Food and Drink Quiz Questions

This green dip is made mainly from which fruit?

• Avocado
• Mango
• Green apple
• Kiwi

Answer: Avocado. Guacamole is mashed avocado with lime, onion, chilli and coriander. The word comes from the Aztec Nahuatl language, roughly meaning 'avocado sauce'.

Which of these is NOT a usual ingredient in the dip shown here?

• Chickpeas
• Tahini
• Lemon juice
• Yogurt

Answer: Yogurt. Classic hummus blends chickpeas with tahini (sesame paste), lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. Yogurt belongs in dips like tzatziki or raita, not traditional hummus.

To be labelled 'Champagne', a sparkling wine like this must come from the Champagne region of which country?

• Italy
• France
• Spain
• Germany

Answer: France. Champagne is a protected name for sparkling wine from the Champagne region in north-east France. Similar wines elsewhere go by names like Prosecco (Italy) or Cava (Spain).

This spicy fermented cabbage dish is a staple of which country's cuisine?

• Thailand
• Japan
• Korea
• Vietnam

Answer: Korea. Kimchi is served with almost every Korean meal. Vegetables are salted and fermented with chilli, garlic and ginger, which gives it a sour, spicy tang.

These hand-picked threads are the most expensive spice by weight. Which spice is it?

• Saffron
• Cardamom
• Vanilla
• Cinnamon

Answer: Saffron. Each crocus flower gives only three thin red stigmas, all picked by hand, so tens of thousands of flowers are needed for a single pound of saffron.

This spirit is distilled from which plant?

• Sugar cane
• Barley
• Potato
• Blue agave

Answer: Blue agave. Tequila is made from the sugary heart of the blue agave plant and takes its name from the town of Tequila in Mexico's Jalisco state.

This sweet paste is made mainly from sugar and ground what?

• Peanuts
• Almonds
• Cashews
• Coconut

Answer: Almonds. Marzipan is sugar (or honey) and ground almonds, often shaped into fruits and animals or rolled over cakes. Germany's city of Lübeck is especially famous for it.

This traditional Japanese drink is brewed from which grain?

• Wheat
• Maize
• Rice
• Barley

Answer: Rice. Sake is brewed from polished rice, water, yeast and koji mould, which turns the rice starch into sugar so it can ferment.

What does the Scoville scale measure in peppers like these?

• The heat or pungency of chilli peppers
• The sugar content of fruit
• The acidity of wine
• The fat content of milk

Answer: The heat or pungency of chilli peppers. Created by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912, the scale rates chilli heat by the amount of capsaicin. A bell pepper scores zero; the hottest peppers score in the millions.

Which coffee drink is an espresso 'marked' with a small dash of milk foam, as shown?

• Latte
• Americano
• Mocha
• Macchiato

Answer: Macchiato. Macchiato is Italian for 'stained' or 'marked'. A latte has far more steamed milk, an Americano is espresso diluted with hot water, and a mocha adds chocolate.

Which product became the first in India to receive a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, in 2004?

• Basmati rice
• Darjeeling tea
• Alphonso mango
• Mysore pak

Answer: Darjeeling tea. Darjeeling tea, grown on the Himalayan slopes of West Bengal, was India's first registered GI. Only tea from the defined Darjeeling area can carry the name.

Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda studied broth from this seaweed in 1908 and named which taste?

• Bitter
• Sour
• Umami
• Salty

Answer: Umami. Ikeda traced the savoury taste of kombu broth to glutamate and called it umami. It is now recognised as the fifth basic taste, found in tomatoes, cheese and soy sauce.

Which small fish is a key ingredient in traditional Worcestershire sauce?

• Anchovy
• Salmon
• Tuna
• Cod

Answer: Anchovy. Worcestershire sauce gets its deep, savoury flavour from fermented anchovies, along with vinegar, tamarind and spices. It was first sold in Worcester, England, in the 1830s.

Which country is the world's largest producer of the beans shown here?

• Colombia
• Brazil
• Ethiopia
• India

Answer: Brazil. Brazil has been the top coffee producer for more than 150 years and grows roughly a third of the world's coffee. Ethiopia is where the coffee plant originally comes from.

This rice dish, cooked in a wide shallow pan, comes from which region of Spain?

• Catalonia
• Andalusia
• Valencia
• Galicia

Answer: Valencia. Paella was born in the rice fields around Valencia. The original Valencian version uses chicken, rabbit and beans; seafood paella came later.