Foods sylvia Has Tried

To make the perfect matcha, start with the perfect whisk.

This shape-shifting bread has kept its traditional name, but continued to reinvent itself with changing times.

A wartime rice scarcity made this versatile pancake a Japanese staple.

The Mexican fungal delicacy that makes corn taste like a mushroom.

In the city of Celaya, goat's milk caramel tops everything from ice cream to cereal.

For a meaty essence, producers dangle raw chicken breast over their stills.

The Mesoamerican mortar and pestle has been made, and used, the same way for thousands of years.

Not even the 17th-century nuns behind this Mexican eggnog could resist drinking it.

The fairest and rarest of them all.

The Kichwa begin every day with tea and dream interpretation.

One vine unlocks the powers of a psychedelic shrub.

The Andean root once fueled Inca warriors.

Peru's purple drink made from purple corn.

Relatively unknown outside South America, the tart, tomato-like fruit makes beloved juices and cocktails.

Growing this sweet, tropical fruit sometimes requires careful hand-pollination with a paint brush.

This condiment proves that what the world considers delicious is (nearly) universal.

A bitter liqueur that traces the history of a Hungarian-Jewish family.

There's a legend that this Latvian herbal liqueur saved an ailing Catherine the Great.

Grown in the volcanic soil around Mt. Vesuvius, these tomatoes are one of only a couple varieties used in authentic Neapolitan pizza.

Only two silent monks know all 130 plants that go into this herbal liqueur.

The ancestral soup of the Q’eqchi’ Maya packs heat and history.

This signature pepper has been a hot commodity since the Maya era.

This alcoholic drink has medicinal properties (and sometimes contains turtle penis).

For a brief seasonal window in Spain, snails go from dreaded pests to coveted tapas.