Reindeer milk is the only source of milk for Laplanders, because no other dairy animal can survive in such a cold environment. It takes two of them to milk a reindeer - one to do the milking, the other to hold the horns.
A human brain is full of receptors but would you believe there is one that has the sole purpose of detecting whether toast is burning! Called the ‘Toast Center’ Canadian neurosurgeon Dr Wilder Penfield found it while operating on patients with epilepsy.
There is an amusement park in Tokyo that offers Raw Horse Flesh -flavored ice cream.
In 1999 thirty seven people ended up in hospital as they severely injured themselves by using a tea cosy. Most injuries were caused by scalding, but some managed to slip and trip over the teapot warmers as they had been carelessly left on the floor.
Blowfish, a delicacy in Japan and Hong Kong contains deadly amounts of tetrodotoxin, a poison 500 times stronger than cyanide. Several diners die each year from consuming blowfish.
Many believe Tequila is made from cactus, but the Agave plant is actually in the lily family not cactus.
The English word dinner comes from the French ‘disnar’ which means breakfast. Traditionally, dinner was the first meal of the day, eaten at noon and was also the biggest meal consumed, with a lighter meal coming later - supper. Now the word dinner has stuck to meaning the largest meal of the day despite being eaten much later in the day.
The custom of bumping glasses with a “cheers” greeting came from old Rome where they used this method to make sure no one is trying to poison the other (bumping glasses makes the drink spill from one cup to the other). This tradition started even earlier in ancient Greece – where the host was to drink the first cup of wine to show his guests he does not intend to poison them.