How it works
Someone at the table is sure a strawberry is a berry. These 120 food trivia questions for adults settle it, in five topics of 24: where dishes come from, ingredients, kitchen science, food words, and firsts. Alcohol, restaurant chains and packaged brands are left out.
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Easy to hard inside every topic
Every topic is written easy first: 8 easy, 10 medium, 6 hard. Pick a round in Start from below the question, finish it, open More options and untick Shuffle questions. Ingredients then runs from paprika to tortilla corn. For a score, set Start from to All topics and tick the shuffle box again. Pick Scored round and press Start the round: 20 questions, marked by topic at the end.
Places, ingredients, science, words and firsts
Where dishes come from asks for places: poutine's province, halloumi's island, Caesar salad's city. Ingredients asks what things are made of, Bombay duck included. Kitchen science explains why onions sting and kidney beans need a hard boil. Food words translates the menu: al dente, éclair, bain-marie. The last holds inventions, kitchen measures and USDA comparisons.
- With guests who never cook, start on Food words. Nobody needs a recipe to guess what burrito means.
- The six USDA questions compare equal weights, 100 g of each food, not servings. Say so before someone argues from an avocado's size.
- For a dinner party, choose one round under Start from, play a set and press Print before guests arrive. The last row of the list adds the rest of that topic's 24 questions.
Questions and answers
Is a strawberry a berry?
Not to a botanist. The botanical definition takes in bananas, grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers, and leaves out strawberries and raspberries. A strawberry is an aggregate accessory fruit: the seed-like specks on the outside are the true fruits. The question is in Ingredients.
Are the questions hard enough for adults?
Each topic ends on six hard ones, judged for a room of adults, and the levels are our estimate. The easy ones ask what gives brown sugar its color. The hard ones ask which spice comes from the covering of a nutmeg seed.
Why are there no questions about restaurant chains or alcohol?
Chains, packaged brands and company names are out so that no question turns on a trademark. Alcohol is out so the pack works at a family table or a work lunch. Record holders, yearly rankings and prices change, so they are out too.