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Food Trivia

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Abalone

• Abalone is a variety of sea snail.

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Abalone Poisoning

• The viscera of Japanese abalone can harbor a poisonous substance which causes a burning, stinging, prickling and itching over the entire body. It does not manifest itself until exposure to sunlight - if eaten outdoors in sunlight, symptoms occur quickly and suddenly. Skin lesions may occur on body parts exposed to the sunlight. It is believed the toxin may come from seaweed ingested by the abalone.

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Airline Food• U.S. Air spends about $3.00

TWA spends about $3.40Delta spends about $4.10Continental spends about $4.80Northwest spends about $4.85United spends about $7.50American spends about $8.00Midwest Express spends about $10.00

• Supposedly, your taste buds are dulled at high altitude and the cabin pressure in jets, so food seems to have less flavor.

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All blue Potato• The All Blue potato is a

deep-blue skinned, with consistently blue flesh, almost purple. Smooth skinned, shallow eyes and excellent flavor. Makes very interesting french fries and mashed potatoes, and a must for the all-American red, white and blue (and yellow too) potato salad.

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Animal Crackers

• In total there have been 37 different animals since 1902.

• The current crackers are tiger, cougar, camel, rhinoceros, kangaroo, hippopotamus, bison, lion, hyena, zebra, elephant, sheep, bear, gorilla, monkey, seal and giraffe.

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Apple Muffin

• The apple muffin is the official state muffin of New York State

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Apple Pie• Folk saying: 'Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a

squeeze.'

In countless surveys, Apple Pie has been chosen the favorite dessert in the United States. Apple pie has also been a favorite in England for hundreds of years.

In rural homes in the 19th century, apple and other fruit pie was often a common item served for breakfast, considered a good hearty beginning for a hard day's work.

The state of Vermont adopted apple pie as the official state pie in 1999

• There are about 2500 known varieties grown in the US. 56% of the 1999 crop was eaten as fresh fruit and 42% was processed.

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Applesauce

• The first American to orbit the Earth, astronaut John Glenn, carried pureed applesauce in squeezable tubes on his initial space flight. Ham with applesauce was served to Gemini astronauts.

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Artichoke• Globe artichokes are

the large, unopened flower bud of a plant belonging to the thistle family. 

• The many leaf-like parts making up the bud are called scales. Peak season is in April and May.

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Bacon

• More than 2 billion pounds of bacon is produced in the U.S. each year.

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Banana Cream Pie

• In a survey conducted in 1951 of the U.S. armed services, banana cream pie was the favorite dessert. Rice pudding was the least liked.

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Banana Split1313

• The banana split was invented in 1904 at Strickler's Drug Store in Pennsylvania.

• A banana split starts with a banana split lengthwise, topped with scoops of ice cream, assorted syrups and finally whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.

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Bar Codes• The bar code, those stripes of varying width that appear

on virtually every price tag or package today, was invented by Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver.

• They were issued US Patent #2,612,994 on October 7, 1952. 

• In 1974 the UPC (Universal Product Code) ‘symbol set’ for bar coding, and the UPC scanner, were first used at Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

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Baskin Robbins Ice Cream

• 25% of Baskin Robbins ('31 flavors') ice cream sales are for plain vanilla.

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Bell Peppers

• Green, sweet bell pepper have 2 times as much vitamin C as oranges; red and yellow bell peppers have 4 times as much.

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Betty Crocker

• "Betty Crocker" was a fictional spokesperson created by General Mills in the early 1920s to answer letters from consumers.

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Blueberry Muffin

• The blueberry muffin is the official muffin of Minnesota.

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Bologna

• This large highly seasoned sausage is name for Bologna, Italy. 

• The true Italian sausage from Bologna is actually called Mortadella.

• Americans eat 800 million pounds of bologna annually.

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Bombay Duck

• Bombay duck is really a small (up to 16 inches) edible lizardfish which in India is sun dried and used as a condiment. 

• It is also used as a food fish in many areas of southern Asia.

• Also known as bumalo and bombila.

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Borscht

• The original base for this bright red Polish and Russian soup was the cow parsnip.

• The Russian word 'borshch' means cow parsnip.

• Today, borscht is a beetroot soup, made with meat stock, cabbage, and frequently potatoes and other root vegetables.

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Boston Cream Pie

• Boston Cream Pie is not a pie, it is a cake composed of 2 layers of sponge cake with a layer of custard or cream filling, usually topped with chocolate. Boston Cream Pie is the official state dessert of Massachusetts.

• Boston Cream Pie is not a pie, it is a cake

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Bouillon Cubes

• Bouillon cubes were first made commercially in 1882 by Swiss flour manufacturer Julius Maggi.

• He produced them so the poor living in city slums (who could not afford meat) would have an inexpensive method for making nutritious soup.

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Boysenberry

• Developed by Rudolph Boysen in the early 1930s, the boysenberry is a cross between a loganberry, red raspberry and blackberry.

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Brains

• The world eating competition for cow brains is held by Takeru Kobayashi, 17.7 pounds in 15 minutes.

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Breakfast Cereals

• Post Grape Nuts’ were first made in 1897

General Foods 'Post Toasties' cereal (1904) was originally called ‘Elijah's Manna’.

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Breakfast of Champions

• Trix cereal, introduced in 1954 by General Mills, was more than 46% sugar.

• Twelve percent of the total quantity of colas sold are consumed with or instead of breakfast.

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Broccoli

• The average person in the United States eats four and one-half pounds of broccoli a year.

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Brown Trout

• The largest brown trout weighed over 40 pounds and was caught in Arkansas on May 9, 1992.

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Brownies

• January 22 is National Blonde Brownie Day

• Okmulgee, Oklahoma, holds the world's record for largest pecan brownie. The town holds an annual Pecan Festival each June.

• Brownies are dense squares of chewy chocolate cake, usually containing nuts.  

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Brussels Sprouts

• The total annual production of Brussels sprouts in the U.S. is almost 70 million pounds.

• Brussels sprouts are very popular in Great Britain - they grow about six times as many of them as the U.S.

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Burger King

• Burger King was founded by James McLamore and David Edgerton in 1954.

• It was sold to Pillsbury in 1967.

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Butter

• Butter has been colored yellow since at least the 1300s. During the Middle Ages it was colored with marigold flowers.

• The world record for butter eating is 7 quarter pound sticks of salted butter in 5 minutes by Donald Lerman.

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Butterfinger Candy bar

• The Butterfinger was invented in 1923.

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Cabbage

• The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.

• The world record for eating cabbage is held by Charles Hardy. He ate 6 pounds 9 ounces in 9 minutes.

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Canned Food• Almost 200 billion cans of food are produced in

the world each year.• The Hormel Company of Austin, Minnesota sold

the first canned ham in 1926.• Carbonated soft drink canning began in 1940.

Aluminum was introduced in metal can making in 1957.

Aluminum beverage cans were introduced in 1964, and by 1985 the dominated the beverage market.

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Carbonated Beverages

• Omar Knedlik of Coffeyville, Kansas, invented the first frozen carbonated drink machine in 1961.

• In Hazleton, Pennsylvania it is illegal to drink a carbonated beverage while lecturing in a school auditorium.

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Cardamon

• Cardamom is one of the oldest spices in the world, and the most popular spice in ancient Rome was probably cardamom. It is the world's second most expensive spice, saffron being the most expensive.

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Carp

• Carp tongue was considered a delicacy during the Middle Ages.

• The carp was the mascot of the radio station WKRP on the TV show 'WKRP in Cincinnati' which ran from September 18, 1978 to September 20, 1982.

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Carrots• Carrots are native to Afghanistan.

• There were originally red, purple and black varieties of carrots that contained anthocyanin pigments. 

• The yellow, and eventually orange varieties of carrots were developed in the 16th and 17th centuries

• The carrot was brought to by colonists to the New World, where it escaped into the wild and became Queen Anne's Lace.

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Catfish

• The largest catfish ever caught, was a flathead catfish that weighed 123 pounds, caught by Ken Paulie on the Withlacoochee River in Florida, May 14, 1998. 

• The largest blue catfish caught with rod and reel weighed 111 pounds. It was caught in Tennessee on July 5, 1996.

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Catsup,catchup

• The first record of the word in English was as 'catchup' in 1690; in 1711 the spelling 'ketchup' appeared, and finally in 1730 the spelling 'catsup' appeared.

• This was all before the advent of 'tomato ketchup' sometime near the end of the 18th century.

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Cheese cake

• There is an all-garlic restaurant in Stockholm where they offer a garlic cheesecake.

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Chefboyardee

• Chef Boyardee was a real chef. Born in Italy, worked at the Plaza and the Ritz-Carlton in New York, the Greenbriar in West Virginia, and the Hotel Winton in Cleveland.

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Chitterlings or chit'lins

• Chitterlings or chit'lins are the intestines of young pigs, cleaned and stewed and then frequently battered and fried.

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Cocoa-Cola

• The first Coca-Cola was sold on May 8, 1886 at a soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, either by Pemberton himself, or by clerk Willis Venable.

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Escargot

• Escargot - French - An edible snail, especially one prepared as an appetizer or entree.

• The French consume 40,000 metric tons of snails each year.

• Restaurants serve about 1 billion snails annually.

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Foie gras

• The original and classic foie gras is made from goose liver

• Generally the term foie gras is used for goose liver, although it is also used to refer to duck liver.

• Goose liver is considered superior by most people.

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Gatorade

• Gatorade, the original sports drink, was created by the University of Florida for their football team the 'Gators' in 1967.

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Ostrich Eggs

• One ostrich egg can make an omelet for 10 people. The eggs weigh 3 to 6 pounds and they would take at least 45 minutes to hard boil.

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Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

• Reese's Peanut Butter Cup was invented 1923.

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