Where is it from? The real home of 12 famous dishes

Food travels well, which is exactly why its origins get blurry. Here is where twelve famous dishes come from, with the borrowed history behind several of them. Each one is also a sticker in Globby, so if you play you will be dropping them on these exact countries.

Sushi: Japan

Modern sushi is Japanese, but its ancestor came from elsewhere. The oldest form, narezushi, was a way of preserving fish by packing it in fermented rice, a technique that reached Japan from mainland Asia. Nigiri, the hand-pressed fish on rice most people picture today, appeared in Edo (now Tokyo) in the early 19th century as fast street food.

Croissant: France, by way of Austria

The croissant is French, but it grew out of the Austrian kipferl, a crescent-shaped bread. Viennese bakers in 19th-century Paris popularised crescent breads, and French bakers later made them with laminated, buttery puff dough. The story that it celebrates a victory over the Ottomans is a legend.

Pizza margherita: Italy

From Naples. The usual story says it was named after Queen Margherita of Savoy on her visit to the city in 1889, with tomato, mozzarella and basil standing in for the red, white and green of the Italian flag. Food historians debate the details, but Naples' claim to the pizza itself is not in doubt.

Tacos al pastor: Mexico, with Lebanese roots

Tacos al pastor were created in Mexico, around Puebla and Mexico City, by the descendants of Lebanese immigrants. They adapted shawarma, meat roasted on a vertical spit, by switching to pork marinated with dried chiles and achiote and serving it on corn tortillas, often with pineapple.

Pad thai: Thailand

Pad thai is younger than many people think. It was promoted as a national dish in the late 1930s and 1940s under Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram, as part of a campaign to build Thai national identity and encourage rice-noodle consumption.

Pho: Vietnam

The beef noodle soup took shape in northern Vietnam, around Hanoi and Nam Định, in the early 20th century. After the country was divided in 1954, people moving south took it with them, and southern versions added more herbs and garnishes.

Jollof rice: West Africa

Jollof rice is cooked across West Africa, and Ghana and Nigeria famously argue over whose is better. Its name points to Senegal: it is usually traced to the Wolof people and the old Jolof Empire, and Senegal's thieboudienne is often named as its ancestor.

Poutine: Canada

Fries, cheese curds and gravy, from rural Quebec in the 1950s. Several towns claim to be the birthplace, and none has won the argument.

Pastel de nata: Portugal

The custard tart comes from Belém in Lisbon, where monks at the Jerónimos Monastery made it before the religious orders were dissolved in 1834. A bakery next door has sold the tarts from the original recipe since 1837.

Fish and chips: United Kingdom

The pairing became a British institution in the 1860s, when fried fish shops (with a tradition brought by Sephardic Jewish immigrants) met the chip. London and Lancashire both claim the first shop.

Feijoada: Brazil

Brazil's best-known stew of black beans with pork and beef. It is closely tied to Portuguese bean-and-meat stews; the popular story that it was invented by enslaved people from leftover cuts is disputed by historians.

Moussaka: Greece

The layered aubergine and meat dish exists across the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. The Greek version with a thick béchamel topping was shaped in the 1920s by chef Nikolaos Tselementes, whose cookbooks defined modern Greek home cooking.

Why this matters for a geography game

Dishes are good memory hooks precisely because they have stories. Knowing that tacos al pastor have a Lebanese grandparent is more memorable than knowing where Puebla is, and it teaches you both.