Food Facts for Kids
Tasty facts about the food we eat
Kimchi, the traditional Korean fermented cabbage dish, has been eaten in Korea for over 2,000 years. It is fermented for at least two weeks and some types are buried underground in clay pots to keep them cool during winter.
Black pepper is the world's most widely traded spice, accounting for about 20 percent of the global spice trade. It was so prized in medieval Europe that it was sometimes used to pay rent and ransom.
Eating beetroot can turn your urine and stools pink or red — a harmless condition called beeturia. About one in ten people experiences this, and it happens because they lack an enzyme that fully breaks down a pigment called betacyanin.
During the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944–45, when Nazi Germany blocked food supplies to the Netherlands, people were so desperate they ate tulip bulbs to survive. The bulbs are edible but not very nutritious.
Most rice in the world is grown in flooded fields called paddies. The flooding helps control weeds and pests, and the water keeps the soil temperature stable. The word 'paddy' comes from the Malay word for rice.
Hot dogs are said to have been popularised at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, where a vendor gave customers gloves to hold the sausages. When the gloves were not returned, he switched to buns instead.
Cinnamon is made by harvesting the inner bark of cinnamon trees. Workers strip the outer bark off branches, then scrape out the inner bark, which curls into the familiar quills as it dries.
The world's oldest restaurant still in operation is Sobrino de Botín in Madrid, Spain, which opened in 1725 and has been serving roast suckling pig ever since. It holds a Guinness World Record.
What we call sunflower seeds are actually small fruits called achenes. The part you eat — the kernel inside the shell — is the true seed. A single sunflower head can hold over 1,000 of these fruits.
Astronauts on the International Space Station cannot eat crumbly foods like bread because the crumbs float in zero gravity and can get into equipment or be inhaled. They eat tortillas instead, which don't produce crumbs.