Food & Drink
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This food and drink trivia quiz serves 162 free questions with answers from every corner of the kitchen and the bar: where dishes really come from, what goes into famous drinks, the science of why bread rises and honey never spoils, the brands and inventions behind everyday groceries, and the strange food laws and records that make good pub-quiz arguments. It starts with easy questions anyone who eats can answer and works up to ones for people who read the back of the packet. Use it as a food and beverage round for trivia night, a warm-up for a cooking class, or a quick game at the dinner table. Every answer has been checked against a reliable source such as a reference encyclopaedia or an official producer's site, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 162 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What Japanese word refers to thinly sliced raw fish served on its own?
Sashimi
Sashimi means 'pierced flesh' in Japanese, and unlike sushi, which is defined by vinegared rice rather than raw fish, it is always served on its own.
Q 02Which spice gives curry powder its distinctive yellow color?
Turmeric
Turmeric's yellow pigment, curcumin, is also what gives American yellow mustard its bright colour.
Q 03What type of pasta is shaped like small ear-shaped discs?
Orecchiette
Orecchiette literally means 'little ears' in Italian. This pasta shape originates from the Puglia region of southern Italy and is traditionally served with broccoli rabe.
Q 04Which espresso drink is topped with just a small spot of milk foam?
Macchiato
Macchiato means 'stained' or 'spotted' in Italian: the espresso is marked with only a spot of milk, so it stays far stronger than a cortado.
Q 05What is miso, the ingredient that gives Japanese miso soup its name?
Fermented soybean paste
Miso is a fermented soybean paste made with salt and koji, and during Japan's Sengoku wars it was prized as military rations.
Q 06Which French cooking term means to cook food slowly in its own fat?
Confit
Confit is a French cooking technique where food, traditionally duck or goose, is cooked slowly in its own fat at a low temperature. The word comes from the French verb confire, meaning to preserve.
Q 07What grain is used to make traditional Italian risotto?
Arborio rice
Arborio rice is named after a town in Piedmont's Po Valley, and as it is stirred its starch rubs off, making risotto creamy with no cream added.
Q 08Which nut is the primary ingredient in marzipan?
Almond
Almonds and sugar make marzipan, and its cheaper cousin, persipan, swaps the almonds for apricot or peach kernels.
Q 09What is the name of the Korean side dish of fermented vegetables, most commonly napa cabbage?
Kimchi
Kimchi is so central to Korean meals that scientists made a special space kimchi for Yi So-yeon, the first South Korean in space, in 2008.
Q 10Which cheese is traditionally used in a classic Greek salad?
Feta
Feta comes from the Italian fetta, 'slice', probably because the cheese was cut into slices to pack it into barrels.
Q 11Champagne belongs to which broad category of drink?
Sparkling
Sparkling wine made only in France's Champagne region gets its fizz from a second fermentation in the bottle.
Q 12Which herb is the key ingredient in traditional pesto alla Genovese?
Basil
Basil is pounded with garlic and pine nuts in a marble mortar, which is how pesto got its name, from the Genoese pestâ, 'to pound'.
Q 13What does the Italian term 'al dente' mean when cooking pasta?
Firm to the bite
Al dente means 'to the tooth', pasta cooked firm to the bite, and it has a lower glycemic index than pasta cooked soft.
Q 21What is the name of the traditional Indian clay oven used for baking naan bread?
Tandoor
A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven heated with charcoal or wood, capable of reaching extremely high temperatures. It is essential in Indian and Central Asian cooking for breads like naan and dishes like tandoori chicken.
Q 22Which fruit is used to make traditional guacamole?
Avocado
The name comes from the Classical Nahuatl word āhuacamōlli, which literally means 'avocado sauce'.
Q 23Sake, the traditional Japanese beverage, is brewed from which grain?
Rice
Sake is brewed from polished rice. Unlike beer, where starch is turned to sugar and then sugar to alcohol in two separate steps, in sake both conversions happen at the same time in one vat.
Q 14Which spirit is the base of a classic Margarita cocktail?
Tequila
Tequila margaritas went frozen in 1971, when Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez rigged a used ice cream machine; the Smithsonian now holds it.
Q 15What is the primary ingredient in hummus?
Chickpeas
Hummus is simply Arabic for 'chickpeas', and Lebanon and Israel traded the record for the biggest plate of it until Lebanon's 10,452 kg dish in 2010.
Q 16What is the name of the Japanese stock made from kelp and dried bonito flakes?
Dashi
Dashi is the foundational stock of Japanese cuisine, typically made by simmering kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes). It forms the base of miso soup, ramen broth, and many sauces.
Q 17Which vegetable is the main ingredient in traditional borscht?
Beetroot
Beetroot turns borscht red, and UNESCO has listed Ukraine's borscht-cooking culture as heritage in urgent need of safeguarding, citing Russia's invasion.
Q 18What does 'umami' translate to in English?
Savory taste
Umami means 'pleasant savory taste'; chemist Kikunae Ikeda traced it to glutamate in kombu broth in 1908, then helped found Ajinomoto to sell MSG.
Q 19Paella is the traditional dish of which region on the Mediterranean coast?
Valencia
In Valencia, paella is the name of the wide, shallow frying pan the rice is cooked in, from the Latin patella, 'pan'.
Q 20Which famous Italian cheese has a prized version made from buffalo milk?
Mozzarella
Mozzarella takes its name from mozzare, 'to cut off', because the stretched curd is cut into portions to make each ball.
Q 24Which cooking method involves submerging food in hot fat or oil?
Deep frying
Deep frying involves fully submerging food in hot oil, typically between 325-375°F (160-190°C). This method cooks food quickly and creates a crispy exterior through the Maillard reaction.
Q 25Which spongy Ethiopian flatbread, made from teff, doubles as plate and utensil?
Injera
Injera gets its sour tang from teff batter fermented for one to three days, and the spongy bread doubles as the platter and the spoon.
Q 26Which Italian dessert layers coffee-soaked ladyfingers with a sweet mascarpone cream?
Tiramisu
Tiramisu means 'pick me up', and Treviso in Veneto and restaurants in Friuli have long argued over which region invented it.
Q 27What is the name of the Mexican dish of a flour tortilla wrapped closed around a filling?
Burrito
Burrito means 'little donkey' in Spanish, perhaps because the wrapped bundle looks like the pack a donkey carries.
Q 28Italy is famous for olive oil, but which country produced the most of it in 2022?
Spain
Spain made about twice as much olive oil as Italy in 2022, even though its share that year fell to about a quarter of world output.
Q 29Which French term names the diced onion, carrot and celery that start countless soups, stocks and sauces?
Mirepoix
Mirepoix is named after an 18th-century French duke, Lévis-Mirepoix, and Louisiana's Cajun cooks swap its carrot for green bell pepper to make their holy trinity.
Q 30Which botanical gives gin its defining flavour?
Juniper
Juniper berries are the defining botanical ingredient in gin. By legal definition in most countries, gin must derive its predominant flavor from juniper berries.