Food and drink is the round setters write when they want everyone to be able
to answer something. It is rarely difficult, but it is broad — cookery terms,
national dishes, cheeses, cocktails, wine regions, and a steady supply of
questions about where a familiar thing came from.
What gets asked
The reliable categories are: which country a dish comes from; what a French
cookery term means; which spirit is in which cocktail; what a wine or cheese's
protected origin is; and the botanical trick questions — which familiar
vegetables are technically fruits, which nuts are not nuts, which berries are
not berries. That last group is asked with unusual frequency because the answer
always produces an argument.
Brands and origins carry the harder end.
The Coca-Cola formula,
why a tyre company rates
restaurants, the Earl of
Sandwich, and
the widow who invented modern
champagne are all standard.
The British seam
A British quiz will have at least one question about British food history,
and the same handful recurs:
fish and chips,
how curry became a national dish,
the tea trade and the smuggling it
produced, and
oysters as food for the poor,
which is the sort of reversal setters cannot resist. Worth knowing alongside
them: the nutmeg trade and
the potato's arrival in Europe, both
of which get asked as history questions as often as food ones.
Chianti comes from which region?
Answer Tuscany, Italy
Rioja is a wine region in which country?
Answer Spain
Calvados, the brandy of Normandy, is made from what?
Answer Apples
Feta cheese comes from which country (protected)?
Answer Greece
Goulash is the national dish of?
Answer Hungary
Ingredients of an Espresso Martini?
Answer Vodka, coffee liqueur, espresso
Name the three grades of molasses, in order of the boiling that produces them.
Answer Light, dark, then blackstrap
True caviar is the roe of which fish?
Answer The sturgeon
Phở is the national noodle soup of which country?
Answer Vietnam
Sushi rice is seasoned with?
Answer Rice vinegar (plus sugar and salt)
Ingredients of a Mojito?
Answer White rum, lime, sugar, mint, soda
Ingredients of a Margarita?
Answer Tequila, triple sec, lime juice
Moussaka is associated with which cuisine?
Answer Greek
Stilton may legally be made in which three counties?
Answer Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire
Cheddar cheese originates from a gorge village in which county?
Answer Somerset
By US law, bourbon's grain mix must be at least 51% what?
Answer Corn (maize)
Kimchi is the national dish of?
Answer Korea (fermented cabbage)
What is added back to white sugar to make brown sugar?
Answer Molasses
Gin must be flavoured predominantly with which berry?
Answer Juniper
Port wine is shipped from which Portuguese city, on which river?
Answer Porto, on the Douro
Paella comes from which Spanish region?
Answer Valencia
A Bloody Mary is vodka plus…?
Answer Tomato juice (with Worcestershire, Tabasco, etc.)
Rum is distilled from the products of which crop?
Answer Sugar cane
Which two fish are most traditionally battered for British fish and chips?
Answer Cod and haddock
Which large billed fish is sold as thick cross-cut 'steaks' and grilled like beef?
Answer Swordfish
Parmigiano-Reggiano may only be made in the region around which Italian city?
Answer Parma
The grape of Chablis?
Answer Chardonnay
Cured salmon on a bagel goes by which Yiddish-derived name?
Answer Lox
Traditional mozzarella di bufala is made from the milk of which animal?
Answer The water buffalo
Which baked good owes its dark colour and distinctive taste to molasses or treacle?
Answer Gingerbread