Ursa Major's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
Stinging Nettles
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Fruits & Vegetables

Stinging Nettles

Boil away this plant's poisonous hairs, and you're left with a tasty, spinach-like leaf.
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Mortadella
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Meats & Animal Products

Mortadella

Baloney's predecessor is sweet, delicately spiced, and bigger than your head.
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Irn-Bru
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Drinks

Irn-Bru

A citrusy cream soda with a hint of rust outsells Coca-Cola in Scotland.
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Pondu
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Prepared Foods

Pondu

In the Congo, the cassava plant is also treasured for its leaves.
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Kaymak
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Ingredients & Condiments

Kaymak

Somewhere between butter and cream cheese, kaymak adds a fatty, creamy richness to everything.
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Vimto
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Drinks

Vimto

This British temperance tonic is now a Ramadan favorite.
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Żubrówka
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Drinks

Żubrówka

The same grass that feeds massive European bison adds notes of vanilla and lavender to this unique Polish vodka.
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Lángos
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Prepared Foods

Lángos

This Hungarian fried dough can make a rich breakfast or trusty hangover cure.
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Sturm
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Drinks

Sturm

Fizzy, fruity, and still fermenting, this almost-wine is a celebrated part of Austria's harvest season.
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Buchteln
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Sweets

Buchteln

These pull-apart rolls were once baked with lottery tickets in the center.
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Riga Black Balsam
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Drinks

Riga Black Balsam

There's a legend that this Latvian herbal liqueur saved an ailing Catherine the Great.
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Kofola
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Drinks

Kofola

The sweet-and-sour soda almost disappeared with the collapse of communist rule in then-Czechoslovakia.
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Cuberdons
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Sweets

Cuberdons

The Belgian candy that sparked an epic vendor battle.
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Rakija
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Drinks

Rakija

The fiery fruit brandy of the Balkans.
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Bled Cream Cake
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Sweets

Bled Cream Cake

The decadent pastry almost outshines the Slovenian lake it's named for.
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