Surströmming — Swedish fermented herring — is so smelly it's banned on most airlines, with cans pressurizing for 6+ months and exploding when opened. This quiz tests whether you can spot real culinary oddities from convincingly invented fakes drawn from world cuisines.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
You'll explore regional dishes from Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean — including the Cornish pasty's PGI status, jellied eels, surströmming's airline ban, and the wonderfully named likes of Bubble and Squeak, Cock-a-leekie, and Stargazey Pie.
Haggis is Scotland's national dish — sheep's heart, liver, and lungs minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, and spices, traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and boiled. Robert Burns wrote an ode to it in 1786.
Yes — spotted dick is a traditional English suet pudding studded with currants or raisins ('spotted'), served with custard. The 'dick' likely comes from a regional word for pudding or dough.
Surströmming is Swedish fermented Baltic herring, fermented in barrels for months and canned still active. The cans pressurize and the smell is among the world's most pungent foods — it's banned on many airlines.
Last updated: May 2026