There are plenty of foods that are either named after places or are assumed to come from certain places. The following is a list of certain food origins that we’re frequently wrong about.

10German Chocolate Cake

German chocolate cake is delicious, but its name is lying to you; it’s not German at all. It was named after a German, though: a man named Sam German. He didn’t invent the cake itself, but back in 1852, he created a chocolate bar. It was different from normal chocolate (at the time) because it was made for cooking, and it came to be called Baker’s German Sweet Chocolate.

The first time the recipe for this cake was published was way back in the late ’50s. It was advertised in a Dallas newspaper and became popular almost immediately. The demand for German’s baking chocolate skyrocketed, and his name became synonymous with the dessert.

9 Baked Alaska

The Baked Alaska dessert was actually invented in New York City, most likely in 1868—the same year the US purchased Alaska from Russia. Charles Ranhofer, the chef who named it, called it Baked Alaska to cash in on the fame of the recently completed deal. It was considered a luxury at the time, since making ice cream in the 1860s was a laborious process and wasn’t yet mechanized.

8 French Dip

The French dip sandwich, perhaps unsurprisingly, isn’t from France. It was invented at Phillipe’s in Los Angeles, in 1918. The first sandwich of its kind came about by accident. The restaurant’s namesake, Phillipe Mathieu, was making a sandwich for a police officer when he accidentally dropped the roll into hot oil. The officer (supposedly named French) bought it anyway. He loved it so much that he returned the next day with his friends and they all ordered their rolls dipped in oil.

Another restaurant in the area, Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet, also claim the invention of the French dip. In their version, they dipped the bread in jus (like au jus) to make it softer for a customer that was on her way back from a dentist’s appointment.

7 Coney Dog

The Coney dog may be attributed to Coney Island, but its true origins lie a few states west: Michigan. Much like the French dip, the exact origin is unknown, as there are three different eateries that claim they invented the iconic dog. All three restaurants are located in Michigan. So there you have it. While we can’t be sure of the exact origin, we know it’s definitely not from New York.

6 Curry Powder

The curry powder we know today is nothing like the original spice it was supposed to mimic. It was heavily influenced by the British, and in India it isn’t even referred to as curry. They call it masala, and there are many different varieties. The curry powder we know best is what the British produced when they tried to replicate the flavors they encountered in traditional Indian cooking. True Indian curry powder is custom-made to accompany whatever food is being prepared.

5 Maraschino Cherries

Maraschino cherries may have an Italian-sounding name, but they actually come from Croatia. Originally, Maraschino was the name of a liquor made from the Croatian Marasca cherries. Then fresh cherries were preserved in their own alcohol, and that’s what a Maraschino cherry is (or was). In the 1800s, they made their way to the US, where Americans replaced the Marasca cherries with Queen Anne cherries, which grew in Oregon. In 1912, the USDA formalized the term, and any non-Marasca cherry had to be labeled as an imitation product.

The Maraschino cherries you buy at the grocery store today are made using a different method, one that’s alcohol-free. First they’re brined in a liquid calcium solution. Then they’re placed in sweetened, artificially colored syrup.

4 Ketchup

Ketchup may seem like an American invention since it’s a featured condiment for almost every American food from meatloaf to eggs. However, ketchup originated from a different type of sauce from China, which was made from fish. Five hundred years ago, Chinese sailors were sailing down the Mekong coast when they found a sauce made from fermented anchovies. The sauce was popular in Vietnam, and the Chinese sailors gave it the name “ke-tchup.” This name is in the ancient language Hokkien, and the last syllable, “tchup,” means “sauce.”

In the 17th century, British traders made their way to the region, and they ended up discovering ke-tchup. One hundred years later, they were hooked and ke-tchup became a prized possession.

3 Sauerkraut

“Sauerkraut” means “sour cabbage” in German, so you’d think it was a German invention. While it goes well with most German food, the original was Chinese. It came about around 2,000 years ago and was enjoyed by laborers building the Great Wall. The only real difference is that the Chinese fermented their cabbage in rice wine. The Germans draw out the water with salt.

It was popular with Chinese workers because it was a good vitamin source, stored easily and did not spoil, and was a cheap and widely available food.

2 Bologna

The bologna we eat today is nothing like the food it’s originally based on. Bologna is supposedly named after the city in Italy, but the meat it is most similar to is mortadella. Mortadella is actually from Italy but only slightly resembles bologna. It’s often eaten by itself or as part of an appetizer platter with cheese, bread, or sliced peppers and tomatoes. bologna is a sliced, processed meat and is most often used in sandwiches.

Mortadella is of much higher quality and uses only the finest pork meat. It is liberally sprinkled with cubes of pure pork fat and minced, mixing everything together. The original stuff from Bologna will be marked as such and will have added pistachios and black pepper.

1 Tempura

While we may attribute tempura cooking to the Japanese, it was actually a Portuguese innovation. Evidence lies in old Moorish cookbooks from the 13th century that feature tempura recipes. The word “tempura” is actually thought to have derived from the Portuguese word “temporas” which means “Lent.” This makes sense, as the Catholic population would eat fish on Fridays and eventually decided to fry it—possibly because everything tastes better when it’s fried.

Portuguese sailors (including traders and missionaries) spread it throughout the world, and it took hold in Japan in the 16th century. It spread to England as well, and is now part of their world-famous fish and chips.

Eating out-of-date food is a gamble. On one hand, it could be perfectly fine; on the other, it could lead to crippling diarrhea and a ruined sofa. With that in mind, we’d advise people to avoid eating while reading this—not because it’s disgusting, but because it teaches us that food can be left for a lot longer than most of us assume. For example, consider . . . 

10 Kiviaq, The Dish You Leave Outside For 18 Months

In Greenland, during the colder winter months, food was traditionally incredibly scarce. Natives came up with a rather ingenious solution to the problem of potentially starving to death: kiviaq, a food that stays edible for up to a year, even if you leave it outside.

We should point out that we’re using the word “edible” very liberally here. Kiviaq is so pungent it’s advised to never eat it indoors, but it does stave off hunger, which is why we assume people still tolerate it. The dish is made by shoving as many auks (sea birds) into a seal carcass as possible, which is usually between 300 and 400 birds. The seal skin is then sewn up and stored under rocks.

The tiny auks liquefy and melt into a fine gooey paste. It may not be tasty, or good at parties, but you have to be impressed that you can leave food out in a pit and still be able to eat it a year later. Try that with a sandwich and a squirrel will just take it. But speaking of sandwiches . . . 

9 Battle Butties, The Sandwich That’s Fresh Two Years After You Buy It

The military has had a tradition of feeding personnel long-lasting, freeze-dried meals, but soldiers would always ask for the one thing they’d rather be eating: a simple fresh sandwich.

Scientists found two problems while trying to create a non-perishable sandwich. Bread goes stale, and the filling makes the bread soggy. Both problems may have been solved with the invention of “Battle Butties” a new, long-lasting sandwich that can sit for an astounding two years before going stale.

The creators say their ultimate goal is to create an immortal peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but in the meantime, soldiers have been generally positive about the fillings already on offer. As once soldier put it, “They’re the best two-year-old sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.”

We guess that’s as a good a review as they’re going to get.

8 Hardtack, The Cracker That Lasts For Years

When the military doesn’t feel like bothering with such details as “freshness” and “flavor,” it comes up with low-tech foods that last a good deal longer than any sandwich. For centuries, soldiers and sailors dined on a type of cracker called “hardtack.” The cracker contains just water, flour, and salt, and it’s specifically made to be as dry as possible to increase its lifespan. Though it’s commonly associated with the Civil War, variations on the hardtack recipe have existed for hundreds if not thousands of years.

We don’t really know the upper limit of hardtack’s lifespan, but soldiers regularly received year-old hardtack during the Civil War. These soldiers were so wary of the cracker that they often joked that the “BC” stamp on it represented not the bakers initials, but the date it was made.

Due to its exceptional dryness, a properly stored cracker would indeed last for years, at which point it could be eaten by adding it to water, coffee, or even whisky. Although you could eat hardtack dry, it was highly advised not to. If you’re wondering why, an alternate name for hardtack was “tooth dullers.”

Though unsubstantiated, persistent rumors even say hardtack made during the Civil War was later reissued during the Spanish-American War 35 years later.

7 Rations That Lasted 40 Years

Actually, never mind those rumors about hardtack. We know for certain that some military rations have lasted 35 years—and then some.

Stories tell of rations dating back as far as World War II being eaten up to 75 years after being prepared, but we’d like to focus on one story in particular. Mainly because the food in question is cake, a food that normally goes bad in just days.

US Army Colonel Henry Moak made a promise to himself that on the day he retired, he’d eat a piece of pound cake issued to him during the Vietnam War. True to his word, at his retirement ceremony in 2009, Moak opened and then consumed a 40-year-old piece of cake. He cut it with a sabre, of course, for optimal coolness.

Asked about the taste, Moak responded with a simple thumbs up, which means either it tasted great or he wanted an ambulance.

6 The Chicken Eaten After 50 Years

When Les Lailey married his wife Beryl in 1956, he made a promise that one-upped Colonel Moak’s. The pair received a can of chicken in a wedding gift hamper, and Les proclaimed to his new wife, “On our 50th wedding anniversary, I will eat that can of chicken.”

That can of chicken served as a constant sentinel to their marriage over the next 50 years. And on their anniversary in 2006, Les opened the can and dug in. He suffered no ill effect, other than a canned-shaped hole in his life as a result of eating poultry older than most people he’d ever met.

5 The 64-Year-Old Can Of Lard

Some of you may not even know what lard is, since it’s one of those things you rarely see anymore. Lard is animal fat that was commonly used in cooking. It can also be eaten raw, or with bread if you really have nothing else to cook with it.

We don’t advise people to take that latter option, but it’s the path eventually chosen by German food expert Hans Feldmeier. Hans received a can of lard in 1948 as part of a care package to Germany from the US, and he decided that he’d save the freedom fat for emergencies.

Sixty-four years later, no emergency had presented itself. But Hans did find himself getting into an argument one day about canned foods and expiry dates. The man pointed to his own can of lard (which had no expiry date on it) as proof that food in cans lasts more or less indefinitely.

Hans’s argument convinced no one, so he put his lard where is mouth was, opening the can and eating the contents. This proved his point, and also gave him the worst case of stink breath recorded in German history.

4 The 125-Year-Old Cake, Eaten By Jay Leno

We were pretty impressed a little while back by the army’s aged pound cake, but if we choose a different cake type, we can up the ante quite a bit. Bakers and cake aficionados reading this are likely well aware that fruit cake takes months to make properly and can last for years. Under the right conditions, science says that a fruitcake could last forever.

Fidelia Bates baked a regular fruitcake for Thanksgiving in 1878. She died before the holiday, and her family sentenced the cake to eternity in limbo beneath a plastic cover. In 2003, the ancient fruitcake got a last shot at life when Morgan Ford, Fidelia’s 83-year-old great grandson, sent it to Jay Leno at the Tonight Show. He took a bite with no visible ill effects.

3 Wine Drunk After Hundreds Of Years

Wine does indeed last for centuries, and people regularly pay incredible amounts for bottles found in forgotten larders or shipwrecks. But how often do those buyers actually end up drinking from the bottle? Rarely maybe—but it happens.

In 2010, for example, Finnish divers found 200-year-old bottles of beer and champagne in a boat wrecked in the middle of the Baltic sea. Researchers drank several of them after testing and declaring them safe for consumption. It just so happens that the bottom of the ocean is a great place to store alcohol. According to champagne bigwig Richard Juhlin, “Bottles kept at the bottom of the sea are better kept than in the finest wine cellars.”

As for the beer, the crew were hugely excited about it. Along with getting to shotgun a bottle older than a house, they had the chance to analyze the contents to replicate the recipe. The beer fizzed up as they opened it, indicating that the yeast inside it was still alive.

In other parts of the world, people have dug up and drunk even older bottles of wine. Perhaps the oldest ever were consumed by wine experts working with the Museum of London in 1999. The team tested 300-year-old wine bottles from a nearby archaeological excavation and then promptly drank the contents, for science. The experts described the irreplaceable wine as “fresh, clean, lively.” Which is pretty much what you’d find written on a 10-dollar bottle of plonk at 7/11. Great insight, guys.

2 Honey Edible After Thousands Of Years

Honey will virtually never go bad. Ever.

It can last for “millennia,” according to the Smithsonian Institute. This is because of honey’s acidic nature, and because it is “hygroscopic,” which is fancy way of saying it contains little moisture.

Honey is so hardy that scientists opening up ancient Egyptian tombs have found completely edible pots of honey among the 5,000-year-old mummies.

1 Animals Eaten After 50,000 Years

That’s not a typo. People have actually eaten food older than most of humanity itself.

If you’re wondering which magical animals have flesh edible after such a length of time, we hate to disappoint you by not answering, “Unicorns.” But we’ll try to make up for that disappointment by answering with: “Extinct ones.”

Mammoth corpses can and have been found with plenty of meat on their bones, due to the bodies lying in areas covered in permafrost. Some of this flesh is indeed edible. Many unconfirmed but interesting stories tell of hungry explorers, usually Russian ones, taking bites out of mammoth corpses.

We also have some confirmed cases of people eating food tens of thousands of years old. Like the paleontologists who cooked and ate a dish made with the marrow of a 50,000-year-old horse bone. Or the researchers who ate a piece of meat from a 36,000-year-old bison corpse, for no other reason than to see if they could.

We guess what we’re trying to say is one of two things. One: Old food isn’t going to kill you if you’re careful. Two: Studying hard might let you eat a dinosaur steak.

If you’d like to contact Karl, you can do so via Twitter or Facebook.

Over time, plenty of place names have become attached to food. For example, Hamburg got the hamburger and Brussels got the Brussels sprout. But more rarely, a person’s name would be immortalized in cuisine.

10Richard Williams And Enoch Bartlett

Outside of Asia, the most common variety of pear is the Williams pear, a special offshoot of the European pear tree species. It’s named after Richard Williams, who raised the trees in his nursery and spread them across England. It’s said that the first ones came from the yard of a schoolmaster in the village of Aldermaston.

An American named James Carter (not the peanut-farming President) brought several Williams pear trees to the United States. They were planted on land owned by Thomas Brewer in Roxbury, Massachusetts. That land ended up in the hands of one Enoch Bartlett, who sold the pears and spread them across North America. Maybe he didn’t know they already had a name, or maybe he just ignored that minor fact, but he called them Bartlett pears and the name stuck. It’s what North Americans call them to this day.

9Otto Von Bismarck

Jelly-filled doughnuts (with no doughnut hole) originated in Germany, where they were traditionally eaten to celebrate New Year’s Eve and the carnival days before Lent (Rose Monday and Shrove Tuesday). They’re usually frosted with icing, topped with whipped cream, or sprinkled with sugar. The filling could actually be jelly, jam, chocolate, custard, or something else.

German immigrants brought many of their traditions to North America, including the jelly-filled doughnut. Some North Americans call them Bismarcks (or Bismarks). Other North Americans call them jelly doughnuts or jam busters. There’s no known record of how the word Bismarck was first applied to the snack, but Otto von Bismarck was a world-renowned German in the 1800s. He was first Chancellor of Germany, and many American things were named after him, including the capital of North Dakota.

There’s also an entirely different food known as a Bismarck! That would be the Dutch baby pancake, a sweet, light, hollow roll (popover) normally served at breakfast. Despite their name, they were invented by a restaurant in Seattle.

8Ah Bing

Ah Bing was born in Manchuria, China in the first half of the 19th century. He eventually traveled to America and around 1855 he found work in the orchards of the Lewelling family near Milwaukie, Oregon. Over time, he became a foreman, overseeing 30 other workers.

Seth Lewelling, the brother of the original orchard founder, was a horticulturist who was very good at developing new varieties of cherry. In 1860, he grew the first Black Republican cherry tree (the name sounds strange now, but meant something different then). In 1875, a Black Republican planting produced a promising seedling—the cherries were so big that some people mistook them for crabapples! Seth named the new variety the Bing cherry, after his foreman.

Over time, the Bing cherry became very popular, and it’s still the most produced variety of sweet cherry in the USA. In 1889, Ah Bing returned to China to visit his family. The US government’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented him from returning to America.

7A Boy Named Henry

The Oh Henry! is a candy bar containing fudge, peanuts, and caramel. It’s made by Nestle in the USA and by Hershey in Canada (the two versions are actually a little bit different). The official history (from the Nestle and Hershey Canada websites) says that the original Oh Henry! bar was introduced in 1920, by the Williamson Candy Company of Chicago.

“The bar was named after a boy who used to come into the Williamson Candy Company factory to flirt with the girls making candy. Every time the girls needed to have something done, they would call ‘Oh Henry!’ ”

Aww, how sweet. Is it true, though? There are other stories. One says that George Williamson (the founder of the candy company) enjoyed the short stories of William Sydney Porter, who wrote under the pen name O. Henry. Another story says the candy bar was originally developed by, and named after, Tom Henry, a candy maker who would help others improve their candy bars. One thing is certain—it wasn’t named after King Henry VIII.

6Brother Marie-Clement

Vital Rodier was born in central France in the early 19th century. In 1859, he traveled to northern Algeria and joined the Brothers of the Annunciation, a Catholic organization of which his uncle was already a member. He became Brother Marie-Clement. The brotherhood ran an orphanage, which Rodier helped to manage.

The orphanage included a large farm, and Brother Marie-Clement soon took a keen interest in horticulture. At some point, he either developed or discovered a new variety of citrus fruit (it may actually have originated in the Orient). The French botanist Louis Trabut noted the new variety and recommended it be called the Clementine in honor of Marie-Clement.

Clementines are also sometimes called Christmas oranges, because their peak season is November through January. They were once thought to be a hybrid of a mandarin and a bitter orange, but modern genetic studies have confirmed that they’re a hybrid of mandarins and sweet oranges.

5Reuben Kulakofsky Or Arnold Reuben

Most people agree that a Reuben sandwich includes rye bread, corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut—but who was Reuben? There are two common claims.

One claim is that Reuben was Reuben Kulakofsky (or Kolakofsky), a grocer from Omaha, Nebraska. Apparently, he devised the sandwich for late-night poker players at the Blackstone Hotel. That claim seems unlikely, since Kulakofsky was Jewish and it wouldn’t be kosher to mix beef and cheese, but maybe it was a joke?

The second common claim is that the Reuben sandwich originated at the now-defunct Reuben’s (or Reuben’s Restaurant), a deli in New York City named after its founder, Arnold Reuben. In fact, that claim has several variations. The most common one says that actress Anna Seelos came into the deli after her nightly performance. She asked for a sandwich and got one with rye bread, baked Virginia ham, roast turkey, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, and Reuben’s special Russian dressing. That version was known as the “Reuben Special,” and the Reuben sandwich was a variation that came later.

Unfortunately, there are no known reliable records to establish which claim is true.

4Clara “Tootsie” Hirshfield

Tootsie Rolls are marketed as “the iconic treat that offers a perfectly-balanced cocoa taste, lined with a subtle, fruit-flavored undertone.” (This scribbler would describe them as an individually-wrapped mini-log, not-quite caramel and not-quite chocolate and which he was not-quite happy to get for Halloween.)

Would you believe that Tootsie Roll Industries Inc., the maker of Tootsie Rolls, is a publicly traded company which booked about US$540 million in revenue in 2013? The company was founded in 1896 by Leo Hirshfield, an Austrian immigrant to the United States. Tootsie Rolls were their first product, but over time they developed many others (for example, the Tootsie Pop, a lollipop). They also acquired many other confectionery brands, including Dubble Bubble and Junior Mints.

Why were they called Tootsie Rolls? In the late 1800s, the word “tootsie” was slang for “girl” or “sweetheart.” The official story is that Leo Hirshfield named Tootsie Rolls after his daughter Clara, who went by the nickname “Tootsie.”

3Luisa Tetrazzini

Luisa Tetrazzini was an internationally-famous Italian soprano in the early 20th century, known for her strong high notes and her mastery of runs, trills, and staccati. At one point, a contract dispute caused performance hang-ups in New York, so she declared: “I will sing in San Francisco if I have to sing there in the streets, for I know the streets of San Francisco are free.” The papers loved it, and on Christmas Eve 1910, she appeared on a stage at the corner of San Francisco’s Market and Kearney to serenade a crowd of some 250,000 people.

It was common for chefs to name new dishes after famous people, and one chef decided to name his after Tetrazzini. The recipe varies but usually includes fowl or seafood, mushrooms, almonds, and a white cheese sauce. Vegetables are often added, and it’s typically served atop pasta. But who was the chef? Was it Mr. Pavani, the chef at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City? Was it legendary French chef George Auguste Escoffier? Or was it Ernest Arbogast, the chef at the Palace in San Francisco? Alas, nobody knows.

2John McIntosh

John McIntosh was a farmer in what is now South Dundas, about 100 km (60 mi) south of Ottawa, Canada. Sometime after 1811, either he or his son Allan discovered several apple seedlings while clearing land. Those seedlings were transplanted, and one in particular produced fruit of immense quality. The skin was red and green, the fruit was tart, and it was suitable for both eating and cooking.

Allan learned grafting around 1835 and used it to clone the precious tree. He and his brother Sandy promoted the resulting fruit as the “McIntosh Red.” However, the McIntosh’s popularity didn’t take off until the 20th century. One reason was that McIntosh apple trees are highly susceptible to a disease called apple scab. Once effective fungicides were invented, apple scab became less of a problem. The McIntosh apple is still popular, but has now been eclipsed by the Red Delicious, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Fuji.

1Ruth Cleveland Or Babe Ruth

The Baby Ruth is an American candy bar made with peanuts, caramel, and nougat. It’s almost what you’d get if you took an Oh Henry! bar and turned the fudge into nougat.

When the Curtiss Candy Company introduced the Baby Ruth bar in 1921, many people assumed its name was a reference to Babe Ruth, the star baseball player. Curtiss claimed that their candy bar was named after Ruth Cleveland, the daughter of President Grover Cleveland. Uh huh.

Ruth Cleveland had died at age 12 in 1904. By 1921, she’d been dead for 17 years. Her father was also old news, having passed away in 1908. Babe Ruth, on the other hand, was a household name in 1921, not only for his baseball talents, but also for his reckless lifestyle off the field. When people noted these facts, Curtiss stood by their Ruth Cleveland story. They never had to pay royalties to Babe Ruth.

What’s the official story today? The Baby Ruth brand is now owned by Nestle. When your humble researcher went to their Baby Ruth page, he found no explanation of the name whatsoever (unlike their page about Oh Henry!).

Troy McConaghy is a researcher and writer from Canada. @TroyMc on Twitter.

Ever looked into your great-grandma’s recipe box and been surprised? Although some contemporary chefs like to think that culinary creativity is new, food culture has always been diverse. Throughout the ages, people have eaten just about everything they could from the land, sea, and air.

10Fish Bladder Jelly

The Victorians gave the world many things: piano covers, huge advances in plumbing, and PBS dramas about people getting engaged and disinherited. But they were not known for their culinary advances. They used the bladder of the sturgeon fish to make a sweet jelly dessert.

The process involved isolating a substance called isinglass from the bladder. It was originally an ingredient in glue but gained popularity in England as a foodstuff in the late 18th century. It is still used to make some beers and wines, including Guinness beer.

Isinglass acts like gelatin or pectin to congeal liquid and make it thick. To make sugary jellies, Victorians boiled down filtered isinglass with water, sugar, lemon juice, and fruit. The time-consuming process took a lot of labor, but people have been known to do a lot more to satisfy a sweet tooth.

9Muktuk

For people living in the Arctic, the ocean is the source of most food. Traditionally, people fish year-round, with seasonal whale and seal hunts. Muktuk is a dish consisting of whale skin with the layer of blubber attached. The skin of the bowhead whale is considered the most delicious, next to the narwhal and the beluga. It can be eaten many different ways: salted, fresh, fried, or pickled. The flavor of the whale fat is described as nutty, with the skin a little rubbery.

The food played an important role in traditional diets, since muktuk contains a huge amount of vitamin C, which prevents illnesses like scurvy. Many Arctic cultures have their own traditions of eating muktuk, including aboriginal Greenlanders, Canadians, Siberians, and Alaskans. In recent years, the food has all but died out because of generational tastes changing and concerns about ocean toxins, which can be concentrated in marine life.

8Vinegar Pie

Everybody has heard that when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. But did you know that when life gives you vinegar, you can make pie?

Nobody knows exactly who first made a vinegar-flavored pie, or where, but it dates back to at least the mid-1800s and probably originated in the Deep South. People think that thrifty cooks first started to use apple cider vinegar as a flavoring because it was cheaper than fruit or lemon juice. Vinegar pie is nicknamed “the poor man’s lemon pie.” It is closely related to chess pie, which uses cornmeal as an ingredient.

American cooking features a huge variety of both sweet and savory pie. During the Great Depression, people combined crackers and lemon juice in their pies to make a filling that tasted like apple. In recent years, vinegar pie has experienced a comeback, and some restaurants serve upscale versions with flavored balsamic vinegars.

7Jell-O Salad

The ’50s craze for packaged convenience foods led to the popular gelatin salad, often served in an attractive mold. Although people have been encasing foods in gelatin or aspic since at least the 1600s, in the 1950s and 1960s, a Jell-O craze took this to new heights. Magazines published recipes for “congealed salads” with ingredients like shrimp, rutabaga, meats, and vegetables.

Packaged, powdered, and canned foods were making important technological advances. For the first time, people had mixes for foods that they had always made from scratch. The Jell-O salad was seen as a new and exciting way for families to eat their vegetables. One serving suggestion depicts a healthy (and horrifying) topping of mayonnaise.

At one point, the Jell-O company released tomato- and cucumber-flavored mixes, which didn’t last long on the market.

6Stuffed Dormice

You might think of a dormouse as a sleepy little hamster or a character in Alice in Wonderland, but to some people, they were actually food. In ancient Rome, dormice were roasted as a special delicacy. The Romans raised them in a special terra cotta jar called a glirarium.

In the wild, dormice hibernate for the entire winter. In the glirarium, which was kept dark, the dormice hibernated all year, which is how they were fattened. The jars had little staircases for the dormice, places for them to deposit food, and air holes.

When they were really fat, the dormice would be stuffed with nuts and roasted with honey and spices. Usually, they were served as an appetizer. Consuming dormice was eventually banned, but Romans still went on mouse hunts for dinner.

Today, wild dormice are still hunted and eaten in some parts of Slovenia and Croatia and considered a delicacy.

5Roasted Heron

One of the first cookbooks published in English was written around 1390 and was called The Forme of Cury. “Cury” was an old English word for cooking. It has a lot of variety in its 196 recipes, some for familiar things like white cake and chicken, and also for seals, porpoises, whales, cranes and . . . herons.

Nobody knows for sure who wrote the cookbook, but given the wide variety of rare, rich ingredients, people think it was the royal retinue of cooks. A little like reality show contestants, they worked with whatever fish or fowl was brought to them, trying to make food as good as possible for the king’s table. The cookbook is notable for being the first English cookbook to incorporate techniques from other cultures, essentially inventing fusion cooking.

An adult heron only weighs about 2 kilograms (5 lb), so you would need quite a few to make a whole royal feast. The Forme of Cury cookbook advises you to pluck and roast the heron whole, wrapped in bacon and ginger.

4Black Iguana Eggs

It’s a safe bet that when you think of the source of an edible egg, you think of something with feathers. However, you wouldn’t be wrong if you named a reptile. The leathery, rough exterior of the black iguana’s egg makes it seem inedible to most people, but in the Mayan culture, iguanas were farmed for their rich, all-yolk eggs.

The first Europeans to make contact with the Maya described their eating habits as being like Lent, as they ate so little meat. The Maya domesticated plants, bees, and insects but had no large mammals for protein sources.

The black iguana spends less time in the water than the green iguana, and it is possible to keep one alive for a long time without food or water, which made them an ideal provision for the trip back home. Today, hunting and farming iguanas is illegal in many parts of Central and South America, so the taste of the black iguana egg will probably stay in the past.

3The Toast Sandwich

Although not one of the grossest items on this list, the toast sandwich deserves a mention for sheer weirdness.

As everyone knows, the Earl of Sandwich’s gambling problem and subsequent need for one-handed food created the original sandwich. In 1861, Miss Beeton’s Book of Household Management was published, featuring a recipe for the toast sandwich. Like the name suggests, it is made of a buttered slice of toast with salt and pepper placed between two slices of untoasted bread. Variations include adding eggs, beans, sardines, or carrots. The toast sandwich is associated with snacking or breakfast, although some people eat it for lunch or dinner.

The cookbook remains one of the most popular cookbooks ever sold and is still in print today, toast sandwich included. In 2011, Britain’s Royal Society of Chemistry hosted a toast sandwich banquet and named the dish “Britain’s Cheapest Meal,” a title that it still holds.

2Ambergris

In ancient China, chunks of ambergris found washed up on shores were believed to be dragon saliva. Ambergris actually comes from whales—the other end of whales. This mixture of fat and bile forms when whales try to digest hard, difficult substances (such as squid beaks). It passes through the whale, a little like a gallstone might. As it floats on the ocean’s surface, the ambergris becomes hard and waxy.

The powerful, musky scent of ambergris makes it a key ingredient in many perfumes, including the famous Chanel No. 5. In the past, ambergris was eaten in many different traditions. In ancient Persia, it was served with lemon sherbet. The French put it in hot chocolate, and some people claim that Casanova used it as an aphrodisiac.

With the decline of sperm whale populations, ambergris is rare today and is even illegal in America. But if you can get your hands on some, devotees say that the flavor is unforgettable.

1So

This dish is a rarity from Japanese cuisine. It’s a dairy specialty. In fact, so is the only dairy dish known to Japanese history. So was produced between the eighth and the 14th centuries in Japan, mostly for people in the noble classes. It was made by boiling down milk until it became a semisolid paste-like substance. For the noble classes in Japan, it was a status symbol and not a staple for nourishment.

It was originally dreamed up as a way to preserve milk so it would last longer in the days before refrigerators and pasteurization. Records show how it was produced but not how it tasted. It probably tasted a little like yogurt but extremely concentrated, thin, and sour.

Historically in Japan, cattle were raised for plowing or pulling carts, never for meat and milk. With the dying out of the aristocracy, so died out, too.

Jules Reich writes about food at AwayWithFood.com.

Food is one of those things that transcends cultural boundaries. Everybody eats, and one of the greatest gestures of goodwill toward another person is sharing your food with them. But as much as we all love trying new dishes, most people would balk at the idea of slurping down an emulsified animal or a tortilla that’s literally crawling.

If you’re eating anything right now, you might want to stop.

10 Ptarmigan Droppings

Ptarmigans are large birds that live in the Arctic and look sort of like a more graceful version of a chicken. They’re a valuable source of food to the Inuit in Northern Canada because, unlike the Arctic’s migratory animals, they stick around through the harsh winters. In a region where hunters can go months without bringing in a large game haul, a readily available food source is worth its weight in gold.

Because of that, the Inuit have found ways to use every single part of the ptarmigan—even its feces. But ptarmigan droppings aren’t a trail nibble that you can pick up for a quick snack on your way to the closest seal nursery. There’s a very delicate procedure for making the dish taste right. Before anything else, the droppings are collected in winter and brought inside to thaw and dry out. (The fresh stuff doesn’t have the right flavor.)

Next, you need to kill a seal.

Cut the raw seal into chunks, chew on the chunks, and spit the chewed pieces into a bowl. If you feel like spitting some extra saliva into the bowl, it’s all the better. At this point, you can combine the dried ptarmigan droppings with the masticated seal meat, stir well, and drop in some rancid seal oil for extra flavor. According to people who have tried it, it doesn’t taste that bad.

9 Jumiles

Every November, families all over Taxco, Mexico, gather for one of the most important culinary celebrations of the year. During the festivities, the city comes to life. The tantalizing aromas of hot corn tortillas, fresh-ground chilies, and ripe tomatoes waft from building to building, and the markets pulse with vendors hawking their dishes to the visitors crowding their city streets. And if you stop at one of the many food stalls for a quick bite to eat, you won’t get away without a heaping handful of the main ingredient—live stink bugs.

Known as jumiles, these green, crunchy insects are a culinary treat in Southwestern Mexico. They appear en masse in November and stick around until the end of February, during which time the locals will harvest them by the basketful. Live jumiles are usually added to tacos, but they can also be ground into salsa, fried in their own oily secretions, grilled, roasted, toasted, or boiled. If you don’t want to wait, nobody will look twice if you simply pop a live jumile into your mouth. The taste is often described as “cinnamon-like.”

8 Shiokara

To unindocrinated Westerners, the pinnacle of Japanese cuisine is sushi. If you’re feeling really adventurous, you might try slapping your chopsticks down on some odori don, but that’s usually as far as it goes.

It’s a shame, because Japanese food gets much more diverse than that. Take shiokara, for example. Shiokara is seafood served in its own fermented entrails. The result is a sort of lumpy, chewy, pungent slurry in various hues of beige, depending on what animal was used to make the dish. The most common version is ika-no shiokara, which is made from squid, although there are dozens of different varieties. It’s usually served with booze, and the conventional wisdom is to take a large bite of shiokara followed immediately by an even larger gulp of sake or whiskey.

7 Cobra Hearts

On Mangga Basar Street in Jakarta, the cobra stalls open near sunset and stay busy into the wee hours of the morning. Here, customers can partake in one of Indonesia’s most unique and grotesque medicinal practices—a shot of fresh cobra blood mixed with palm liquor.

The setup is simple. Next to each stall is a cage writhing with angry black cobras. When a customer is ready, the vendor whips out his trusty butcher’s knife and lops off the head of the calmest cobra he can grab. Then, in front of the customer, the vendor holds the snake’s body upside down and squeezes every last ounce of bright red blood into a glass, all the while chatting about the myriad health benefits of the sanguine slurry. These include increased sexual stamina for men and firm breasts and clear skin for women, to name a few. These guys make up to $100 a night. After the snake has been completely drained, it’s filleted, and the meat hits the grill, shish-kebab style.

In Vietnam, cobra blood nightcaps get even more hardcore. The setup is mostly the same, but instead of lopping off the cobra’s head, they tear out the cobra’s still-beating heart and chuck it into a glass filled with the snake’s blood and a few shots of rice wine.

6 Bodog

Even in the 21st century, Mongolia maintains a strong nomadic culture that still practices the customs of their ancestors, many of which began in the era of the great Mongolian Khans. Faced with the ever-changing world outside of their isolated steppe between China and Russia, nomadic Mongolians have found ways to integrate patchwork technologies with their traditional way of life. It’s almost like stepping into the 13th century only to find that a time traveler has beat you to it: You travel on horseback to a small village, where children play barefoot and water is still pumped by hand. However, beside each round, tent-like ger is a gleaming solar panel, so goat herders can move around and still have electricity.

While much of Mongolian life has caught up with the times, some traditions are entirely unchanged from the way they were centuries ago. Bodog is one of these bastions of the past. Also called Mongolian barbecue, bodog is a dish made by cooking goat meat inside the goat’s own hide. It’s an intricate process that takes hours of preparation and still more hours of slow cooking. After a goat is killed and beheaded, it’s hung by the top of its severed spine while the chef painstakingly removes every bone, organ, and scrap of meat from the inside of the hide, taking care not to pierce the goat’s skin. The viscera is dropped in steaming hunks for the dogs to pick off the snow-dusted ground, while the meat and bones are laid aside and seasoned.

Eventually, the goat becomes an empty sack, which means that it’s time to start cooking. Hot stones from a fire are stuffed into the dangling limb cavities, followed by a layer of meat, and then more hot stones, layer by layer until the goat is full. Then, it’s tied shut at the neck and left to cook from the inside out. Periodically, the whole package is seared on the outside until the fur has burned off, and the former goat has become a white balloon inflated with the steam from the cooking meat’s juices. It is now a bodog.

5 Frog Juice

Peru is one of the most geographically diverse countries in the world. From the lush Amazonian lowlands to the windswept peaks of the towering Andes and down again to pearl-white beaches brushed like a painting along the rim of the Pacific, it’s a country that offers anything and everything, a visual casserole of nature’s most savage beauty. It’s the home of ancient Machu Picchu, the ice pyramid Alpamayo, and the mysterious Nazca lines of the Sechura Desert. It is, in most respects, a very cool place to visit.

But what isn’t cool is a tradition that you’ll find happening every day at open-air markets in Lima, the capital city. Here, vendors prepare a special concoction that has its roots in centuries of Peruvian folklore and mysticism—jugo de rana, or “frog juice.” Simply put, it’s a frog thrown into a blender with a dash of spices and herbs and a squirt of honey. It’s supposed to be good for everything from anemia to erectile dysfunction. When it’s made with an endangered species of frog called the scrotum water frog, it’s called “Peruvian Viagra.” However, any frog can feature as the main ingredient, and they’re used indiscriminately regardless of conservation status.

According to the BBC, vendors can sell over 100 of these smoothies each day, each one with a freshly blended frog as the creamy centerfold. The fact that the drink’s sale continues so openly is a prime example of the clash between tradition and modern conservation laws that’s become an issue in Peru of late. If 10 jugo de rana stalls are closed down one week, 10 more open up the next week. It’s an effort akin to staying dry in a hurricane by swatting raindrops, but if the practice isn’t curbed, enitre species of Amazonian frogs could go down the hatch in the time it takes to chug a mug of slimy, green, frog-flavored Viagra.

4 Wasp Crackers

At the beginning of 2015, a few photos started to make the rounds on the Internet. They showed a cracker with dead wasps baked right into it, sort of like chocolate chips. Far from being a hoax, these wasp crackers are real and apparently pretty popular around Omachi, Japan.

More of a fad than any kind of delicacy, the crackers are made from digger wasps that are harvested from the wild. The wasps are thrown into a pot of boiling water, dried, and then added to the traditional mix used to make rice crackers, or senbei. Supposedly, the idea was started by a group in Omachi who hooked up with a local bakery to create the crunchy treats. According to RocketNews24, a Japanese news blog, the wasps taste like bitter raisins, and the only real downside is that every now and then you might get a leg stuck between your teeth.

3 Dragon In The Flame Of Desire

China’s cuisine doesn’t beat around the bush. The food is vibrant, in your face, and full of life, a culinary kaleidoscope cultivated from centuries of historic tradition. According to the old Chinese saying, they’ll eat anything with four legs except a table, and our money’s on the six- and eight-legged critters, too. However, even in China, some dishes are considered a rarity. The Guolizhuang Restaurant has had a particularly hard time getting its dishes into the mouths and hearts of Beijing’s citizens for very good reason: They’re all made out of penis.

When you order a dish such as “The Essence of the Golden Buddha,” “Lotus Flowers with 1,000 Layers,” or “Dragon in the Flame of Desire,” what you get is an ox penis, a donkey penis, or a yak penis, respectively. Every dish on the menu is some sort of penis, except for the testicle entrees. The menu also offers a single dish made from tiger penis, although it comes with a hefty price tag of $5,700 and has to be ordered months in advance so that the relevant parts can be procured. If you aren’t sure which particular penis you’d prefer, you can order the “hotpot” which, with six types of penis and four testicles, is like the Applebee’s sampler plate of genitalia.

2 Snake Wine

If you travel anywhere in Southeast Asia, there’s a good chance that you’ll stumble across a bottle of snake wine at some point. Found everywhere from Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong, snake wine comes from a long tradition of holistic medicine. It’s said that the snake infuses the liquor with healing properties which can treat anything from skin conditions to arthritis. The medicinal effect is believed to come from the snake’s venom seeping into the wine.

Whether or not that’s true, there’s definitely something morbid about the sight of a curled-up snake floating in a jar of amber booze. According to Vice, the production of snake wine is even more unsettling. A live snake is coaxed into a bottle, and the alcohol—usually rice wine—is poured on top of it, drowning the snake alive. A shot of the stuff certainly packs a bite, but it’s not always from the alcohol. There have been several stories of people making snake wine at home, only to find the snake still alive after months of storage. In 2013, a woman in China supposedly went to the hospital when the viper in her wine leaped out and bit her.

1 Virgin Boy Eggs

For centuries, spring has hailed the arrival of one of the most revered traditions in Dongyang, China. As the weather warms, and the first signs of greenery begin to grace to hillsides, egg vendors make their yearly pilgrimage to the region’s elementary schools. There, they’ll find rows of buckets laid out for them, all ready to pile into their trucks for transport back to their market stalls.

Over the next few days, a new scent will fill the air. It’s the “smell of spring,” according to some Dongyang residents. And if you wander down the city’s streets, you’ll probably see large pots filled with eggs simmering in a clear, yellowish liquid.

It’s the urine of young boys.

Virgin boy eggs have been a part of Dongyang’s culinary heritage for hundreds of years. Nobody can remember how the practice came about, or why the urine has to come from boys, but that’s the way their parents did it, so that’s the way they do it. Once the urine is collected from schools (the boys are encouraged to urinate in the buckets instead of in toilets), eggs are dropped into the pots and boiled. Then, the eggs’ shells are cracked, and the eggs are dropped back in to soak for a few more hours. It takes a day to make a batch of virgin boy eggs, and they sell for twice the price of a regular boiled egg.

“GMO” foods may seem like a modern phenomenon, made possible only because of well-funded labs and genome analysis. What most consumers don’t realize is that most of humanity’s crops were already genetically modified thousands of years ago. In almost all cases, our favorite fruits and vegetables were engineered to be fundamentally different from their wild ancestors.

SEE ALSO: 10 Foods That Have Been Genetically Modified Beyond Recognition

10Almonds

The almonds we eat today are a domesticated variety derived from several species of wild almonds, all of which are bitter, spiny, and contain deadly amounts of cyanide. In the wild, almond trees produce a sugary compound and an enzyme that inevitably combine into cyanide when the edible parts of the plant are chewed up.

The identities of the specific strains used to create modern almonds are unknown. However, it is clear that humans selected and interbred the sweetest varieties of bitter almonds until the nuts were edible. This is quite a feat, considering that eating a dozen or so of the toxic kind would kill whoever had the task of testing out the newest crops. Luckily, the mutation that halts cyanide production is a dominant one, and almonds quickly became a popular treat.

9Watermelon

The modern watermelon is one of the most extensively modified fruits in human history. Sub-Saharan Africans created the first domesticated varieties, which came in larger sizes and different colors. After the fruit’s introduction to Asia and Europe, it became substantially fleshier, sweeter, and larger.

Compared to the original watermelons found in the wild, which consisted mostly of seeds and weighed a mere 80 grams, modern ones are 91.5 percent water and weigh 2–8 kilograms (4–18 lb). Through several thousand years of artificial selection, the average volume of the watermelon has undergone a 1,680-fold increase.

The fruit’s appetizing red color is relatively new as well. It’s caused by the overproduction of the compound lycopene, a trait intentionally bred into watermelons by humans. Analysis of the watermelon genome also reveals that domestication has reduced the plant’s natural resistance to diseases. Today we are still modifying them, mostly to restore and then improve these natural immune functions.

8Broccoli, Cauliflower, And Other Cultivars

Broccoli doesn’t exist in the wild. Neither does cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, collards, or kale. All of these plants are the result of human cultivation, and they’re all the same species. These crops are artificially bred variations of the mustard plant Brassica oleracea. In its wild form, this plant produces several large leaves, as well as bunches of small yellow flowers. Different subspecies such as broccoli or cauliflower are created by modifying the expression of genes controlling the way the plant grows.

In broccoli, the flower clusters that once bloomed in the wild have been expanded into a cloud-like structure of many closed buds. In cauliflower, the flowery white head consists of mutant, undifferentiated cells that almost always remain sterile. One of the most striking examples of unique structures in this species is Romanesco broccoli: Its single modified bud is made up of smaller and smaller buds, forming a distinct logarithmic spiral pattern.

7Bananas

It seems like bananas were practically designed for us primates: They’re soft, seedless, tailor-made for the grip of our hand, and even come with a tab for easy opening. In reality, wild-type bananas are mostly inedible, and the plantains we eat today are completely different after genetic modifications. Wild-type bananas, which are tiny, tough, and filled with pit-like seeds, sometimes produce mutant variants without seeds.

Humans have been playing with this specific mutation for at least 6,500 years to produce all the varieties of seedless bananas available today. The banana’s design might even be too popular at this point; today’s mass-produced bananas are considered too genetically uniform, making them susceptible to diseases. Looks like we have some more work to do.

6Corn

The wild ancestor of modern-day corn is a grass known as Zea or teosintes. Ancient Meso-Americans began selectively breeding this species as far back as 10,000 years ago. Gradually, they produced a plant unlike any other found in the world.

These soft, starchy plants appeared suddenly and mysteriously in archaeological records; the secrets of its development were only discovered recently through molecular and genetic analysis. The most important change suppressed branching of stalks. As a result, the plant produces fewer ears, but these ears are enormous, with long rows of kernels.

Stranger still, very little was changed in the plant’s genome during its domestication. The difference between the ancient and modern version amounts to a mere five or so genes.

5Pumpkins

Pumpkins, squash, and all other gourds are cultivated forms of tiny ancient plants. They all hail from the genus Cucurbita, which has become one of the most important plant groups for human consumption. Like corn, it was domesticated in the Americas at least 7,000 years ago. Ancient varieties were small, with extremely bitter flesh and few seeds. At some point, they were bred to produce more seeds. Later in history, there was more focus on creating different shapes, sizes, and types of flesh.

Pumpkins are native to North America and have no known wild variety that still exists. Long before their domestication, specifically around 14,000 years ago when humans first arrived to the continent, the early varieties of pumpkin nearly went extinct. These plants were once rich in cucurbitacins, one of the bitterest compound groups known to science. It appears that humans first used these gourds as containers and later began to use them as food sources.

4Strawberries

Sweet, juicy strawberries are a very recent creation. Tiny ancestors were sometimes collected throughout the British Isles during the ice age, but the strawberry we enjoy today was cultivated as recently as the 1750s.

Mathematician and engineer Amedee-Francois Frezier brought a larger variety of wild strawberry while mapping out Chile for Louis XIV. After decades of trial and error, garden strawberries were created in France by crossing this plant with wild berries from America.

In 1759, pine strawberries became commercially significant. Finally, the huge, “modern” type of strawberry appeared by accident during hybridization experiments in 1806.

3Avocados

The original, primitive forms of the avocado are better described as “avocado-like fruits.” Unlike the fleshy, leathery-skinned kind we have today, most wild avocados are encased in hard shells. Uncultivated avocados are tiny enough to fit into the center of your palm, growing to about two or three inches in diameter. The wild-type flesh is gritty instead of creamy, and there is very little of it because the pit takes up almost all of the space inside the fruit. In 1927, agricultural explorer and researcher Wilson Popenoe commented that “the flavor is strong, not pleasant, and the fruit is scarcely considered eatable.”

For most of its time as a domesticated crop, the avocado remained unchanged due to its status as a sacred plant in tropical Mesoamerica. Large gardens—sometimes even entire forests—of avocado trees were grown and carefully maintained over ancestral burial grounds.

2Coffee

The coffee bean is another recently discovered and cultivated plant. It makes this list not because it has been fundamentally changed from its wild form but because there are so many varieties created solely to satisfy our cravings for novel tastes.

First cultivated in India during the 1600s, this African plant now comes in several dozen varieties and cultivars and continues to evolve with humans. Not even looking at varieties within each species, there are about 10 distinct species of coffee plant at present. Need your coffee less bitter? More bitter? Slightly buttery? Caffeine-free? Sourced from frost-resistant, self-fertilizing genetic stock that is purposely grown in civet feces? There’s a variety of bean for that. All modern, genetically modified varieties descend from ancient Arabica beans, which in itself is a hybrid of mysterious origin.

1Wheat

The cultivation of wheat began long before recorded history. In fact, the start of human civilization itself began when primitive people transitioned from the nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agriculturally based one. Wheat was one of the first and most important crops grown during this time, and the first human settlements gathered around areas where this food could be grown.

At first, prehistoric man was content to gather stray seeds of wild grasses. But soon (before people started making pottery, even) they had started to gather plants from areas with more seeds and replant them back home. Eventual changes in seed size and nutritional value were achieved, but the most important trait we managed coax out of their genomes was something called “indehiscence.” Normally, pods containing the edible parts of these plants shattered, so seeds could spread across the wind and ground. Thanks to prehistoric artificial selection, this trait was eliminated and our ancestors could harvest the plant itself, with all its seeds intact.

When it comes to street foods, you might be accustomed to your local Halal cart, or maybe that hot dog stand on the corner. However, if you are willing to expand your cultural horizons even further, an entirely new world of food will open up for you. Japanese culture boasts some of the most creative and mouthwateringly delicious street foods imaginable. From the sweet to the savory, these are 10 popular Japanese street foods that’ll have you drooling over your keyboard. 

10. Karaage

Vegans and vegetarians aside, it’d be pretty hard to find someone who’ll pass up on a plate of fried chicken. A beloved comfort food in many cultures, fried chicken has been taken in some truly inventive directions, not the least of which being Karaage.

The name itself is attributed to the cooking methods where diced-up bits of meat, in this instance chicken, are marinated and then deep-fried until golden brown. Where Karaage diverges from typical fried chicken is through its marinade which is frequently a blend of soy sauce, sake, ginger, and garlic. This method ensures that, after the frying is complete, the inside of the chicken will not only be juicy and succulent but imbued with extra umami flavor as well. The exterior’s crispiness is usually attributed to the coating which can either be wheat flour or potato starch.

Even though chicken is the most popular option, the preparation can easily be applied to seafood and other types of meat as well. With its excellent combination of crunch and unparalleled taste, Karaage is a favorite of many Japanese citizens, serving as a home-cooked and street vendor staple. 

9. Tako Tamago

Now of course eggs, whether they are fried, scrambled, or poached, are a staple of countless diets worldwide. However, the Tako Tamago takes the concept of a poached egg and takes it to its most visually dazzling and uniquely flavored conclusion. Tako Tamago is a unique little dish, even among other Japanese street foods, boasting a unique combination of elements. 

A Tako Tamago contains a quail egg, an already diminutive egg, that has been put inside a tiny, bite-sized octopus. Its final appearance is quite the feast for the eyes before one even consumes it, with the egg almost serving as the brain of the octopus. However, the dish’s appeal doesn’t stop at its appearance, as the combination of the poached quail egg and the chewy octopus makes for a superb crossbreed of flavors.

Tako Tamago, much like many other Japanese street and vendor foods, is typically served on a skewer, making it a very portable dish despite its odd appearance. The dish is honestly a perfect little microcosm of Japanese street foods, as it boasts not only a dazzling visual gimmick but yummy flavors as well.

8. Korokke

Before properly discussing Korokke, it’s important to understand the Western dish that influenced it, that being the Croquette. Croquettes originated in France and consist of a filling that is tossed in a special sauce, breaded, and then fried till the outside is crispy. This is quite fitting as the name Croquette even derives from the French word croquer which means “to crunch.”

Korokke takes the Croquette and puts a thoroughly Japanese spin on it with fillings like mashed potatoes, ground meat, or a mixture of vegetables. When everything is prepared properly, you’ll be treated to a perfectly balanced dish that boasts both a crispy outside and a creamy interior. This is only enhanced by the wide range of ways the filling can be customized with other ingredients, such as beef, pork, seafood, and even curry. It’s also very common to find Korokke paired with a side of tonkatsu sauce which only serves to heighten its flavor profile. 

Oftentimes the Korokke can find itself sandwiched between two pieces of bread, turning it into a Korokke Pan, adding even more to the dish’s convenient nature. Its utility and delicious flavors have turned Korokke into a staple of Japanese street foods, as well as school lunches and bento boxes. 

7. Okonomiyaki

Everyone loves pancakes, but rest assured, an Okonomiyaki isn’t your run-of-the-mill pancake you’d get at IHOP or Cracker Barrel. As opposed to typical pancakes which are predicated on their sweetness, an Okonomiyaki is more of a savory affair.

Much like Takoyaki, one of the major appeals of Okonomiyaki is just how customizable it is, with its name even translating to “grilled as you like it.” Much like regular pancakes, the batter begins with flour but from there, this is where it truly becomes its own unique creation. This batter is then mixed with shredded cabbage, eggs, and a variety of other add-ons such as meat, seafood, and even cheese. If you’ve ever had an Okonomiyaki, then you know that the final product is an absolute symphony of different textures and flavors.  

Another aspect leading to Okonomiyaki’s widespread success is the interactive element that goes hand-in-hand with it. It’s not uncommon for restaurants to prepare the Okonomiyaki right in front of the customer or even allow them to cook it themselves, very much like Korean barbeque. With all of this in mind, you can easily see how this customizable pancake broke out of Osaka and went worldwide. 

6. Yakitori

A commonality among Japanese foods is that many of them could easily slot right into being casual street food or served at an actual restaurant. A perfect example of this is Yakitori, a very popular skewered chicken dish that’s usually prepared over hot charcoals. 

The dish itself couldn’t be simpler, it’s diced chicken pieces marinated in a soy-based tare sauce, cooked, and then served on a skewer. This simple cooking method results in mouthwateringly tender and smoky meat complete with a delicious caramel-like glaze. However, Yakitori isn’t solely dependent on chicken as one can easily substitute other ingredients like vegetables, beef, or seafood.

Yakitori is a very recreational food and you’ll often see people enjoying it with a cold beer in their other hand. Often the best foods don’t need flashy theatrics or fanciful plating, as sometimes simplicity and good flavor are more than enough. Just imagine walking home on a cold day in Japan and having the aromas of the still-cooking skewers waft toward your nose. Much like many of the street foods on this list, not only has Yakitori exploded outside of Japan but it has transcended its original format as well. Nowadays it’s not uncommon to go to an indoor eating establishment and find it on the menu right alongside more complicated items. 

5. Taiyaki

Japanese culture is rife with sensational sweets and creative confections, many of them having lineages going back hundreds of years. One such treat is Taiyaki, a Japanese pastry with the unique visual distinction of being molded in the shape of a fish. The pastry’s fish name translates to “baked sea bream,” a fish regarded as a symbol of good fortune in Japanese culture.

Originating in Toyko during the Meiji period – a time of great economic, political, and social change – Taiyaki was created by a man named Seijiro Kanbei. The original, and most standard, version of Taiyaki is filled with sweet red bean paste, which is made from azuki beans and serves a popular filling in many Japanese treats. This, like many other Japanese snacks, can be altered or customized with various locations filling their Taiyaki with sweet potato, custard, chocolate, or even savory options like cheese and sausage. 

This is all held together by the batter which, similarly to pancake or waffle batter, is poured into fish-shaped molds and cooked until it’s a savory golden brown. With its lovely flavors and its charming visual charm, Taiyaki has become a prime example of Japanese comfort food.

4. Yakisoba

There are countless Japanese noodle dishes ranging from cheap street food to the most lavish of five-star cuisine. However, Yakisoba seems to hold a very special place in people’s hearts and it isn’t too hard to understand why. 

Yakisoba is made by stir-frying the ingredients, which include ramen noodles, as well as vegetables like cabbage, carrots, and onions. This cooking method is where the dish derives its name, which is a translation of the term “grilled noodles.” Meat is also an optional ingredient as well, with many opting to add in bits of thinly sliced pork, beef, or seafood. What sets the dish apart is the special sauce the stir-fried ingredients are seasoned with, that being a savory-sweet Yakisoba sauce made from Worcestershire. Once everything is cooked to completion, the final product can be topped with bonito flakes, pickled ginger, and mayonnaise.

All this coalesces into a savory dish that, due to the inclusion of meats and seasonings, boasts a strong umami taste. Unami, when translated into English, means means “essence of deliciousness” and is common among meaty and savory Japanese dishes. Due to its portable nature, as well as its mix of textures and flavors, Yakisoba has attained a global fandom, becoming rapidly more widespread across several cultures.

3. Onigiri

One need only look at how often it pops up in the hands of anime characters to understand Onigiri’s immense popularity. For example, in One Piece when Roronoa Zoro is tied up in Axe Hand Morgan’s base, a little girl from the surrounding town brings him homemade Onigiri. When the deadliest swordsman in the East Blue can’t resist their deliciousness, then you know it’s a treat worth getting excited for.

The name translates to “rice ball,” and the dish has served as a pillar of Japanese cuisine for several decades now. The handheld snack starts with rice which receives a little seasoning via some salt or vinegar, as well as a sheet of nori, a crispy piece of seaweed. Once the base is prepared, the Onigiri receives its filling which is where its customizable nature comes into play. Simply put, the sky is the limit with Onigiri, with the fillings ranging from sweet to savory, and ranging in texture as well. This includes pickled plums, grilled salmon, kimchi, cheese, tuna mayo, and teriyaki chicken, each one offering something different to enjoy when packed into the rice.

Due to its diverse fillings, as well as its portable size, Onigiri is a staple of Japanese lunches, aiding with its constantly expanding worldwide appeal. 

2. Dango

Dango’s name stems from the Japanese verb “dango,” which means to knead or form something into a ball. The sweet Japanese treat is a chewy little bite-sized dumpling made from glutinous rice flour and served on a stick in groups of three to five. Typically, the most popular filling for Dango is Anko, also known as red bean paste, a topping/filling in many Japanese desserts.

Due to the rice flour used in its preparation, Dango is typically white in its appearance but people often use things like fruits, herbs, and eggs, to alter its flavor and color. This is most relevant when it comes to Hanami Dango, a type of multicolored dango, which is typically sold and enjoyed during cherry blossom season in Japan. There is also Kuri Dango, a wonderful variant if you are a fan of nuts, with the Dango being covered in a sweet pureed chestnut paste. Additionally, there is Goma Dango, a version that is filled with Anko but is finished with a layer of sesame seeds before being fried to crispy perfection. It’s this combination of simplicity, variation, and inherent tradition that has kept Dango as a beloved Japanese treat for many decades.

1. Takoyaki

Takoyaki is a favorite of many Japanese food connoisseurs, with its popularity extending beyond Osaka, Japan’s borders, and into the United States. Its name, Takoyaki, is a one-for-one translation of what it is, that being grilled/fried octopus, though other ingredients are often added in as well. 

The cooking process begins with the Takoyaki’s batter, which is made from flour, egg, and dashi, the latter being a type of Japanese soup stock. This is mixed with diced octopus, pickled ginger, green onions, and any additional mix-ins the chef or customer desires. These mix-ins can include bits of sausage, cheese, mochi, corn, kimchi, and even other types of seafood like shrimp.

Once the batter and the mix-ins are prepared, it’s then poured into a very special cooking mold, built to create the Takoyaki’s circular shape. If prepared properly, the final product should be a perfectly circular bite-sized ball with a fluffy inside and a crispy outside. Once complete, the Takoyaki balls are often coated in a healthy layer of a special takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, seaweed flakes, and bonito flakes. With its combination of delectable textures and its inherently customizable nature, it’s not surprising Takoyaki has taken the culinary world by storm.

We take great pains to make sure our food is as clean as possible. There are even government agencies dedicated to the task, and some of the most common practices in our own kitchens are geared to keep our food clean. Its in our nature. Still, we have free will and we can choose to defy our nature, even if sometimes it really seems like we shouldn’t. Humans have developed food items made from some of the things that most disgust us.

10Kopi Luwak

83 percent of adults in the US drink coffee. We love the stuff, and it comes in as many varieties as we could want, from exotic locales the world over. But one locale in particular might give even coffee lovers pause: A cat’s butt.

Kopi Luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world, is produced from coffee beans that have passed through the digestive system of a civet cat. This cat, native to Southeast Asia, loves coffee almost as much as we do. It eats the choicest coffee cherries, but it doesn’t digest the beans. Instead, it deposits them. Having gone through the digestive process, the bean is made less acidic, lower in protein, and lower in caffeine. Ultimately, this produces the smooth, aromatic, and low bitter Kopi Luwak coffee, prized the world over.

Fun Fact: when a civet wants to mark its territory it sprays a thick repulsive smelling oil. That oil is gathered up and is used as a perfume additive in the luxury perfume industry. Historically Civet musk traders would taste the oil to make sure it wasn’t adulterated with human feces (which is much cheaper and equally repulsive smelling). And like its close relative the Meerkat, it is not actually related to the cat family.

9Panda Dung Green Tea

Pandas famously diet on little except bamboo, but according to one tea entrepreneur, they digest only about 30 percent of the nutrients found in that bamboo. This leaves their excrement still rich in the vitamins and minerals present in the plant, in a form perfect for fertilizer. That tea entrepreneur is named An Yashi. He is a Sinchuan University lecturer and wildlife expert who has put that panda dung to work in making a unique green tea.

His tea is fertilized with the dung, to special effect. He says, “Just like green tea, bamboo contains an element that can prevent cancer and enhance green tea’s anti-cancer effects if it is used as fertilizer for the tea.” An Yashi’s panda dung green tea has a price tag of $35,000 a pound.

8Un, Kono Kuro

This beer’s name is a pun on the Japanese word for crap, Unko. Produced by Kanagawa-based brewery Sankt Gallen for April Fools 2013, this beer sold out within minutes of becoming available. The stout is made with an ingredient unusual for beers: coffee. Even more unusual for coffee, the beans were collected from the helpful elephants of Thailand’s Golden Triangle Elephant Foundation. Like Kopi Luwak, the beans pass through the digestive system and arrive at the other end. Unlike with the civet cat, most of the beans perish in the process. 33 kilograms of beans go in, but only 1 kilogram of usable beans emerge out the other end.

One reviewer, Mr. Sato, said of the beer, “After downing the last drop, slowly rising from my throat and mouth was that afterglow. The combination of bitter and sweet stayed fresh and lingered in my head. It was a familiar aroma that accompanied me through the entire beer. For some time after, I could still feel as if my body was saturated with that warm scent.” $104 dollars will net you 35 grams of this unique coffee, should you wish to enhance your own micro brews.

7Traditional Chicha

Chicha is a corn beer brewed in the Andes. The beverage dates back thousands of years and played a large role in the cultures of groups such as the Incas and Aztecs, who thought of drunkenness as a spiritual activity and sharing a drink as a sign of friendship.

Though you may have enjoyed a glass of Chicha, traditionally, the drink is brewed differently than most versions in the modern day. To begin the fermentation process, the Chicha brewers would begin by working maize thoroughly with their tongue, completely moistening it with their own saliva. The enzymes in our spit are enough to work the cornstarch into fermentable sugar. After a drying period, the maize cakes would be ready.

This step happens before the beer is brewed, so the final product is sterile, and some breweries still make the drink in the traditional fashion. One modern brewer was quoted by The New York Times during the first saliva-filled step of the process: “Would it be bad if I thed we bit off maw than we could thew? Heh, heh.”

6Honey

Bees have two stomachs, one of which is completely dedicated to storing the nectar they collect from flowers. When full, this stomach can weigh as much as the bee itself. These honeybees return to the hive after visiting upward of 1,500 flowers. Once there, they pass off the nectar to worker bees by vomiting it up out of their second stomach and into the worker bees’ waiting mouths. This regurgitation process is repeated until the partially digested nectar is finally prepared and then deposited into a honeycomb. From there, the water is fanned out of the nectar, which reduces the substance into the syrupy bug vomit we all know and love.

5Shellac

Shellac is an ingredient commonly used as a glaze. Though the name may be unfamiliar to us, we’re all likely familiar with the foods its used in. Coated candy, chocolate, and even waxed fresh fruit can contain shellac.

Just what is this versatile substance? Shellac is the purified form of lac. Lac is a secretion of the Laccifer lacca Kerr insect, cultivated in India, Thailand, and Burma. The secretions form on twigs, which are then soaked in water to clear away any debris such as insect parts and then soaked again in sodium carbonate to remove acid. This purified bug poop finds its way into many of our foods but is also useful as a varnish or wood primer.

4Baby Poop Sausages

Bacterial fermentation plays a huge role in the making of sausage. That spicy flavor pepperoni gives your pizza? It’s a result of bacteria. So it may not seem like a stretch when researchers say they’ve developed a way to ferment sausage that could result in a healthy, bacteria-rich food, like probiotic yogurts. The catch? The bacteria used was gathered from infant feces. Human infants, mind you.

The researchers behind this invention cultured the collected bacteria from 43 stool samples and used them when making six batches of fuet—a pork sausage. These sausages were all tested by professional tasters, who reported that the flavor was indistinguishable from normal fuet.

3Kuchikami No Sake

Much like Chicha, the preparation of sake has changed over the years. This rice-based alcohol is sometimes called “rice wine” but has more in common with a beer. Today, the rice is usually fermented with a mold (Aspergillus oryzae) that has the enzymes necessary to convert the rice starch into sugar, but before this mold was discovered, a different ingredient was used: Human saliva.

The brewers would begin by chewing rice, chestnuts, or acorns to begin the fermentation process. This special brand of Sake is called Kuchikami No Sake or “Mouth-Chewed Sake” and is still sometimes made today.

2Ambergris

This substance is an intestinal slurry produced in a sperm whale’s stomach or throat. Because of its rarity and variety of uses, it can fetch about $29 a gram. Some of those uses have famously been perfumes, but it has also been used in cooking eggs, ice cream, and even cocktails. The smell is said to be that of highly concentrated ocean.

One of the most common misconceptions about this miraculous slurry is that it’s the vomit of the sperm whale. Rest assured, this is not the case. Ambergris is much more likely to be pooped out than to be vomited.

1Yan Wo

Described as “the caviar of the east” because of its high cost and status as a delicacy in China, this ingredient is bird’s nest. The swiftlet, a swallow-like bird, produces these nests out of its own saliva secretions. The nests are built expressly for the purpose of raising young and are abandoned once this task is complete.

The protein-rich Yan Wo are used in soup, tonics, and even desserts. A decade ago, there were an estimated 1,000 swiftlet farms, and now, there are some 60,000. The industry behind these saliva nests has blown to an estimated $5 billion value.

And if that isn’t gross enough for you, it gets worse: the texture of Yan Wo when cooked in soup is like lumps of snot.

Americans love their food, and they are able to buy (almost) anything imaginable at restaurants, farms, markets, and other stores, but some foods are currently banned. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned many foods from being sold or eaten in the United States due to their not being safe for consumption. Here is a list of the top ten foods that are surprisingly banned in the US.

10 Haggis

Haggis is a type of pudding composed of the liver, heart, and lungs of a sheep, mixed with beef and oatmeal and seasoned with onions, cayenne peppers, and other spices. This mixture is then packed into a sheep’s stomach and boiled. Haggis is the national dish of Scotland and is usually accompanied by turnips and mashed potatoes.

Haggis is currently banned from being imported into the United States. In 1971, the US banned all foods that are made from animal lungs. Scotland has made several efforts to influence the US into lifting the ban on haggis and changing federal food safety regulations, but they have come up short each time.^[1]

9 Beluga Caviar

The beluga sturgeon is the largest of the sturgeons, weighing more than 900 kilograms (2,000 lb) and measuring more than 4.5 meters (15 ft) long. It can take up to 25 years for the female beluga to mature and produce eggs. Beluga caviar varies in color from light to dark grey and is the largest-grain caviar. Their pearls are the most delicate and have a mild, buttery flavor.

In 2005, the United States banned beluga caviar from further import due to overfishing. The US was consuming about 60 percent of the world’s beluga caviar, which is considered the king of caviar due to costing $200 per ounce. Beluga caviar was so desirable that the available stock declined by 90 percent. Overfishing of the beluga can be traced back to poaching and the black market.^[2]

8 Unpasteurized Milk

Unpasteurized milk, or raw milk, is milk that comes directly from an animal’s udder and hasn’t been heat-treated, or pasteurized, to kill any bacteria. Raw milk carries a higher risk of being contaminated with harmful bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses than pasteurized milk. Children are at a higher risk for these diseases because their immune systems have not yet fully developed.

The FDA banned the interstate sale or distribution of raw milk in the US, but states are able to adopt their own laws of the sale of raw milk. Drinking and consuming unpasteurized milk is legal in all 50 states, but 20 states prohibit the sale of raw milk. Thirteen states allow the sales of raw milk in retail stores, and 17 allow the sale of raw milk only on the farm in which it was produced.^[3]

There is currently a movement in the United States to consume organic and locally grown foods. Some believe that raw milk is more nutritious and provides “good bacteria” for the body. Many of the states that allow the selling of raw milk require a warning label informing consumers about the risk of pathogens that can be found in the milk.

7 Sassafras Oil

Sassafras oil is extracted from the dried root bark of the sassafras tree. The tree stands anywhere from 6 to 12 meters (20–40 ft) tall, with slender branches and orange- and brown-colored bark. The leaves are oval and can grow 8 to 18 centimeters (3–7 in) long, and the flowers are small and of a greenish or yellow color.

Many Native American tribes used sassafras for various medicinal purposes, including to help with acne, urinary disorders, and fevers. Sassafras can also be found in Chinese medications to help treat rheumatism and trauma. The twigs from the plants were once used as toothbrushes, and sassafras was also used as an early anesthetic and disinfectant. Sassafras was found in many distinct foods in the US, and it was known as a key ingredient in many root beers and teas.

The FDA prohibits all sassafras bark, oil, and safrole as flavorings or food additives. Sassafras is no longer considered safe for human consumption, and it was banned in 1979, after research linked it to cancer. Also, when too much sassafras oil is consumed, poisoning can possibly occur.^[4]

6 Ortolan

The ortolan is a bird in the bunting family of Emberizidae. It is a tiny songbird that weighs less than an ounce. This bird was once a controversial meal in France and is cooked for eight minutes and served with the head attached. The bird is meant to be eaten whole, including the head and bones.

Killing and selling the ortolan was banned in France in the 1990s, but poachers continued to catch the small bunting and sell it to local restaurants. France’s League for the Protection of Birds claimed that the ortolan population dropped 30 percent even after the ban, forcing the government to enact more stringent enforcement in 2007.

The killing of the rare bird is less controversial than the barbaric way in which it is killed. These birds are trapped during their migratory season and kept in covered cages. The ortolan eats more at night, so the covering the cages will encourage them to gorge on grain, to the point where their bodies double in size. It is said that ancient emperors would pluck out the birds’ eyes, tricking them to thinking it was night so that they would eat more. The ortolans are ultimately thrown alive into a vat of Armagnac, which both drowns and marinates them.^[5]

France now strictly enforces the ban on killing ortolans. The killing, cooking, or smuggling of the bird anywhere in the European Union or the United States is currently a crime.

5 Casu Marzu

Casu marzu, translated into English, means “rotten cheese,” and if the rotten part isn’t already bad enough, it’s also known as “maggot cheese.” This Sardinian cheese is typically soaked in brine, smoked, and left to ripen in a cheese cellar. Then cheese makers set it outside uncovered, allowing cheesing flies to lay eggs inside it.

The eggs hatch into maggots, which start feeding on the cheese. They produce enzymes that promote fermentation and cause fats within the cheese to decompose. The cheese becomes supersoft and leaves a burn on the tongue when eaten. Local Sardinians say the cheese is only good when the maggots are still moving. If the maggots are dead, then the cheese has gone bad and is too toxic for consumption.^[6]Casu marzu is not in compliance with European Union hygienic standards and has been declared illegal. It is also illegal in the United States because it is unpasteurized and has more than six mites per square inch. (The microscopic bugs live on the surface of aged cheese.)

4 Shark Fins

The act of shark finning was deemed illegal by the United States. Finning, the act of cutting off a shark’s fin, is one of the greatest threats that sharks face. After a shark is finned, it is thrown back in the sea, where it may drown, bleed to death, or be eaten by other animals.

There is a large market for shark fins to make shark fin soup, which is a popular and luxurious Asian dish. Shark fins are very popular in Asia and can be found in food stores, pharmacies, and fishing villages. The demand for the shark fins has led to sharks being targeted solely for their fins, but don’t expect to try that soup in the US anytime soon.^[7]

3 Ackee Fruit

Ackee appears to be a very delightful and delicious fruit, but one must be very careful before eating. If the fruit is improperly eaten, it can cause vomiting or even lead to a coma or death. In Jamaica, the harmful effects of ackee fruit are known as Jamaican Vomiting Sickness.

The ackee fruit’s protective pod turns red and naturally opens, revealing the edible portion, which is the yellow arilli that surround the toxic black seeds. The fruit can be tried in Jamaica paired with codfish, which is a popular national dish.

The ackee fruit is originally native to West Africa but was brought to Jamaica in 1778. It is Jamaica’s national fruit. The FDA banned all ackee but would later allow the sales of frozen or canned ackee. The import of fresh ackee is still banned.^[8]

2 Mirabelle Plum

The mirabelle plum is the small, oval-shaped, and dark yellow fruit grown on a mirabelle plum tree. It is known to be sweet and full of flavor and is used in fruit preserves and dessert pies. The fruit can mostly be found in France, where 70 percent of the world’s mirabelle production occurs.

The production of the mirabelle plum has been supported since 1996 by a Protected Geographical Indication to help guarantee is authenticity.^[9] It has been promoted as a high-quality regional product, and the protected origin designation makes it almost impossible to get this fruit into the US.

1 Kinder Surprise Chocolate Eggs

Kinder Surprise Chocolate Eggs are a widely popular candy sold across the world—except in the United States. There are more than 3.5 billion Kinder Surprise Eggs sold each year, with no help from US markets. The Kinder Surprise Egg is a hollow chocolate egg that holds a plastic capsule which contains a toy. The toy is usually a simple collectible, like a tiny bike or a miniature beach bucket and pail.

Kinder Surprise Eggs have always been illegal in the Unites States. A 1938 regulation made it illegal to sell any candy that contains a non-nutritive object. Despite efforts to import the chocolate egg into the US, the federal government has continued its ban and recalled the item each time it was introduced. If you haven’t been lucky enough to try it yet, don’t worry, because Kinder just announced this May that they will be selling a similar chocolate egg in the US market!

Kinder will introduce the Joy Egg, which is a more recent version that separates the toy from the chocolate, as it is comprised of two sealed halves. The new egg meets FDA regulations and is compliant with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. It won’t be exactly the same as the Kinder Surprise, but fans across the US will be able to get their fix.^[10]

I’m just another bearded guy trying to write my way through life.
MDavidScott.com

There is a monster hiding in your house. Many, actually. They’re watching you, waiting. They’re in your refrigerator, your oven, and your kitchen cabinets, because it seems one of the most dangerous things you handle each day is your food. The ways in which your diet can come back to haunt you range far beyond heart disease and diabetes. Human history is rife with horrific episodes brought about by nothing more than this most basic necessity. One look at these ferocious foodstuffs, and you’ll never turn your back on your local supermarket again.

10 Bread

During the 1800s, England’s population was growing faster than ever before. In fact, by 1850, London had become the largest city in history. But this sudden, enormous growth led to serious shortages of day-to-day items, and profiteering manufacturers were quick to respond . . . by packing their products with whatever they could find lying around their garage.

Plaster of Paris and even chalk were used to stretch out actual ingredients, but the worst was the use of toxic alum.^[1] Safer versions of alum are used for things like pickling, but the dangerous variety—used in modern-day washing detergents—was used heavily in bread. Not only did it allow for more loaves per batch, but it also gave them a more attractive white color. The thing is, alum prevents actual food from being absorbed by the intestines. In the end, this practice led to an epidemic of severe malnutrition, diarrhea, and even the deaths of many children, as starving citizens were unable to digest what meager scraps they could find.

9 Corn

The early 20th century saw the American South gripped by a nightmarish new disease. Sickening skin lesions and madness were the calling cards of the mysterious malady, which took over 100,000 lives between 1906 and 1940. Worse yet, no one could figure out where this “pellagra” even came from.

That is, until Dr. Joseph Goldberger came along. The Pennsylvania physician joined the Public Health Service in 1899 and had spent the last few decades traveling the country solving medical mysteries. It occurred to him that the disease only struck the especially poor, who survived on a diet composed almost entirely of nice, cheap corn.

His dietary findings didn’t go down well with Southern doctors, though, who were convinced the illness was caused by a germ. So Dr. Goldberger proved it wasn’t contagious by swallowing the scabs from an infected patient’s sores as well as infected urine and feces.^[2] He didn’t catch the dreaded disease, and his work helped to unmask pellagra as a simple niacin deficiency.

8 Wine

A symbol of class and refinement for millennia, wine would seem like one of the least harmful things on the planet (unless you count the occasional drunken fistfight). But just try telling that to English nobleman George Plantagenet.

The duke of Clarence and brother of King Edward IV, Plantagenet found himself involved in a Game of Thrones–style medieval power struggle in the late 1400s. Constantly at odds with his brother, he began scheming to remove him from the throne. However, before his rebellion could even start, King Edward beat him to the punch. Plantagenet was secretly imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed on February 18, 1478.

Despite beheading being the traditional fate of traitors, Edward instead had a final insult planned for his sibling. He ordered Plantagenet drowned in a barrel of his favorite drink, malmsey wine.^[3] After his uniquely ironic execution, some believe his body was left in the barrel when it was sent off to be buried.

7 Chocolate

In the early 20th century, the world stumbled upon a miracle. By simply adding a small amount of a newly documented element, any humdrum object could be made the stuff of fairy tales. Clock faces and cosmetics were dressed up with the miraculous glowing material. Candy manufacturers even began adding it to their chocolate for its supposedly invigorating qualities. Too bad it was radioactive.

Radium-infused chocolate was only one dangerous product that people were woefully eager to cram in their mouths. Wines and water were also packed with radiation before the dangers started to make themselves known. A 1925 article in The New York Times heralded the end of the radium age with the announcement of a nightmarish new disease: radium necrosis. It was basically radiation poisoning of the jaw caused by ingesting radium. Victims found the flesh and bone of their lower faces dying and falling away or developing grotesque tumors.^[4] Death followed shortly after.

6 Fish

For some, eating raw fish may be a terrifying prospect in its own right, but a certain Japanese delicacy gives sushi-phobes another reason to fear. Blowfish, or fugu, is prepared with extreme care by master sushi chefs. The law demands it. The government regulates the process carefully because a single mistake could end the life of a customer.

The organs of the blowfish are filled with a substance called tetrodotoxin.^[5] Should any taint the meat, this unbelievably nightmarish poison begins with a subtle numbing of the unlucky customer’s mouth. Soon, however, the numbness evolves into full-blown paralysis, which slowly migrates down the body. The victim is left completely unable to move but fully aware. Death finally comes when the paralysis reaches the lungs, and the still-conscious diner slowly suffocates. Luckily, due to the strict laws concerning its preparation, only 23 people have been killed by fugu in the last 16 years. Still, not many takers.

5 Nutmeg

During the 1600s, a terrible war was waged between the English and the Dutch. It was a brutal and bloody conflict that lasted for years. It was over something we like to sprinkle on eggnog.

Humble nutmeg found itself at the center of this bizarre international conflict because it had become something of a status symbol.^[6] Nobles of the era would stockpile spices like gold, and the trendiest new addition to any spice cabinet was nutmeg. The seeds were prized for their exotic flavor, their supposed aphrodisiac properties, and the belief that they could actually cure the Black Death. Unfortunately, though, they could only be found on a single Indonesian island chain, the Bandas. The quest to monopolize the nutmeg industry led Dutch and English forces to commit horrors ranging from torture to mass slaughter, upon both enemy combatants and the innocent residents of the islands.

Luckily, the bloodshed finally ended in 1667, when England signed a treaty handing over control of their only remaining Banda island. They didn’t get much in return, just the Dutch-controlled island of Manhattan.

4 Water

Throughout history, typhoid fever has claimed countless lives. Minor epidemics were fairly common until recently, but in 1903, the city of Ithaca, New York, faced a sudden and unusually aggressive outbreak of the dreadful disease.^[7] Construction had recently begun on the Six Mile Creek Dam, and the shady owners had neglected to include a filtration system of any kind. Conditions were rough for the builders as well; the entire crew was forced to share a single outhouse, leading many to simply use the creek. However, the final nail in the coffin was that a few of the builders had recently moved from an area of Italy notorious for typhoid outbreaks.

The results were as obvious as they were devastating. Ithaca residents began experiencing crippling stomach pain and dangerously high fevers. The sickness had spread far and wide before anyone figured out their drinking water was to blame. People could only watch as friends and family began to succumb. In the end, 82 people, including 29 college students, were killed.

3 Grain

Medieval England just couldn’t catch a break. As if constant war and the Black Plague weren’t enough, folks had a more obscure reason to lock themselves in their mud cottages: English sweating sickness.

With outbreaks occurring mainly during the summers of the 15th and 16th centuries, this strange illness came on fast and killed faster. Within 24 hours of infection, the victim would sweat profusely, experience shortness of breath and heart palpitations, and finally drop dead. Despite much documentation in everything from official records to fiction (Shakespeare even mentioned it in his play Measure for Measure), no one really knew where it came from.

Researchers now believe the hantavirus was to blame.^[8] The symptoms are eerily similar, and just like the Black Death, it is transmitted by rodents. Medieval England had no shortage of rats; the vermin were notorious for chowing down on stores of grains like wheat and oats. While eating, the incontinent beasts would leave their urine behind, contaminating the food. Unlucky peasants would then sit down for dinner, and an epidemic would be born.

2 Cheese

Listeria monocytogenes is a particularly nasty bacterium. In humans, it causes an unpredictable condition called listeriosis, which can be as minor as a touch of the flu or infect the nervous system, causing convulsions and death. It also really seems to like cheese.

Products containing unpasteurized milk are prime targets for Listeria. In 1985, California’s Jalisco Products produced a batch of cheese without following pasteurization procedures. The result was one of the largest listeriosis outbreaks in history.^[9] Southern California was devastated by the deadly neurological disease, which hit pregnant women and newborn babies the hardest. The death toll topped out at a terrifying 62 when all was said and done, including many stillbirths.

And this wasn’t an isolated incident. Listeriosis outbreaks linked to cheese are insanely common, even now. Maybe order a side of antibiotics the next time you hit the pizza joint.

1 Rye

In the Middle Ages, Europe was subjected to what can only be described as a full-on living nightmare. A strange plague, known as St. Anthony’s fire, began to spread. Victims suffered extreme burning sensations in their hands and feet, the feeling of insects crawling beneath their skin, and horrifying hallucinations. The infection sometimes even caused the flesh of the hands and feet to die, requiring amputation.

It wasn’t until much later that botanists were able to crack this “holy fire.” The fungus Claviceps purpurea infects many grain plants, but it seems especially fond of rye.^[10] Small black growths called ergots grow alongside the grains on tainted plants and were often mistakenly ground up with them in medieval mills. Bread made from the flour would then infect humans, leading to the hellish symptoms.

Despite the horrors, the study of ergot has led to many advances in medical science, like cures for migraine headaches and psychological disorders. It has also led to advances in psychedelic science by giving the world LSD.