Fun Facts About Food Near and Far

What's bouillabaisse? It's French for a fish stew that combines many kinds of fish and shellfish. Here is a stew of another kind — a variety of food facts.

Meal Within a Meal

For special occasions, the Bedouin tribes of Africa stuff a fish with eggs and put it inside a chicken. The chicken is put inside a sheep, and the sheep is put inside a camel and roasted. Now that's stuffed!

Prehistoric Food

Have you ever wondered what people ate before recorded time? Just like what people eat now, it depended on what plants and animals were available to them. According to archeological evidence, some prehistoric people dug wild onions and radishes and searched for wild squash, cabbage, mushrooms, and waterlily seed to eat. They also ate some insects, raw. Certain tasty insects became extinct from being overhunted (or overeaten?).

Bird's Nest Soup

Yes, this Asian delicacy is made from real bird's nests. In China, a prized food is the soup made from the Asian swift's nest.

Breakfast in Egypt

In Egypt, breakfast is often bought and eaten at a street stall. Usually it is bread wrapped around assorted fried vegetables: eggplant, beans, tomatoes, and peppers.

Aborigine Food

The Aborigines of Australia call their native food “bush-tucks.” It includes game meat such as kangaroo, turkey, and goanna, which is a kind of lizard.

Pretzels and Prayers

According to folklore, pretzels were given to children who knew their prayers. The pretzel shape was supposed to signify arms folded across the chest in prayer.

Gorp

The energy food of bikers and hikers is called Gorp: Good Old Raisins and Peanuts.

Peanut Butter

A favorite spread for sandwiches, peanut butter was created by a doctor as a health food. In Africa, where they were first grown, peanuts are known as groundnuts.

Buffalo Wings

Buffalo wings have nothing to do with bison. They are spicy chicken wings that originated in Buffalo, New York.

Horseradish

The ancient Greeks believed horseradish was worth its weight in gold.

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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