tmcc784's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
Buddha's Hand
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Fruits & Vegetables

Buddha's Hand

Smells like lavender, tastes like lemon rind, looks like a gnarled claw fresh from your nightmares. 
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Bonito Flakes
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Meats & Animal Products

Bonito Flakes

Some fish can dance.
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Watergate Cake
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Sweets

Watergate Cake

Beneath its "cover-up" of icing, this dessert hides a bunch of nuts.
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Umeboshi
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Fruits & Vegetables

Umeboshi

These salted, pickled plums are an ancient Japanese hangover cure.
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Kala Jamun
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Sweets

Kala Jamun

These dark fried milk balls are flecked with gold and dipped in scented syrup.
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Berliner Weisse
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Drinks

Berliner Weisse

Pink or green syrup turns a historic German ale into a tart, sweet delight.
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Cucamelon
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Fruits & Vegetables

Cucamelon

Mexico's “mouse melon” is actually a tiny cucumber.
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Smith Island Cake
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Prepared Foods

Smith Island Cake

This dessert island is known for its refined layer cakes.
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Cincinnati Chili
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Prepared Foods

Cincinnati Chili

Spiced meat sauce meets spaghetti, shredded cheese, and beans in a Midwest cult favorite.
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Poke Cake
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Sweets

Poke Cake

In the 1970s, housewives stabbed their cakes and filled the holes with Jell-O.
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White BBQ Sauce
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Ingredients & Condiments

White BBQ Sauce

In Alabama, smoked meat gets dressed up in white.
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Gooey Butter Cake
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Sweets

Gooey Butter Cake

Everything St. Louisans love about this local specialty is in the name.
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Dutch Baby
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Prepared Foods

Dutch Baby

Fluffy, crispy, and large enough to share, it's no ordinary pancake.
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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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Green Chartreuse
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Drinks

Green Chartreuse

Only two silent monks know all 130 plants that go into this herbal liqueur.
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Boiled Green Peanuts
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Prepared Foods

Boiled Green Peanuts

Roadside vendors in the Deep South soften fresh goobers with bubbling brine.
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Wassail
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Drinks

Wassail

This spiced, warming drink may have helped broker peace between warring tribes.
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Nanaimo Bar
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Sweets

Nanaimo Bar

From postwar dessert to sweet slice of Canadian identity.
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Biltong
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Meats & Animal Products

Biltong

This spiced jerky is a beloved snack in South Africa.
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Red-Eye Gravy
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Ingredients & Condiments

Red-Eye Gravy

Once described as a “divine elixir,” this Southern sauce typically gets its spunk from coffee.
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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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Necco Wafers
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Sweets

Necco Wafers

Produced since 1847, these classic New England candies almost disappeared in 2018.
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Midas Touch Ale
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Drinks

Midas Touch Ale

A brewery consulted drinking vessels found in the ancient king’s tomb to recreate a 2,700-year-old elixir.
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Coca-Cola and Peanuts
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Drinks

Coca-Cola and Peanuts

This traditional Southern pairing captures sweet and salty in a single bottle.
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