The McDonald’s family started their restaurants in California, but its most famous burger, the Big Mac, was a Pennsylvania creation. In 1965, franchisee Jim Delligatti decided he wanted to serve a bigger burger. He added the third bun, which was crucial to maintaining the structural integrity of the burger’s extra toppings, and convinced McDonald’s to let him start serving it at his franchise in Uniontown, outside of Pittsburgh, in 1967.

The birthplace of the Renaissance was also the birthplace of gelato. The name “gelato” literally means “frozen,” and Florence’s famed Medici family were the first to enjoy the treat. But it was a Sicilian who introduced it to the public and to the rest of Europe. Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli opened up Cafe Procope in Paris in 1686, selling gelato to the literary crowd who congregated there.

A pharmacist in Atlanta named John Pemberton invented the syrup for Coca-Cola in 1886, but it would take years for the new soft drink to find its way from local soda fountains into bottles for wide-scale consumption. That happened after businessman Asa Griggs Candler acquired a stake in the formula and incorporated “The Coca-Cola Company,” which was first bottled in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1894.

They may be a fixture at Chinese restaurants in America, but fortune cookies originated in Japan in the late 1800s. In fact, you won’t even find them at restaurants in China. Japanese fortune cookies (which you can still find in bakeries across the country) are bigger, browner, and taste slightly different than fortune cookies stateside, since their batter contains sesame and miso instead of vanilla and butter.

Sushi chef Hidekazu Tojo studied culinary arts in Japan, but when he relocated to Vancouver in 1971, he took the principles of sushi from Japan and tweaked them slightly for Western palates, which were not used to raw fish. Tojo says the name “California roll” came from the out-of-towners, many from Los Angeles, who gave the roll rave reviews that led to its surging popularity.

A mainstay of New York City bakeries and made popular in the sitcom “Seinfeld,” black-and-white cookies technically aren’t even cookies — they are pillowy, thick drop cakes made with a batter more like a cupcake. Though the beloved dessert is closely associated with New York City, the first black-and-white cookies likely originated in the early 20th century at Hemstrought’s Bakery in Utica, New York.

The history of the humble bagel goes back six centuries. There are many theories about how bagels got their start, but the most well-known is that they started out as German pretzels. When German immigrants brought soft pretzels to Poland, they morphed into a round shape with a hole and were known as obwarzanek. The first written records of bagels appeared in 1610 in the Polish city of Krakow.

If you’re having Thanksgiving dinner in the town of Hatch, New Mexico, you’ll likely find the town’s namesake chiles mixed into traditional dishes. This patch of the Rio Grande river valley is known for growing and harvesting the spicy-sweet peppers, which are often fire-roasted and added to everything from enchiladas to stews. Hatch chiles are an essential part of New Mexico food culture and are enjoyed year-round.

If you’ve ever wondered where stromboli got its name, look no further than the island of Stromboli, located in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The dish consists of rolled dough, meat, and cheese, and is similar to a calzone — but with a slightly different shape, fillings, and sealing technique. While the calzone is Italian in origin, the stromboli was invented by Italian-Americans in Philadelphia, who named it after the Italian island.

A Walgreens drugstore in Chicago shook up the American dining scene on a hot summer day in 1922, when an employee named Ivar “Pop” Coulson came up with the malted milkshake. Before then, malted milk drinks were made by mixing milk, chocolate syrup, and a spoonful of malt power. But Coulson’s addition to the mixture — a couple of large scoops of vanilla ice cream — has stood the test of time.

The popular salad wasn’t named after Julius Caesar, but rather chef Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States. He invented the salad at his Tijuana restaurant in 1924 during a rush that depleted his kitchen supplies. Cardini made do with what he had, adding a dramatic flair by tossing it tableside. Caesar’s Restaurant is still operating in Tijuana to this day.

Outside of Switzerland, Swiss cheese refers to a cheese that resembles Emmental (alternatively known as Emmentaler or Emmenthal). Known for its distinctive holes, the cheese was first produced in the 15th century, in a valley of the same name in the canton of Bern. Emmental cheese is made of cow’s milk, and its customary holes are produced by bacteria.

The origins of this trendy dish topped with raw marinated fish trace back to Hawaii, where some form of it has been eaten by the native Polynesians for hundreds of years. In Hawaiian, poke (pronounced “poh-KAY”) translates to “cut crosswise into pieces” — fishermen would often take the fresh catch of the day (usually small reef fish) and slice them into small chunks and season them with salt and seaweed.

If you thought the croissant was French, you’re not alone. But the buttery, flaky pastry actually has origins in 17th-century Vienna, Austria. The croissant as we know it today was inspired by the Austrian kipfel, which is similarly crescent-shaped, butter-filled, and occasionally enjoyed with sugar or almonds. The kipfel is said to date back to the Austrian victory over the Ottomans in 1683.

Fajitas are a product of Tex-Mex, a regional American cuisine that blends Mexican and Texan styles. They originated in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the 1930s, when cowboys originally from Mexico were given cast-off cuts of skirt steak as part of their earnings. They prepared it by pounding the steak into thin strips, tenderizing it with marinades, and cooking it quickly on a campfire or grill.

Faced with a shortage of cocoa after World War II, Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker from Piedmont, Italy, created a sweet paste by combining hazelnuts and sugar — with only a small bit of cocoa. He named it “Giandujot” after a famous local carnival at the time. In 1951, the Giandujot paste was transformed into a new product that could be easily spread on bread, and Pietro Ferrero’s son Michele modified the recipe in 1964 and created the first-ever jar of Nutella.

According to European Union law, feta cheese has a protected designation of origin, meaning that it can only be called feta if it's actually made in Greece. Certified feta is only made with milk from native Greek ewes and goats and must have a fat content of at least 6%. Feta has a rich history — it has been a part of Greek culture for more than 2,000 years.

Black forest cake (“schwarzwälder kirschtorte” in German) hails from the Black Forest, a mountainous region of southwestern Germany in the state of Baden Wurttemberg. A classic German dessert, the cake is made with rich layers of chocolate sponge, dark cherries, and whipped cream. The cherries and sponge are soaked in kirschwasser or kirsch, a dry, clear brandy that the Black Forest region is famous for.

One of the most popular dishes in Spanish cuisine, paella consists of saffron-flavored rice often cooked with meats, seafood, and vegetables. The dish hails from the Spanish coastal region of Valencia, where it was originally cooked by farm workers over a wood fire for a lunchtime meal. Paella takes its name from the “paellera,” the flat round pan in which the meal is cooked.

Places as far apart as Idaho and Ireland are especially known for their boiled potatoes, chips, and fries, but the potato plant isn’t native to either North America or Europe. The humble crop hails from the Andes mountains of South America and wasn't available to Europeans or their descendants until the 1500s. Incans had already been enjoying potatoes for almost 10,000 years by then.