ducalegon's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
Stinging Nettles
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Fruits & Vegetables

Stinging Nettles

Boil away this plant's poisonous hairs, and you're left with a tasty, spinach-like leaf.
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Exploding Chocolate Teacakes
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Sweets

Exploding Chocolate Teacakes

In the 1960s, Royal Air Force pilots made a startling discovery about their sweets.
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Tim Tam Slam
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Tim Tam Slam

The world's least practical and most delicious edible straw.
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Chicken of the Woods
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Ingredients & Condiments

Chicken of the Woods

This mushroom tastes just like chicken.
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Mortadella
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Meats & Animal Products

Mortadella

Baloney's predecessor is sweet, delicately spiced, and bigger than your head.
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Irn-Bru
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Drinks

Irn-Bru

A citrusy cream soda with a hint of rust outsells Coca-Cola in Scotland.
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Turkish Coffee
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Drinks

Turkish Coffee

Locals joke that you should be able to “float a horseshoe” on the thick brew.
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Wassailing
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Wassailing

This wintertime serenade for apple trees also involves firing rifles and drinking cider.
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Absinthe Spoon
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Absinthe Spoon

This flat, silver spoon holds an exalted place in the mystery and ritual of absinthe drinking.
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Pouring Moroccan Mint Tea
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Pouring Moroccan Mint Tea

A gesture of welcome and respect, Moroccan mint tea gets poured from high above the glass.
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Colcannon
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Prepared Foods

Colcannon

A hearty Irish staple that can tell your fortune.
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Cotton Candy Grapes
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Fruits & Vegetables

Cotton Candy Grapes

A crossbred table grape variety that tastes an awful lot like spun sugar.
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Vimto
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Drinks

Vimto

This British temperance tonic is now a Ramadan favorite.
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Beaujolais Nouveau
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Drinks

Beaujolais Nouveau

When the clock strikes midnight on the third Thursday of November, fans gather to celebrate the release of this fresh, fruity wine.
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Real Wasabi
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Ingredients & Condiments

Real Wasabi

Most sushi fans have never tried this rare rhizome.
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Faggots
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Prepared Foods

Faggots

There's much more to these offal-based meatballs than the unfortunate double meaning of their name.
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Yorkshire Parkin
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Sweets

Yorkshire Parkin

On November 5, the British celebrate a thwarted assassination attempt with bonfires and deliciously dense, sticky gingerbread.
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Horlicks Malted Milk
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Ingredients & Condiments

Horlicks Malted Milk

This powder proved essential to Arctic exploration, war, and the ice cream parlor.
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Scrumpy
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Drinks

Scrumpy

This rustic cider's name derives from an English term for fruit thievery.
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Lancashire Hotpot
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Prepared Foods

Lancashire Hotpot

This “hodgepodge” of affordable ingredients fueled local laborers during the Industrial Revolution.
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Scouse
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Prepared Foods

Scouse

A sailor's stew that's come to define Liverpudlians.
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Eton Mess
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Sweets

Eton Mess

This summery parfait has mingled with British royals and literary elites.
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Bakewell Pudding
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Sweets

Bakewell Pudding

A sweet and sticky accident from Derbyshire, England.
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Cornish Pasty
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Prepared Foods

Cornish Pasty

In the 19th century, tin miners ate these handheld pies and left their crusts to appease mischievous, mine-dwelling spirits.
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