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Many of our favorite everyday foods have extremely strange origins.

Have you ever stopped to think why we eat the things we eat? Some of it seems natural, of course, like an apple growing from a tree. At some point in history, someone picked one, took a bite, and realized it was delicious.

Hunting and eating animals is similar. It's part of our DNA, even if you choose not to partake, and you can easily trace the path from early hunter-gatherers to packaged chicken nuggets.

But at some point, humans started getting really creative. We picked coffee cherries, removed the seeds, and brewed them into a dark and bitter drink–why?! We smushed up grapes and let them sit around for a while and then drank their juices. We decided to try consuming cow's milk that had gone really, really sour.

Whose ideas was it to try these things? Fascinatingly, many of our favorite foods, even the things we eat everyday, were the result of necessity or pure accidents. Here are some of the weirdest yet most interesting food origin stories.

1. Cheese & Yogurt


 food, food history, origins of food, history, funny, fun facts, eating, culture, nutrition, taste, dining Cheese is essentially just spoiled milk!  Photo by David Foodphototasty on Unsplash  

We know that cheese and yogurt both come from milk, often cow's milk. We also know that milk goes bad extremely quickly and disgustingly. So how did we bridge that gap and come to discover these two amazing foods?

According to the National Historic Cheesemaking Center Museum (in Wisconsin; where else?) cheesemaking dates back thousands of years to Greek mythology and the ancient Egyptians. It's said that milk was often stored in containers made from the stomachs of animals. The only downside of stomach containers is that they contained an enzyme called rennet that triggers coagulation in the milk, allowing it to separate into curds and whey.

Those Greeks and Egyptians must have been mighty surprised when the curds, in particular, turned out to be absolutely delicious. The BBC writes, however, that this accidental process was probably first discovered in the Middle East and Central Asia.

2. Wine

 food, food history, origins of food, history, funny, fun facts, eating, culture, nutrition, taste, dining It must have been fun to discover old grapes turned into wine.  Photo by Lefteris kallergis on Unsplash  

Today, the winemaking process is pretty complex, so much so that some people consider it an art. Or, at the very least, a craft of the highest order.

I've always been curious how we ever came up with the idea that we could get drunk off of grapes, long before the days of perfectly pruned vines and aged-oak barrels. Turns out, the story is not that dissimilar to the origins of cheesemaking, except it goes back even further. Humanity's natural desire for a good party is apparently one of our most ancient traditions!

Early humans would forage large quantities of fruit like grapes and berries. The ones at the bottom, naturally, would get smushed and likely not be eaten for a while. They would have time to ferment, creating an alcohol-like substance, that must have been pretty pleasurable for anyone willing to go digging around at the bottom of the fruit pile.

Beer has a similar origin story, only instead of fruit, it was grains for bread that were left out too long and began to ferment.

3. Coffee

 food, food history, origins of food, history, funny, fun facts, eating, culture, nutrition, taste, dining Coffee fruit was making the goats a little too happy.  Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash  

Coffee is definitely one of the weirder things that we consume. The coffee beans we're used to seeing do not appear exposed in the wild—they're actually tucked away inside something called a coffee cherry. Each cherry contains two seeds, or coffee beans.

The story goes that an Ethiopian goat herder in the year 850 (give or take) noticed that whenever his goats ate the cherries, they would become energetic, playful, and just plain happier. Kaldi, the herder, is credited with being one of the first to forage the cherries. At first, the leaves were used to make tea, and then the berries were eaten directly to get the happy-energy effects. It wasn't until a few centuries later that the beans were made into a beverage for the first time.

4. Tikka Masala

I absolutely love getting Indian food whenever possible and, like a lot of Americans, I adore Chicken Tikka Masala. But I never knew that it was created out of necessity as recently as the 1970s.

The widely accepted legend has it that a Glasgow chef named Ali Ahmed Aslam served a customer some chicken tikka one night and found the patron to be very hard to please. The man insisted that the chicken was too dry. So Aslam scoured the kitchen and whipped up a special sauce made of yogurt and tomato, which helped keep the chicken moist.

Pretty quickly, chicken tikka masala became famous across the globe. The Bristorian writes, "it is widely represented as the quintessential Indian dish despite its origin in the United Kingdom."

5. Tomatoes

 food, food history, origins of food, history, funny, fun facts, eating, culture, nutrition, taste, dining Tomatoes were thought to be poisonous until very recently.  Photo by Huzeyfe Turan on Unsplash  

It doesn't seem surprising at first that most cultures around the world regularly eat tomatoes, with a few exceptions. They grow in the ground and look beautiful. It's not shocking that someone bit into one at some point in history and decided we should all get to enjoy them.

But what is surprising is that, in the Western world at least, tomatoes didn't catch on for a long time. Even in Italy, which is practically synonymous with the tomato, Italians didn't really eat them widely until the 19th century. That's because tomatoes were long thought to be poisonous, a member of the nightshade family which contains many toxic plants.

One story claims that a man named Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson ate tomato after tomato in front of a crowd in New Jersey to prove to the world they were safe. It's probably not a true story, but it's fun to imagine.

6. Tea

 food, food history, origins of food, history, funny, fun facts, eating, culture, nutrition, taste, dining Tea is one of civilization's most ancient drinks.  Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash  

Tea, like coffee, seems odd when you really think about it. Boiling dried up leaves and herbs in water? Whose bright idea was that?

It turns out, it was an Emperor's idea! Tea is truly one of the most ancient beverages, and legend has it that Chinese emperor Shen Nung accidentally discovered the delectable drink in 2737 BC. He was supposedly sitting under a tree while his servant boiled him some drinking water, a common practice at the time. Some leaves are said to have fallen in from the Camellia sinensis tree, which gave the brew a pleasant aroma.

Shen Nung tasted it and was impressed, while also finding that it made him feel great. Tea was initially considered medicinal and didn't become a daily drink until much later.

7. French fries

 food, food history, origins of food, history, funny, fun facts, eating, culture, nutrition, taste, dining Fried potatoes began as a replacement for fried fish.  Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash  

Despite the name, French fries are said to have initially been discovered in Belgium.

In the 1600s, villagers near one of the country's rivers would catch fish to try. Fried fish was an incredibly popular treat, but in the winter months, the river would freeze and catching fish would become impossible.

Out of necessity, they tried cutting up potatoes into a similar shape and frying those, instead. The result was delicious! When American soldiers came through the area during World War I, word spread quickly for obvious reasons.

8. Potato chips

The accidental invention of potato chips is a direct offshoot of French fries, so it deserves a spot on this list.

Some 250 years after the invention of fries, the story goes that a chef named George Crum had another difficult customer on his hands. (Seeing a pattern here?) The man was unhappy that his French fries were too soggy and thick.

Smithsonian Magazine writes, "Furious with such a fussy eater, Crum sliced some potatoes as slenderly as he could, fried them to a crisp and sent them out to Vanderbilt as a prank. Rather than take the gesture as an insult, Vanderbilt was overjoyed."

They were called Saratoga Chips at first, a reference to their birthplace of Saratoga, New York. Experts say the potato chip may have officially been invented before this famous showdown, but George Crum undoubtedly helped popularize the snack.

9. Popsicles

 food, food history, origins of food, history, funny, fun facts, eating, culture, nutrition, taste, dining An 11-year-old accidentally invented popsicles.  Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash  

The official Popsicle brand itself says the frozen treat was invented by an 11-year-old boy in 1905.

Frank Epperson allegedly left a cup of soda, complete with a stick for stirring, outside on a cold night and was chagrinned to later find it frozen. However, one lick and he was convinced—frozen meant delicious! Young Frank named the treat after himself: "The Episcle."

An entrepreneurial little bugger, Epperson perfected the popsicle and began selling them around local beaches before patenting the pops in 1924.

10. Cheetos/cheese puffs/cheese curls

 food, food history, origins of food, history, funny, fun facts, eating, culture, nutrition, taste, dining Cheetos and cheese puffs have a fascinating accidental origin.  Photo by Ryan Quintal on Unsplash  

I've always been curious about cheese curls, which are one of my all-time favorite snacks. What even is a cheese puff? The potato chip, though unique, makes sense: It's a deep fried, thin slice of potato. Cheetos and cheese curls are just so far from anything found in nature it boggles the mind how they might have been invented.

Well, boggle no more! In 1935, cheese puffs were accidentally invented in a factory that made animal feed. Corn was ground in a grinder to make the feed, but when it came time to clean the machine, the workers fed moist corn through. The resulting waste product was airy, puffy blobs of corn that would fall to the ground.

A worker named Edward Wilson decided to try some and found them utterly delicious, and thus named them Korn Kurls.

11. Worcestershire sauce

I love a good happy accident almost as much as I love Worcestershire sauce on my burgers and steaks. Luckily, this story has both.

In 1835, drug store owners John Lea and William Perrins were asked to recreate a sauce a local baron had tried during a visit to India. Their creation was an utter failure, smelling horribly and tasting worse. So they hid the batch they created in the basement and forgot about it for nearly two years.

According to Great British Chefs, "When they rediscovered it, it had aged well, turning into the fermented, umami-packed sauce we use today."

The power of food and sharing cultures.

Has food ever transported you back to your childhood? Perhaps an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that tastes just like your grandmother's, or soup at a restaurant that takes you back to those moments when you were sick and your mom fed you by the spoonful. (Or, this scene from Ratatouille.) That's exactly what happened when Papua New Guinean chef Wan Maus surprised his friend James with a home-cooked meal. But this wasn't just any meal—it was a Zimbabwean feast, with dishes that hailed from James' home country.

What began as a simple gesture of friendship became something far more profound. This moment—two men embracing through tears, grateful for each other—perfectly captures how food can bridge cultures, remind us of our heritage, and connect us in a uniquely human way.


 
 @wan.maus I surprised my Zimbabwean born friend to some traditional ZAE recipes. What a treat to cook and share! God is good.#pngtiktok🇵🇬 #cookingtiktok #zimbabweantiktok #zimbabwetiktok🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼 #foodietiktok #maize ♬ original sound - wan maus 
 
 

The video, shared to TikTok, begins with a sentence: “This is why I cook.” James is sitting at the dining room table, chatting away as if it were any other day. He shares a quick anecdote about Australia before a steaming hot bowl of sadza—a maize-based staple at the heart of Zimbabwean cuisine—hits the table. What unfolds is pure magic.

“Oh my god, you are joking,” he exclaims, followed by an admission from the heart: “Do you know when I last ate that? I was twelve years old. That's nuts,” he laughs, never for a second taking his eyes off the sadza.

More dishes appear, and James's emotions grow stronger and stronger. It's clear that, for him, this is more than just sustenance—cooking food from his home country, Zimbabwe, is like telling someone you love them. At times, he's speechless; when the hifiridzi, or beef and spinach stew, arrives, James begins clapping above his head and excitedly taking photos. But it's the okra that breaks him. The final dish to appear, its mere sight triggers an even deeper laugh—one that slowly morphs into what is also a sob.

“Down memory lane,” he says wistfully. Then, “Oh, brother,” as he turns to hug his friend very, very tightly.


The raw, emotional depth this video displays has resonated with 3.5 million viewers. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay wrote, “This is incredible. Well done !”

Another person commented, “We need more examples of male friendship like this. If men felt consistently comfortable to connect this deeply with each other, the world would be a better place.”

“It’s not just about the food,” another person wrote. “It’s the feeling of being home and having someone care about you like that.”


 screenshot, tiktok. chef, gordon ramsay So good, even Ramsay had to give him props. Credit: TikTok @wan.maus

 

Dishes that tell a story

 

Sadza, the heart of Zimbabwe.

 

Sadza is the cornerstone of Zimbabwe's culinary identity. Made by adding water to finely ground white maize (corn), it creates a smooth, firm porridge that serves as both food and utensil—as it's traditionally eaten with hands. “People eat sadza every day, often twice daily, making it more than food,” explains website, The Goldmidi. “It represents Zimbabwe's culture and heritage.”


Hifiridzi, community on a plate.

 

Named after Highfield, a neighborhood in the country's capital, Harare, hifiridzi is all about resourcefulness and vibrant community spirit that defines Zimbabwean cooking and way of life. It's a hearty dish of beef short ribs slow-cooked with leafy greens, onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Made with vegetables often picked from the cook's own garden, hifiridzi embodies the essence of “community-based cooking”—where preparing and sharing meals strengthens the bonds between people.


Okra, the binding force.

 

Locally known as “derere,” okra is a popular vegetable in Zimbabwean cooking, where you'll find it in stews combined with tomatoes, onions, ground nuts, and peanut butter. Thanks to its unique consistency, okra's texture helps thicken stews and bind ingredients together, mirroring the way it brings people together, too.


The beauty of Wan Maus's video lies not in his technique or culinary prowess, but in this simple act of kindness that reminds us how food serves as a universal language of love. Or, as one food writer puts it:

“Food is colorful. It is flavorful. It nourishes and promotes health. But more than all of that, it unites. It heals… Food is as much a form of expression as laughter or music. It is integral to humanity, and something that certainly holds a special place in my heart.”


Humor

Europeans playfully roast an American woman for her 'primitive' fork and knife skills

She was trying to do it the "European way" and failed disastrously.

@amygordy1/TikTok

Who knew such a simple thing could be such a marker of cultural diversity?

While American Amy Gordy was traveling abroad, she noticed that, among many cultural differences, folks across the pond go about using their fork and knife differently.

As opposed to using the dominant hand to cut food with a knife, then switch the fork over to said dominant hand (the way she was taught), the fork is always in the left hand, turned down, and the knife is always in the right.

If this is the first you’re hearing of the “European way” to use silverware, you're not alone. Gordy also had no idea, but she thought it couldn’t possibly feel that different from her "American" way of eating, so she figured she’d give it a try. How hard could it be?

Quite hard…apparently. In a video posted to her TikTok, we see Gordy struggle to ignore every instinct in her body telling her to move that fork over to her other hand. Laughing at herself, she awkwardly attempts to “scoop” a bit of sauce with her knife onto the downturned fork, and, as though reverting back to toddlerhood, clumsily moves her mouth to meet the forkful of food.

 
 @amygordy1 I don’t expect this to be that hard 🍴 #silverware #dining ♬ original sound - Amy Gordy 
 
 

“I [didn’t] expect this to be that hard,” she quipped in her caption.

She probably also didn’t expect her clip to get 2.5 million views, or entice so many delightful digs from Europeans about silverware etiquette.

It’s not the ‘European Way’, it THE CORRECT WAY."

“Americans are so primitive for world leaders!!! Hold your knife in your right hand! It’s your dinner sword.”

“Scottish here. Absolutely baffled why you’re struggling to use a knife and fork.”

“This is mindblowing. It’s like watching the Middle Ages.”

“Uff Germany here— I can’t even watch that. WHAT are you doing?”

And perhaps the best comment of all: “Americans abroad is my favorite nature program.”

  - YouTube  youtube.com  

 


There was also a bit of a debate as to whether or not it was rude to talk to someone while said utensils were in hand. Gordy’s dinner companion seemed to feel it was. Europeans…not so much.

“Am I missing something??!? Eating properly is rude in America??”

“I switched to this method after traveling to London and have never switched back to the ‘American’ way cuz this is so much easier…People talk with utensils in their hands all the time, it’s never been rude.”

  - YouTube  youtube.com  

This is obviously more of a playful look at how something so automatic in our daily lives can look and feel wildly different through the lens of different cultures, rather than a debate as to which way really is the “right” way. After all, neither Americans nor Europeans even invented the fork. Surprisingly, that honor belongs to China during the Bronze Age, and the mysterious origin of using cutlery at the dinner table is thought to be from ancient Greece. So these countries are certainly not the authorities.

Furthermore, it’s not like the often intuitive fork and knife combo are the end all, be all of eating utensils anyway. We’ve got chopsticks, spoons, sporks, skewers, tongs, tortillas or injera, and good old fashioned hands. With so many options, and so many ways to use each and every one, why debate on the right way to use them, barring any truly disrespectful faux pas?

But hey, at least most of us can agree that talking with a mouth full of food is, in fact, rude.

Images via Wikipedia

Millennials get nostalgic about their favorite 90s snack foods.

From cereal to chips to candy, the 1990s produced some pretty iconic snack foods. Millennials reached for their favorite childhood snacks in their backpacks, in the cupboard after school, and at the gas stations where there were treats galore.

In a Reddit forum, member @Downtown-Rise5606 posed this question to Millennials: "What was your favorite childhood snack from the 90s? Like you wake up on a Saturday morning to watch cartoons, what is the snack you always reached for?"

The question had many Millennials walking down memory lane, reminiscing about simpler times and the foods that defined them. These are 52 nostalgic 90s snack foods that people miss the most.

 90s, 1990s, full house, 90s food, 90s foods Hungry Full House GIF  Giphy  

"Jell-O Pudding Pops. Grape Swedish Fish." —@kurujiru

"Cheese Nips hit totally different than Cheezits." —@baardvark

"Magic middles, Smurf berry crunch cereal, Tmnt ninja pies, Carnation breakfast bars, RC premium draft cola in the glass bottles, Dinasour Eggs candy, PB Crisps, Tatoskins chips, Dunkin doughnuts cereal." —@No_Ad295

 trix, trix cereal, 90s cereal, 1990s cereal, trix fruit ceral Food 90S GIF  Giphy  

"SnackWells devil food cookies, while part of the terrible toxic 80s and 90s diet food culture, were f*cking SO delicious. As far as just Saturday morning cartoon nostalgic foods, you can't go wrong with Trix cereal, when it was still in the shape of fruits. I also like Nerds cereal a lot, and as an older kid and teen, Basic 4 was where it was at. Once, apparently Basic 4 was having a special promo, because we opened a box that we had just bought and inside was a fresh $5 cash bill." —@horsetooth_mcgee

"It's a cereal, but I miss Alpha-Bits." —@CanIGetAWitness16

"Fruit wrinkles." —@rich4pres

 pushpop, push pop, pushpops, pushpops, 90s candy push pop GIF  Giphy  

"Push pops omg. Those Betty Crocker pop bottle fruit snacks. I could probably write a really long list lol." —@73738484737383874

"Nabisco Dip in a Chip." —@CountrymanR60

"The Simpsons cereal…Homer O’s and Krusty had a flavor too…the buzz lightyear cereal….rice crispy TREATS cereal…a cold box of ecto cooler after riding bikes around the neighborhood with your buddies…crackers and peanut butter with a tall glass of milk." —@firestarter1877

"Carnation Breakfast Bars. The chocolate chip was fabulous!!" —@iheartmycats820

"Doo Dads." —@SonnyCrocket87

"Ecto Cooler, Ninja Turtles Pizza chips, cookies and cream Twix, Butterfinger BBs, Rice Crispy Treat Cereal, Crystal Pepsi, Clearly Canadian, Snapple Elements, Dunkaroos, Flintstones Push Pops, Ritz cheese sandwich crackers that don’t taste like metal." —@LegitimateHumanBeing

 crystal pepsi, pepsi, pepsi crystal, crystal pop, crystal soda Vhs Pepsi GIF  Giphy  

"Can we bring back the glass Sobe bottles? Specifically, the strawberry banana." —@TheDungeonLurker

"Trix yogurt." —@NichoBrown


 pudding pop, pudding pops, jello pudding pop, jello, jello pops Bill Cosby The 80S GIF  Giphy  


"Jello Pudding Pops, and Pizzarias from Keebler. I really wish someone would bring Pizzarias back." —@Harlow1976

"Wheatables crackers were so much better than Wheat Thins. Those Planters PB Crisps (and the chocolate ones) are sorely missed. And the Philadelphia cheesecake bars... those things were amazing." —@Worried_Biscotti_552

"Waffle crisp!" —@morethanill

"Oreo Os and Berry Berry Kix cereal." —@Illustrious_Cold5699


 pop tart, poptart, poptarts, poptart, 90s pastry Food Drink 90S GIF by Shaking Food GIFs  Giphy  

"Pop tarts." —@Both-Cap1441

"Hostess Banana Flips." —@No_Sand_9290

"Mr. Bones candy. Grape Bubble Yum." —@Vancj012

"Kudos bars." —@J-littletree

"When I was a kid our grocery store used to carry like these "gourmet" fruit roll-ups which were like a normal fruit roll-up except more natural I guess and they tasted more like real fruit they were so good they had the most bizarre mouthfeel." —@JackhorseBowman