ErebusFact library / Trivia
25 food & drink facts, each paired with a strange little scene and a hook for the hard word.
Pizza Margherita is traditionally said to be named after Queen Margherita of Italy, who visited Naples in 1889.
Picture it
In Naples in 1889, a pizzaiolo tops a pizza with tomato, mozzarella and basil, the red, white and green of Italy's flag, for a visiting queen named Margherita, a daisy in her crown.
Memory hooks
The Caesar salad was created by restaurateur Caesar Cardini in Tijuana, Mexico, in the 1920s, and isn't named after Julius Caesar.
Picture it
On a busy Fourth of July in 1924, an Italian restaurateur in Tijuana, Mexico, runs out of food and tosses romaine with what's left: egg, parmesan, croutons, lemon. His name was Caesar Cardini.
Memory hooks
Only sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of France can legally be called champagne in the EU.
Picture it
In chalk cellars under the town of Reims, millions of bottles lie upside down, being turned a little every day. Only sparkling wine from this one French region can be called Champagne.
Memory hooks
Saffron, the world's most expensive spice, comes from the stigmas of the saffron crocus, picked by hand.
Picture it
Pickers bend over fields of purple crocus flowers at dawn, plucking three red threads from each by hand. It takes around 150,000 flowers to make one kilo of saffron.
Memory hooks
Vanilla comes from the seed pods of an orchid, which is usually pollinated by hand.
Picture it
On Madagascar, farmers hand-pollinate pale orchid flowers with a little stick, a trick discovered by a 12-year-old enslaved boy on Réunion in 1841. Months later, the flowers become long dark pods.
Memory hooks
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The Aztecs drank a bitter cocoa drink, and the word chocolate probably comes from the Nahuatl xocolatl.
Picture it
An Aztec emperor drinks frothy, bitter, chilli-spiced cocoa from a golden cup, many times a day. The Nahuatl word sounds like chocolate: xocolatl, "bitter water". Cocoa beans are used as money.
Memory hooks
Legend says coffee was discovered in Ethiopia by a goatherd named Kaldi, whose goats became lively after eating coffee berries.
Picture it
A goatherd in Ethiopia notices his goats dancing on their hind legs after nibbling red berries from a bush. He tries some and dances too. His name, legend says, was Kaldi.
Memory hooks
Earl Grey tea is black tea flavoured with oil of bergamot, a citrus fruit; it is named after the 2nd Earl Grey, a British prime minister.
Picture it
A British prime minister, an earl with grey hair, sips black tea scented with the oil of a small, sour citrus fruit, the bergamot orange.
Memory hooks
Tonic water gets its bitter taste from quinine, once drunk by British colonists to prevent malaria.
Picture it
British officers in India mix a bitter anti-malaria powder with soda, sugar and lime, then add gin to make it go down. The bitter ingredient, from the bark of a South American tree, is quinine.
Memory hooks
Roquefort, a blue cheese made from sheep's milk, must be aged in caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in France.
Picture it
A shepherd boy leaves his lunch of bread and ewe's milk cheese in a cave to chase a girl. Months later he finds it streaked with blue mould. Delicious. The cheese is aged in those caves still: Roquefort.
Memory hooks
Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, mainly in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Picture it
In the Mexican state of Jalisco, farmers with sharp blades trim a spiky blue plant down to its giant heart, the size of a beach ball, then roast it for tequila.
Memory hooks
Peach Melba was created by chef Auguste Escoffier for Australian opera singer Nellie Melba.
Picture it
At the Savoy hotel in London, a famous chef serves an Australian opera singer peaches and vanilla ice cream in a swan made of ice. Later he adds raspberry sauce. He names it after her: Melba.
Memory hooks
The pavlova, a meringue dessert, is named after Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova; Australia and New Zealand both claim it.
Picture it
A Russian ballerina pirouettes across Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s, light as air. A chef makes a meringue as light as her tutu, piled with cream and fruit, and names it after her.
Memory hooks
Tabasco sauce has been made on Avery Island, Louisiana, since 1868.
Picture it
On a Louisiana island that's really a giant dome of salt, red peppers are mashed with salt and aged in oak barrels for three years. The little bottle with the diamond label: Tabasco.
Memory hooks
Kimchi, the Korean dish of fermented vegetables, is most often made with napa cabbage.
Picture it
Every autumn, families in Korea gather to rub chilli paste into hundreds of heads of napa cabbage, then pack them into clay pots buried in the ground to ferment through winter.
Memory hooks
Paella comes from Valencia in Spain and is named after the wide, shallow pan it's cooked in.
Picture it
In the rice fields outside Valencia, farm workers cook rice with rabbit, snails and beans over an orange-wood fire in a wide, flat pan. The dish takes its name from the pan.
Memory hooks
Haggis is the centrepiece of Burns Night, which celebrates the poet Robert Burns on 25 January.
Picture it
On 25 January, bagpipes play as a plump sheep's-stomach pudding is carried in on a silver plate. Someone recites a poem to it, then stabs it with a knife. It's Burns Night.
Memory hooks
The word ketchup probably comes from a Hokkien Chinese word for a fermented fish sauce.
Picture it
In a 17th-century port in southern China, sailors buy a salty, brown fermented fish sauce called kê-tsiap. British traders take the word home and add mushrooms, walnuts and, eventually, tomatoes.
Memory hooks
Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta in 1886 by pharmacist John Pemberton.
Picture it
In Atlanta in 1886, a pharmacist mixes a syrup of coca leaf and kola nut and sells it as a nerve tonic for five cents a glass. His bookkeeper writes the name in flowing script: Coca-Cola.
Memory hooks
Tiramisu, made with coffee-soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone, means "pick me up" in Italian.
Picture it
In a restaurant in Treviso, layers of coffee-soaked biscuits and mascarpone are dusted with cocoa. One bite and you feel lifted: in Italian, tirami sù, "pick me up".
Memory hooks
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The cappuccino is named after the brown hooded robes of Capuchin friars.
Picture it
A friar in a brown hooded robe sips a coffee topped with milk foam. The drink is exactly the same colour as his habit, so it's named after his order: the Capuchins.
Memory hooks
The word avocado comes from the Nahuatl ahuacatl, which also meant "testicle".
Picture it
An Aztec farmer holds up two dark green fruits hanging in a pair from a tree and grins at their shape. The Nahuatl word ahuacatl also meant "testicle". It became avocado.
Memory hooks
The Scoville scale measures the heat of chilli peppers, based on their capsaicin content.
Picture it
In 1912, a pharmacist dissolves chilli extract in sugar water and asks tasters to sip it, diluting it again and again until they can't feel the burn. The number of dilutions is the chilli's Scoville rating.
Memory hooks
Japanese sake is brewed from polished rice.
Picture it
In a Japanese brewery, rice grains are polished until only half of each is left, then steamed and fermented with a mould called koji. The result is a clear drink, served warm or cold: sake.
Memory hooks
Parmigiano-Reggiano, or Parmesan, is a hard cheese from the area around Parma and Reggio Emilia; some Italian banks accept wheels of it as loan security.
Picture it
In northern Italy, a bank accepts huge wheels of hard cheese as security for loans, storing them in a vault to age for years. The cheese comes from around Parma and Reggio Emilia.
Memory hooks