shakes
The prosperous Southern California date industry produces delicious milkshakes.
Drinks
Fog Beer at Atrapaniebla Brewery
In the Atacama Desert, brewers trap fog moisture to make crisp ales.
Fruits & Vegetables
Monstera Deliciosa
This fruit either burns your throat or tastes like a tropical medley.
Drinks
Chai at Sahu Tea Shop
In an unassuming shop in Jaipur, a family has been serving highly addictive chai for decades.
Sweets
Croquembouche
This French wedding cake is a caramel-wrapped tower of pastry balls.
Fruits & Vegetables
Hala Fruit
It looks like an exploding planet and tastes like sugarcane.
Meats & Animal Products
Churo Snails
Lima chefs love to experiment with this large Amazon river dweller.
Meats & Animal Products
Paiche
This 400-pound fish has fed Amazon tribes for millennia.
Ingredients & Condiments
Pandan Leaf Extract
This plant adds a hint of vanilla and a wash of brilliant green to any dish.
Gastro Obscura
Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
The birthplace of coffee celebrates community with a sensory feast.
Drinks
Berliner Weisse
Pink or green syrup turns a historic German ale into a tart, sweet delight.
Prepared Foods
Pique a lo Macho
Can you finish Bolivia's enormous starch-and-protein explosion?
Prepared Foods
Guatita
The Ecuadorian cure for a hangover is beef tripe stew.
Fruits & Vegetables
Stinking Toe Fruit
If you can get past the foot odor, its pulp is great in smoothies.
Prepared Foods
Blood Pancakes
Scandinavians use blood to make dense, dark, savory flapjacks.
Drinks
Hot Ale Flip
A Colonial cocktail brought to you by ale, rum, and a really hot poker.
Gastro Obscura
Guayusa
The Kichwa begin every day with tea and dream interpretation.
Sweets
Conkies
It's not Bajan Independence Day without banana leaf–wrapped corn cakes.
Meats & Animal Products
Lamprey
A prehistoric sea monster sucks blood, then gets cooked in its own.
Sweets
Melcocha
Pulling gobs of this handmade taffy yields strong arms and a sweet reward.
Ingredients & Condiments
Chicken of the Woods
This mushroom tastes just like chicken.
Sweets
Dragon's Beard Candy
The ancient confection consists of wispy sugar-strands that look like dragon whiskers.
Sweets
King Cake
The Carnival cake comes with a hidden baby Jesus inside.
Gastro Obscura
Japanese Tea Ceremony
A ritual that showcases the beauty of the present moment.
Fruits & Vegetables
Rollinia
Brazil's spiky yellow fruit has lemon meringue–flavored insides.
Gastro Obscura
Queimada
This Galician punch is set aflame to ward off evil spirits.
Meats & Animal Products
Suri Grubs
Palm weevil larvae make succulent street snacks in the Amazon.
Gastro Obscura
Loggerhead
In the Colonial era, a red-hot iron rod warmed drinks, ignited cannons, and cauterized wounds.
Ingredients & Condiments
Butterfly Pea Flower
With a squeeze of lemon, this plant can turn any drink into a color-changing mood ring.
Fruits & Vegetables
Engkala
This creamy, bright pink fruit is known as the "Borneo avocado."
Prepared Foods
Hmong Stuffed Chicken Wings
Next-level egg rolls are wrapped in an entire chicken wing.
Prepared Foods
Kholodets
Savory meat jelly with a dollop of spicy mustard is a customary New Year's dish in Russia.
Sweets
Kransekake
For special occasions, Norwegians stack 18 rings of cake into a tower.
Sweets
Salsagheti
This Mexican candy reimagines a spaghetti dinner with spicy-sour gummy noodles and tamarind sauce.
Prepared Foods
Finger Steak
Idaho's fried specialty makes steak a finger food.
Prepared Foods
Alheira
This sausage saved Jews' lives in Inquisition-era Portugal.
Prepared Foods
Bird's Nest Soup
It's expensive, it's gelatinous, it's made from swiftlet spit.
Sweets
Thrills Gum
Everyone says this vintage chewing gum tastes like soap, including the company.
Prepared Foods
Paan
This chewable Indian digestive soothes stomachs, freshens breath, and might give you cancer.
Gastro Obscura
Funeral Potatoes
A casserole of cheesy, corn flake–topped tubers offers comfort to Mormons in mourning.
Sweets
Atomic Cake
This Chicago specialty stacks three cakes into one monster dessert.
Ingredients & Condiments
Blue-Green Algae
The Aztecs used it to make protein-rich tortillas; we use it to make unicorn lattes.
Meats & Animal Products
Ñachi
This Chilean dish turns fresh blood into savory jelly.
Sweets
Afghan Biscuits
These beloved New Zealand cookies have a mysterious past.
Gastro Obscura
Sauna Sausage
In Finland, you sizzle along with your meal.
Meats & Animal Products
Caciocavallo of the Migrant
To circumvent a meat ban, Italian immigrants hid their soppressata in balls of cheese.
Drinks
Agua de Agrillo
This tart, rare flavor of agua fresca comes from Mexican skunkbush berries.
Meats & Animal Products
Palolo
To catch these coral-dwelling, caviar-flavored sea worms, you must wade into their annual mating ritual.
Prepared Foods
Breadfruit Salad
This tropical fruit once sparked a famous mutiny and now serves as a starch alternative in potato salad.
Fruits & Vegetables
Stinging Nettles
Boil away this plant's poisonous hairs, and you're left with a tasty, spinach-like leaf.
Meats & Animal Products
Salema Porgy
After dining on this fish, your next course might be 36 hours of hallucinations.
Prepared Foods
Singapore Carrot Cake
A radish scramble gets lost in translation.
Fruits & Vegetables
Jagua
This fruit makes tattoos, antibiotics, and dessert.
Gastro Obscura
Pulque
Tequila's ancient, fermented cousin is making a comeback in Mexico City.
Drinks
Bouye
Juice from the Baobab tree “tastes like sunshine” and treats dysentery.
Fruits & Vegetables
Marang
A Filipino fruit that smells like gasoline and tastes like pears, jackfruit, and pineapple.
Prepared Foods
Herring Under a Fur Coat
The most sobering salad of the Russian Civil War.
Gastro Obscura
Screech-In
To become an honorary Newfie, eat bologna, kiss a frozen cod, swear an oath, and shoot rum.
Meats & Animal Products
St. Peter's Fish
It's what you order when you're a Christian pilgrim at the Sea of Galilee.
Sweets
Shoofly Pie
Mornings in Amish country once called for pie-cake and coffee.
Gastro Obscura
Toloache
The Mesoamerican plant is used as a hallucinogen, medicine, and aphrodisiac.
Meats & Animal Products
Piure
Slice open this rock-like sea creature and you'll find tomato-red flesh that tastes great in Chilean ceviche.
Drinks
Shrub
Before refrigeration, mixing fruit with sugar and vinegar extended its shelf life and made for a tasty drink.
Prepared Foods
Vietnamese Blood Soup
Tiết canh is a sour, cool, and gelatinous breakfast.
Fruits & Vegetables
Umeboshi
These salted, pickled plums are an ancient Japanese hangover cure.
Sweets
3-D Jelly Cakes
These clear cakes house intricate scenes of fish, flowers, and more.
Prepared Foods
Snickers Salad
Made of candy and Cool Whip, this “salad” is a mainstay at Midwestern potlucks.
Prepared Foods
Boodog
To travel light, Mongolian warriors used animal carcasses as crockery.
Meats & Animal Products
Pule
The world's most expensive cheese is made from Balkan donkey milk.
Prepared Foods
Akutuq
Whipping snow, seal oil, and berries into a frosty treat takes a very deft hand.
Sweets
Kala Jamun
These dark fried milk balls are flecked with gold and dipped in scented syrup.
Meats & Animal Products
Jumiles
These Mexican bugs taste like cinnamon and alleviate arthritis pain.
Sweets
Black Cake
Fruit soaks in rum for up to a year to make this rich Caribbean Christmas cake.
Prepared Foods
Mannish Water
Jamaica's spicy goat soup is also an aphrodisiac.
Sweets
Bird Milk Chocolate
The marshmallow-based candy is named for a delicacy just out of the ancient Greeks' reach.
Sweets
Watergate Cake
Beneath its "cover-up" of icing, this dessert hides a bunch of nuts.
Gastro Obscura
Bhang
To celebrate the Holi festival, many Indians raise a glass of cannabis-infused milk.
Gastro Obscura
Chekich
These bread stamps create a dazzling array of geometric and floral patterns.
Meats & Animal Products
Gooseneck Barnacles
These expensive and dangerous-to-harvest barnacles were once confused for goose eggs.
Prepared Foods
Whitebait Fritters
It's fishy how close to an omelette this is.
Meats & Animal Products
Bonito Flakes
Some fish can dance.
Sweets
Hagelslag
The bread and butter of Dutch cuisine includes these jumbo sprinkles.
Prepared Foods
Buchada de Bode
If haggis had a South American cousin, this would be it.
Fruits & Vegetables
Cupuaçu
This Brazilian fruit is cacao's lesser-known, tangy cousin.
Sweets
Lithuanian Spit Cake
This dessert is roasted over a fire and looks like a tree.
Drinks
Orbitz
This drink hasn't been produced since the late nineties, but still has a cult following.
Ingredients & Condiments
Monkey Gland Sauce
No primates were harmed in the making of this South African steak sauce.
Prepared Foods
Clam Apizza
New Haven's signature pie combines staples from Rhode Island and Naples.
Gastro Obscura
Peyote
Mexican and American Indians have a long history with this powerful cactus.
Sweets
Dondurma
A rare orchid ingredient makes this ice cream stretchy and chewy.
Meats & Animal Products
Smen
This Moroccan butter ferments underground for years and smells like blue cheese.
Gastro Obscura
Borsok
Kyrgyzstan’s fried dough marks special occasions and "feeds" the dead.
Sweets
Musk Sticks
This classic Australian candy looks like pink toothpaste and tastes like perfume.
Drinks
Grasshopper
This bright green cocktail doubles as dessert.
Fruits & Vegetables
Ackee
Jamaica's national fruit is poisonous and resembles scrambled eggs.
Sweets
Longevity Peach
These buns artfully resemble peaches and represent immortality.
Drinks
Yak Butter Tea
It's the fat-fueled energy drink of the Tibetan Plateau.
Gastro Obscura
Shad Bake
Connecticut's state fish is cooked using a special “planking” technique.
Ingredients & Condiments
Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey
Bees get a lift from helicopters in order to produce this spicy honey.
Prepared Foods
Hangtown Fry
This bacon-and-oyster omelet was a status symbol during the California Gold Rush.
Ingredients & Condiments
Szechuan Button
This herb gives cocktails another kind of buzz.
Drinks
Chocolate Santafereño
This steamy concoction features a salty, melted surprise at the bottom of the mug: white cheese.
Sweets
Teaberry Ice Cream
This Pennsylvania specialty sometimes looks like Pepto-Bismol and smells like Bengay.
Meats & Animal Products
Bluff Oysters
The rarest oysters come from the bottom of the sea at the end of the earth.
Ingredients & Condiments
Bridal Veil Stinkhorn
This pretty mushroom smells like rotting flesh.
Prepared Foods
Bunny Chow
This curry-on-the-go hails from South Africa.
Gastro Obscura
Molinillo
Twist your way to hot chocolate perfection with this wooden whisk.
Drinks
Atol de Elote
It's delicious, unless a pregnant woman or anyone in a bad mood stirs it.
Fruits & Vegetables
Hanging Tomatoes
This tomato variety can stay fresh for six months after harvesting.
Drinks
The Zombie
Donn Beach wrote the recipe for his famously potent cocktail in secret code.
Sweets
Tavuk Göğsü
We have the Ottoman sultans to thank for this creamy Turkish dessert made of chicken breast.
Gastro Obscura
Tim Tam Slam
The world's least practical and most delicious edible straw.
Drinks
Jeppson's Malört
One of the world's least-loved liquors calls Chicago home.
Sweets
Hartford Election Cake
These massive, booze-filled cakes once made voting sweet.
Meats & Animal Products
Narutomaki
It's a whirlpool, it's an emoji, it's a fishcake!
Gastro Obscura
Fanesca
A luxurious soup that Ecuador serves up only during Holy Week.
Gastro Obscura
Haggis Hurling
One of Scotland’s quirkier sports involves tossing stuffed sheep stomachs.
Drinks
Switchel
Colonial Gatorade made from vinegar and molasses is back in style.
Prepared Foods
Takoyaki
Osaka's most famous dish is an octopus-stuffed fried dough ball.
Fruits & Vegetables
Buddha's Hand
Smells like lavender, tastes like lemon rind, looks like a gnarled claw fresh from your nightmares.
Drinks
Kumbakonam Degree Coffee
The key to this coffee is fresh milk—preferably straight from the cow.
Prepared Foods
Stargazy Pie
A traditional Cornish pie that—ARE THOSE FISH HEADS COMING OUT OF THE TOP?!
Sweets
Halo-Halo
A sundae with a surprising mix of flavors that reflect Filipino history.
Fruits & Vegetables
Chocolate Pudding Fruit
This fruit can also count as dessert.
Sweets
Faloodeh
This crunchy, sweet, and tart noodle sorbet is one of the world's oldest frozen desserts.
Drinks
Clarified Milk Punch
Just so we’re clear, there is actually milk in this old English punch.
Sweets
Fairy Bread
A rainbow of flavor that harks back to childhood.
Prepared Foods
Koolickles
Dill pickles soaked in Kool-Aid? Oh, yeah!
Ingredients & Condiments
Okinawa Black Sugar
It's darker, saltier, and healthier than white sugar.
Ingredients & Condiments
Miti
Fiji's signature coconut condiment makes creamy, spicy ceviche.
Prepared Foods
Hverabrauð
Iceland's thick, chewy "hot spring bread" is just like regular rye bread, with one big difference.
Ingredients & Condiments
Bovril
This "Fluid of Beef" fed an army and makes a hearty tea.
Prepared Foods
Canned Bread
A New England tradition of steaming bread in coffee tins gave rise to this niche snack.
Ingredients & Condiments
Carolina Gold
This varietal of rice is so good that it's compared to ice cream.
Ingredients & Condiments
Ice Cream Bean
The South American bean that looks like cotton candy and tastes like ice cream.
Gastro Obscura
Maror
The bitter herb served on Passover can be anything from horseradish to lettuce.
Fruits & Vegetables
Bush Coconut
All bush coconuts come with a free, juicy worm inside.
Meats & Animal Products
Hamam Mahshi
Egyptian pigeons are raised in special towers, then stuffed and eaten.
Sweets
Brooklyn Blackout Cake
A cake as dark as a city hiding from enemy bombers.
Prepared Foods
Coffee Jelly
Leftover coffee plus gelatin equals this vintage dessert.
Gastro Obscura
Clambake
An ancient cooking method still produces delicious, beachside feasts.
Sweets
Kendal Mint Cake
The original energy bar.
Prepared Foods
Red Snappers
The reddest of the red meat.
Gastro Obscura
Victorian Soda Fountains
Once upon a time, getting your carbonation fix required a visit to a monstrous machine.
Sweets
Tiger Tail Ice Cream
This orange and black licorice flavor is kind of a big deal in Canada.
Drinks
Coffee Milk
Would you like some coffee flavor with your milk?
Sweets
It's It
This classic San Franciscan ice cream sandwich is it, isn't it?
Gastro Obscura
Réttir
Iceland's annual tradition of rounding up 800,000 sheep.
Food Festivals
Egg Throwing World Championships
England's annual event features relays, trebuchets, and Russian egg roulette.
Prepared Foods
Bedfordshire Clanger
A double-ended British pastry that's both main course and dessert.
Prepared Foods
Ortolan Bunting
A cruel cooking method turns this tiny songbird into a rare delicacy.
Meats & Animal Products
Brie Noir
Brie's dark, older cousin can only be found in one region of France.
Sweets
Sugar on Snow
Where maple sap flows, all one needs to make taffy is snow.
Gastro Obscura
Tea Dance
The surprisingly subversive history of dancing over afternoon tea.
Sweets
Honey Toast Box
Many spoons are needed to demolish one of these ice cream-stuffed bread loaves.
Gastro Obscura
Field Ration Eating Device
The tool, found in Australian military ration packs, is considered handy by some and awful by others.
Gastro Obscura
Ice Cream Fork
A relic from the era of highly specialized cutlery.
Gastro Obscura
Nathan’s Famous French Fry Fork
The hot dog chain’s charming “bi-dent” picks up potatoes with ease.
Gastro Obscura
Penny Lick
This is some deceptive, dirty ice cream ware.
Gastro Obscura
Sumalak
A sweet and simple pudding traditionally made in a joyous, spring ritual.
Sweets
Needhams
A candy made with chocolate, coconut and ... mashed potatoes?
Prepared Foods
Chow Mein Sandwich
Crispy noodles meet a sea of gravy inside a hamburger bun.
Sweets
Chocolate Fish
The sweet Kiwi treat that represents a token reward.
Fruits & Vegetables
Durian
The fruit so pungent it's banned from trains, hotels, and public places.
Gastro Obscura
Curanto
Chile’s clambake may be the world's oldest recipe.
Gastro Obscura
Salt Cellars
These embellished containers didn’t just sit pretty on the table; they determined social standing.
Sweets
Kava
The South Pacific's shrub-based drink causes relaxation, euphoria, and a tingling sensation.
Fruits & Vegetables
Maine Wild Blueberries
The sweet, tiny wild berries are only available for two months each year.
Gastro Obscura
Ul Boov
Mongolia's "shoe sole cake" has the ritual significance of a Christmas tree or family shrine.
Ingredients & Condiments
Maggi Seasoning
This condiment proves that what the world considers delicious is (nearly) universal.
Fruits & Vegetables
Calçot
The Catalan green onion has its own festival.
Gastro Obscura
Celery Vase
Remembering a time when designated celery vases were prized centerpieces.
Fruits & Vegetables
Pawpaw
The oldest fruit native to North America is probably the least known.
Sweets
Berger Cookies
They're a Baltimore-specific guilty pleasure.
Gastro Obscura
Goon Sack
The least interesting thing Australians do with these giant, inflatable wine bags is drink from them.
Sweets
Yule Log Cake
These holiday cakes link Christmas to the Norse god of lightning.
Prepared Foods
Pie Floater
The Aussie street food meal of meat pie on a sea of peas.
Drinks
Buckfast
The caffeinated wine is made by British monks and loved by Scottish criminals.
Ingredients & Condiments
Fry Sauce
It's so much more than just mayonnaise and ketchup.
Prepared Foods
Democracy Sausage
Come to vote, leave with a sausage.
Gastro Obscura
Kratom Tea
This Southeast Asian leaf can wake you up, knock you out, and subdue heroin withdrawal.
Gastro Obscura
Mir Space Station Dining Table
Cosmonauts and astronauts reheated food and formed bonds over this high-tech table.
Gastro Obscura
Coconut Grater Stool
You put the grater in the coconut...
Gastro Obscura
Iboga
The psychedelic root used in a sacred Bwiti ritual may also treat heroin withdrawal.
Gastro Obscura
Koliva
Drooling over this nutty spiced dessert is a heretical move.
Gastro Obscura
Dunmow Flitch Trials
Only the happiest married couples can win this huge piece of bacon.
Gastro Obscura
Asturian Cider Pouring
A Spanish ritual meant to inject effervescence into a flat drink.
Prepared Foods
Adjaruli Khachapuri
Economists use this cheesy bread as a metric for cost of living between Georgian cities.
Drinks
Tigernut Milk
When soaked and blended with water, the tigernut creates a nutritious nondairy beverage.
Meats & Animal Products
Raw Lamb Liver
This traditional Lebanese breakfast is served with sheep tail fat.
Prepared Foods
Spaghetti Omelette Sandwich
It's three meals in one!
Drinks
Salep
A flour made from orchid roots makes for a popular Turkish drink.
Prepared Foods
Hákarl
Iceland's fermented, dried shark smells like urine and can taste like strong cheese.
Prepared Foods
Sour Rams' Testicles
This Icelandic delicacy is served at the coldest time of the year.
Sweets
Egg Waffles
These portable pancake sheets have a crispy, hollow side and a sweet, doughy side.
Prepared Foods
Blue Corn Mush
Adding juniper ash to this traditional Navajo dish gives it as much calcium as a glass of milk.
Drinks
Moose Milk
Eggnog gone wild, brought to you by the Canadian Military.
Meats & Animal Products
Casu Marzu
The Sardinian cheese that wriggles with maggots.
Drinks
Jamaican Irish Moss Drink
Drinking algae has never been sexier.
Prepared Foods
Blueberry Duff
A Canadian pudding that's boiled in a bag and is interchangeably lunch and dessert.
Prepared Foods
Senate Bean Soup
A bland but storied soup is always on the menu in the U.S. Senate.
Sweets
Knickerbocker Glory
Not even Harry Potter could resist this whimsical British dessert.
Meats & Animal Products
Reddi-Bacon
From the makers of Reddi-Wip, instant bacon that would destroy your toaster.
Prepared Foods
Slugburger
No slugs were harmed in the making of this five-cent sandwich.
Meats & Animal Products
Salo
Usually, the only heat that gets close to this raw pork fat is a sprinkle of pepper.
Ingredients & Condiments
Montreal Steak Spice
Pastrami fans will find the taste of this Canadian spice blend very familiar.
Drinks
Kopi Luwak
This is one expensive load of crap.
Fruits & Vegetables
Miracle Berries
When life gives you lemons, this tropical fruit makes 'em taste like lemonade.
Meats & Animal Products
Cow Blood
Drinking fresh blood is both sacred and ordinary for the Maasai people.
Drinks
Vin Mariani
Presidents and popes loved this cocaine-infused wine.
Meats & Animal Products
Tastee Cheese
It's not Jamaican Easter without canned, processed cheddar cheese.
Meats & Animal Products
Nsenene
This grasshopper snack is crispy like fried chicken.
Meats & Animal Products
Tamilok
In the Philippines, the worm is your oyster.
Meats & Animal Products
Pork Roll
Don't call the crown jewel of New Jersey "Canadian bacon."
Prepared Foods
Budae Jjigae
All is fare in the Korean War.
Drinks
Allen's Coffee Brandy
Maine's top-selling spirit that almost no one else drinks.
Fruits & Vegetables
Sea Grapes
This "green caviar" is vegetarian friendly.
Prepared Foods
The Original McDonald's French Fry
The beef fat–fried version that first caught Ray Kroc's eye is now extinct.
Drinks
Cel-Ray
Quench your thirst with the refreshing taste of celery soda.
Drinks
Palm Wine
It takes only two hours for palm sap to become palm wine.
Gastro Obscura
Artificial Asses' Milk
Donkey milk was once so coveted that people used snails to make an artificial version.
Fruits & Vegetables
Enset
Some bread goes in the oven for an hour; some goes underground for two years.
Gastro Obscura
Chaga Mushroom
This coffee additive and killer of trees has a reputation as a medical marvel.
Drinks
Cheerwine
A World War I sugar shortage led an inventor to make a very cherry soda that looks like wine.
Meats & Animal Products
Escamoles
The eggs of "the farty ant" have earned a reputation as the caviar of the desert.
Drinks
Ramos Gin Fizz
Turning this cocktail into a fluffy cloud is easy—just hire someone to shake it for 12 minutes straight.
Prepared Foods
Shit on a Shingle
This is what happens when soldiers pick a new name for meat on bread.
Drinks
Moxie
This cure-all-turned-soda once outsold Coca-Cola.
Prepared Foods
Johnnycakes
The cornmeal patty that Rhode Islanders eat morning, noon, and night.
Drinks
Pickleback
A bar sharing a basement with a pickle place led to an unusual drink.
Drinks
Vietnamese Egg Coffee
A decadent blend of coffee, whipped egg, and butter have made this wartime invention a modern-day favorite.
Gastro Obscura
Chicha de Jora
The Colombian government declared war on this once-ubiquitous drink.
Prepared Foods
Gatsby
This Cape Town sandwich is as extravagant as a certain literary character.
Prepared Foods
Pylsur
Icelanders make a very, very good dog.
Ingredients & Condiments
Sourdough Starter
A century-old organism creates some of the world's best bread.
Prepared Foods
Kānga Pirau
A delicious corn-based porridge that happens to smell like vomit.
Prepared Foods
Cuy
The guinea pig is both food and pet in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
Ingredients & Condiments
Chuños
A key step in the Andean technique of freeze-drying potatoes is stomping on them.
Prepared Foods
Chopped Cheese
This staple sandwich of Brooklyn delis has become a symbol of gentrification.
Fruits & Vegetables
Square Watermelons
They grow in boxes and can cost more than $100.
Ingredients & Condiments
Mustard Pickles
This zippy Newfoundland condiment inspires a deep, burning loyalty.
Ingredients & Condiments
Lobster Mushroom
This mushroom isn't a mushroom at all.
Drinks
Birch Beer
This cousin of root beer has a long history and a surprisingly minty taste.
Prepared Foods
Taco Rice
This Okinawan specialty resembles a Japanese take on Taco Bell.
Gastro Obscura
Beefsteak Banquet
A tradition built around beef, beer, and the absence of napkins or forks.
Prepared Foods
Steamed Cheeseburger
For a juicier burger, steam it like a vegetable.
Meats & Animal Products
Tomalley
That green stuff inside a lobster? You can (usually) eat it.
Prepared Foods
Deep-Fried Peanuts
You eat the shell, too.
Ingredients & Condiments
Huitlacoche
The Mexican fungal delicacy that makes corn taste like a mushroom.
Meats & Animal Products
Hagfish
One man's fish slime is another man's delicious, faux egg white.
Prepared Foods
The Fluffernutter
A completely delicious, nearly nutrient-free sandwich beloved by generations of New Englanders.
Prepared Foods
Dutch Soused Herring
No one eats pickled herring like the Dutch.
Prepared Foods
Jell-O Salad
Meat covered in gelatinous goo was once a classic American comfort food.
Drinks
Tutankhamun Ale
This beer was popular more than 3,000 years ago.
Load More
1368
more items to discover
Filter +
Questions or Feedback?
Contact Us
Gastro Obscura Food
Browse via the filters below
Category
Drinks
Food Festivals
Fruits & Vegetables
Ingredients & Condiments
Meats & Animal Products
Prepared Foods
Sweets
Region
Africa
Asia
Caribbean
Central America
Europe
Middle East
North America
Oceania
South America
Preorder
America Obscura
Today!
A road trip into the hidden heart of America—a love letter to the strange, fantastic, and beautiful corners of the United States. Available Nov 10, 2026.
Preorder Now!
We'd Like You to Like Us
Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed.
aoc-full-screen
aoc-heart-solid
aoc-compass
aoc-flipboard
aoc-globe
aoc-pocket
aoc-share
aoc-cancel
aoc-video
aoc-building
aoc-clock
aoc-clipboard
aoc-help
aoc-arrow-right
aoc-arrow-left
aoc-ticket
aoc-place-entry
aoc-facebook
aoc-instagram
aoc-facebook-share
aoc-reddit
aoc-rss
aoc-twitter
aoc-accommodation
aoc-activity-level
aoc-add-a-photo
aoc-add-box
aoc-add-shape
aoc-arrow-forward
aoc-been-here
aoc-chat-bubbles
aoc-close
aoc-expand-more
aoc-expand-less
aoc-forum-flag
aoc-group-size
aoc-heart-outline
aoc-heart-solid
aoc-home
aoc-important
aoc-knife-fork
aoc-library-books
aoc-link
aoc-list-circle-bullets
aoc-list
aoc-location-add
aoc-location
aoc-mail
aoc-map
aoc-menu
aoc-more-horizontal
aoc-my-location
aoc-near-me
aoc-notifications-alert
aoc-notifications-mentions
aoc-notifications-muted
aoc-notifications-tracking
aoc-open-in-new
aoc-pencil
aoc-person
aoc-pinned
aoc-plane-takeoff
aoc-plane
passport-plane
aoc-print
aoc-reply
aoc-search
aoc-shuffle
aoc-star
aoc-subject
aoc-trip-style
aoc-unpinned
aoc-send
aoc-phone
aoc-apps
aoc-lock
aoc-verified
aoc-headphones
aoc-pinterest
aoc-whatsapp
aoc-whatsapp-share
aoc-chat-bubbles
aoc-google-color