Foods Sam LaFrance Has Tried

This hand-pulled cotton candy treat from Iran looks like threads of unspun silk.

This sugar-soaked South Asian sweet isn’t your basic bread pudding.

A 2,500-year-old Persian dessert evolved into this Indian summertime favorite.

This edible silver garnish has long added bling to South Asian cuisine.

The plant's fruit, leaves, and bark offer a spice rack of flavors.

Once made by monks, this candy spends 15 days rolling in sugar syrup to get its pearly-white shell.

The holiday tradition of hiding an ornamental veggie.

The briny, refreshing ice cream acts as a cooling chaser to spicy meals.

Slurp this sweet and savory summer treat from a tamarind-and-chili-paste-coated straw.

A dark soda with a dark history.

From postwar dessert to sweet slice of Canadian identity.

There's nothing tragic about this Brazilian pairing of salty, white cheese and guava paste.

The Japanese soda still comes in a marble-stoppered bottle from the 19th century.

In the 1970s, housewives stabbed their cakes and filled the holes with Jell-O.

This German sundae masquerades as an Italian dinner.

The Carnival cake comes with a hidden baby Jesus inside.

South Korea's oldest alcoholic beverage is making a comeback.

This crunchy, sweet, and tart noodle sorbet is one of the world's oldest frozen desserts.

A completely delicious, nearly nutrient-free sandwich beloved by generations of New Englanders.

You eat the shell, too.

This cousin of root beer has a long history and a surprisingly minty taste.

This cure-all-turned-soda once outsold Coca-Cola.

A World War I sugar shortage led an inventor to make a very cherry soda that looks like wine.

It's so much more than just mayonnaise and ketchup.