Eat-Q Test: Extreme Cuisine (answers)
1. In the French dish poularde de Bresse truffee en vessie, chicken stuffed with truffles and foie gras, is cooked inside of this:
A. A Dutch oven
B. A pig’s bladder
C. A hollowed-out pumpkin
D. Lamb casings
Answer: B. In this classic dish, which is considered a precursor to modern-day sous-vide cooking, the stuffed chicken is cooked inside of a cleaned pig’s bladder, which puffs up and insulates the flavors while cooking.
2. Hákarl, putrefied shark meat with a very strong ammonia smell, is a traditional food of which country?
A. Malaysia
B. Canada
C. Iceland
D. Tobago
Answer: C. The snack was traditionally made by burying a basking shark underground for several weeks and then drying it out, though today it’s pressed in a plastic container. It’s usually consumed with a shot of brennevin, a spirit similar to akavit.
3. The Japanese seafood-serving technique known as ikizukuri roughly translates to what?
A. “Panic Plate”
B. “Prepared Alive”
C. “Flash-Explosion”
D. “Electric Guts”
Answer: B. The controversial sashimi preparation involves filleting a live fish or lobster without killing it and serving the sliced flesh while the animal’s heart continues to beat. The method has been banned in some countries but is considered a delicacy in Japan.
4. How many hot dogs did competitive eater Joey Chestnut eat within ten minutes to dethrone longstanding champion Takeru Kobayashi at the 2007 Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest?
A. 82
B. 47
C. 53
D. 66
Answer: D. Chestnut beat Kobayashi, who had held the champion title since 2001, by three hotdogs. He has won the contest every year since, and currently holds the world record for most hot dogs eaten at the contest (68).
5. Which of these dishes was not a dish served at El Bulli, the renowned Spanish restaurant who pioneered many techniques of molecular gastronomy?
A. Sea cucumbers with ham fat and hot yoghurt whey jelly
B. Cured jowl with mustard tower and yuzu powder
C. Baby scorpion fish with black macaroni and five-pepper sauce
D. Bone marrow with kumquat sorbet and fairy ring mushrooms
Answer: B. All of the other dishes were served at some point over the famed restaurant’s fifty-year career; it closed in summer of 2011 and will reopen in 2014 as a “creativity center.”
6. At which fast-food chain did a man order (and receive) a “100 x 100,” a stack of 100 hamburger patties and 100 slices of cheese between two buns?
A. McDonald’s
B. Jack in the Box
C. Steak ‘n Shake
D. In ‘n Out
Answer: D. The burger chain offers “3 x 3s” and “4 x 4s” (i.e., three or four patties and slices of cheese), but in 2004, one man at a Las Vegas location ordered a “100 x 100.” He finished it with the help of eight friends.
7. Which Egyptian restaurant in New York City is famous for serving testicles, brains, tongues, hearts and kidneys?
A. Ali’s Kabab Café
B. Kyhber Pass
C. Mamoun’s
D. Kati Allo
Answer: A. Tiny Ali’s Kabab Café in Astoria, Queens, is famous for serving lamb and calf offal, and was even featured on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show No Reservations, which guest-starred none other than this month’s featured writer, Andrew Zimmern.
8. What is the name of the hottest chile in the world, which is over 400 times spicier than Tabasco sauce?
A. Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper
B. Ghost pepper
C. Naga Viper pepper
D. Chocolate habanero pepper
Answer: A. The Australia-grown Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper, named after the owner of a hot sauce company that propagated the pepper's seeds, clocks in at a record-breaking 1,463,700 Scoville Heat Units.
9. Which of these dietary practices is fabricated?
A. Fruitiarians, who eat primarily or exclusively fruits, berries, seeds, and nuts
B. Juicitarians, who process their raw plant foods into juice
C. Sproutitarians, who eat primarily or exclusively sprouted seeds
D. Lactotarians, who eat primarily or exclusively dairy products
Answer: D. The other three are all offshoots of raw veganism, a diet that excludes all food involving animal products and all food cooked above 118 degrees Fahrenheit.
10. Where is the world’s largest restaurant, which contains 6,014 seats?
A. Bangkok
B. Abu Dhabi
C. Damascus
D. Hong Kong
Answer: C. Damascus Gate in Damascus, Syria, employs up to 1,800 people in the 581,251-square foot dining area and 26,909-square foot kitchen.
Your Eat-Q score:
10 correct: You'll have a second round of grasshopper tacos, please!
6–9: Habanero hot sauce is no sweat for you.
3–5: Just the sight of beef tartare makes you queasy.
2 or fewer: Your idea of adventurous dining is that one time you accidentally salted your chocolate chip cookies.