(Photo: Pempele's Pizza)

This delicious-looking pizza that I can almost smell through the computer screen is pita pastrmajlija, a cheese and meat pie eaten in Macedonia. It's 1 of 16 breakfast foods from the different nations of Eastern Europe, including a deep-fried pastry from Albania and potato pancakes from Belarus. Most, but not all of the Eastern European nations are represented (Slovakia, Lithuania, and Moldova appear to be absent).

Which of these dishes have you tried?

Image: panerabread.com 
Roasted Turkey and Avocado BLT on Sourdough 
510 calories
37 g protein
19 g fat (3.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
60 g carbohydrates (6 g fiber, 3 g sugar)
960 mg sodium

Regardless of what one's general opinion is of fast food, there are times in which it makes sense. Perhaps we're traveling long distance by car and are pressed for time, without other healthy options in our posession. Maybe we have very limited time between local errands by car, or we have mere minutes to grab much-needed sustenance between work stints. Whatever the circumstances, many of us, even if we take a dim view of fast food, sparingly choose that option in less-than-perfect scenarios.

Image: mcdonalds.com 
Artisan Grilled Chicken Sandwich
360 calories
32 g protein
6 g fat (1.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
930 mg sodium
43 g carbohydrates (3 g fiber, 11 g sugars)


This article examines fast food nutrition values in order to suggest 26 healthy options. In this context, they have designated an item healthy if it meets certain predetermined nutritional values. Those requirements are stated as follows: 

• Low in calories: For lunch, that means about 500 calories or less.
• Protein, to help you build muscles: Each of these meals has at least 10 grams of protein (ideally more!).
• Low in sodium (or at least not HIGH in sodium): We aimed for less than 1,000 milligrams of sodium per meal (which is high already, yes). Unfortunately some of the options are a bit higher than that — for anyone with high blood pressure, these are definitely not ideal.
• Low in sugar (or at least not HIGH in sugar): Each of these meals has less than 20 grams of sugar.
• No trans fat: Trans fats are related to heart disease, so each of these meals comes with 0 grams trans fat.

Obviously, if you're ordering a sugary drink or extra-large side of fatty, salty carbs with these items, the notion of your meal as "heatlhy" has just left the building. So self-restraint is called for in terms of ordering the items without additions that are costly, both to your health and wallet.

Check out their selections, and if you have any additional suggestions for fast food items that are healthier than most, please let us know about them in the comments.  

Image: chick-fil-a.com 
Grilled Chicken Cool Wrap
340 calories
36 g protein
13 g fat (5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
900 mg sodium
30 g carbohydrates (15 g fiber, 3 g sugar)

Did you get enough doughnuts to eat on National Donut Day? Here’s some more! Although the TV series Twin Peaks only lasted two years, FBI Agent Dale Cooper managed to get more than his share of donuts in that time. Here’s a “peek” at the donuts of Twin Peaks.  

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BRB, going to see if there’s any jelly-filled donuts left at the grocery! -via Uproxx

Patty Smith's | "These whopper burgers will make you see stars."
Visit their Facebook page

With the appearance of food trucks, so-called "street food" is currently enjoying worldwide popularity greater than ever before. This collection of delectable-looking British street foods headlined as "must try before you die" is full of fare varied and vying to be prioritized one over the other on your next trip across the pond. 

Ninja Buns 
"Pillowy soft, steamed Taiwanese bao, filled with mouthwatering pork, beef or tofu. Take one in each hand and chow down."
Currently based at Paradise Palms. Visit their Facebook page

The Mexican Bean
"Vibrant Mexican street food, with an emphasis on fresh, healthy ingredients."
Visit their Facebook site.


The Bournville Waffle Company
"Decadent, delightful waffles. Nearly all of the toppings are made from scratch. Try the Rocky Road."
Follow them on Twitter @Wafflespeak

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Some of your favorite foods have names that belie their actual origins. Baguette? Croissant? Not French. French toast? Still not French. French fries? From Belgium. The French are renowned for their cuisine, so maybe the name was added to other dishes to make them sound more cosmopolitan. But those are just a few of the food origins that aren’t what they seem that John Green explains in this week’s mental_floss List Show. By the way, the only place I ever encountered a Pu Pu Platter was in a Polynesian restaurant where I worked during college. I’ve never seen them offered in a Chinese restaurant.  

Last year, we featured a series of illustrations under the heading "There Are Two Kinds of People in This World." The series separated the pizza crust eaters from the crust deniers, those who eat candy bars by square and those who don't, and other incredibly serious foodie divisions. 

On May 28th via Twitter, Patrick Stewart revealed what kind of man he really is: he's a man that eats no pizza crust.

Have you actually eaten pizza if you don't eat the crust? Discuss. pic.twitter.com/thKoTpIP2i

— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) May 28, 2015

This wasn't the first time Stewart made headlines for pizza indulgence (or the lack of it). In May of 2013, Stewart told New York Magazine that he had eaten his first ever pizza portioned as a slice recently, explaining that said experimental pie consumption occurred after "My fiancée and I were a little hung-over."

Only a year later, John Farrier revealed that the freewheeling Stewart was already slicing up his pie with an Enterprise pizza cutter. Little did any of us know then that Sir Stew might as well have been trimming off the crusts with the Enterprise as well, if he wanted to be neat and tidy about such matters. 

Unsurprisingly, a crucial issue such as to eat or not to eat pizza crust wasn't ignored by the Twitterverse. See the cheesy, crunchy responses as the debate rages on in this article. 

Chances are you've never heard of the world's most popular beer, let alone tried it. The good news is that you're probably not missing much -while Snow is the most frequently sipped beer in China (and hardly available outside the country), those who have tried it say it's pretty mediocre.

And while many Americans have tried Mexico's most popular beer, Corona, they almost always drink it with a slice of lime -which is unheard of in the drink's homeland. 

Learn more strange facts about popular brews over at TopTenz.

Peach Sangria Popsicles | Image and recipe from Annie's Eats

Ah, summer. Nothing like a cool cocktail. Yet don't sip it too slow, or it will warm up in the heat as the conversation flows and distractions abound. Slushy, frozen drinks are refreshing, but especially during larger gatherings, the host/bartender may feel a little too tied to the blender. This group of twenty recipes is just the ticket: cocktails on a stick. Cool, premade and just-as-boozy-as-you-desire, they're sitting in your freezer, ready to be savored.

Costa Rican Watermelon Mojito Popsicles | Image and recipe from Boulder Locavore

Vodka Gummy Bear Pops | Image and recipe from A Spicy Perspective

Watermelon-Mint Tequila Popsicles | Image and recipe from Hungry Girl Por Vida

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Even though China has contributed all kinds of good things to the world, from fireworks to pasta, the country has become known as the home of fake- fake products, fake companies and the place to go when you want an imitation product made for cheap.

Usually this fakery is limited to valuable goods like electronics and fashion accessories, but China is apparently also home to some ingeniously inedible fake foods.

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There are street vendors peddling cement chunks in walnut shells, which are wrapped in paper so they don’t rattle around, fake rice made out of potatoes and plastic, and fake eggs made out of various chemicals and gelatin. Oh the lengths people will go to just to make a buck!

See China's Top 10 Fake Foods here

Childhood is a time of discovery and learning, and as we grow up we learn what we should or shouldn’t put into our mouths.

We usually arrive at these conclusions when we're chomping down on a rotten piece of fruit or eating something gross that triggers our revulsion reflex, and that bad food memory makes us pay more attention to what we eat in the future.

As we get older and leave those days of discovery behind us it’s fun to take a look back at the way we were, and wonder how the heck we could have eaten such strange things as a child.

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BuzzFeed presents a tasteful video with a self explanatory title- People Eat Weird Things They Used To Eat As Kids. Hopefully you won't find this trip down memory lane to be too revolting!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it's always a good idea to eat a balanced breakfast -and this English breakfast pizza by Instructables user ivytoad certainly meets that criteria. You have your bread and grains, your fruit and vegetables, your protien and dairy. Sounds healthy to me!

Hold onto your sweet tooth, a design student in London has made an all-chocolate Nike Air Max 90. Milan Miladinov created the sneaker at a time when the iconic running shoe is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Sole Collector reports: 

The all-chocolate version of the shoe was created by using a silicon mold of the Nike Air Max 90. Miladinov painted the inside of the mold in order to better recreate every line of the shoe, poured a bunch of liquid chocolate into it, waited 15 hours, and came up with this.

Thanks, Lucas Mast! photos by Milan Miladinov

Hot dogs are popular yet polarizing, tasty yet terrible on the stomach, kosher yet made of lips and...you know the rest.

Whether you call them tube steak, bratwurst, frankfurters, polish sausages or weenies there's one thing all cylindrical meat products have in common- people around the world just can't get enough!

The hot dogs we scarf down at sporting events or while waiting in line at Costco today are thought to have originated in Germany during the 1800s in their original weiner and frankfurter forms.

Since then the hot dog has evolved into a fun handheld food product people the world over enjoy in their own unusual way.

The Brazilian hot dog, which is topped with carrots, corn, parmesan cheese and french fries, may seem strange to those who like nothing more than relish and mustard on their dog.

Then again, Brazilians find it strange that American men rarely wear swim briefs to the beach so I guess strangeness is relative!

See the full guide to 40 Ways The World Makes Awesome Hot Dogs here

How can you make Oreos even more Oreo-y? Amy of the wonderful food blog Oh, Bite It! Shows you with her latest recipe. She wrapped Double Stuff Oreos with canned biscuit dough, then deep fried them until they were a rich shade of golden brown. Then she covered them with a glaze that she made with white Oreo stuffing. Now they’re ready to eat—although I would recommend serving them on a tasteful bed of Oreo cookies.

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Roadside and sidewalk signs are still the best ways to tell the world that your restaurant exists, and food related ads do a great job of drawing in hungry drivers, or hungry walkers, for a bite to eat.

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That’s why local restaurants keep their old school change (or draw) by hand signs up despite the fact that they could easily install one of those fancy LCD advertising screens in front of their business.

After all, can an LCD screen effectively capture the cheesy feel of a suspicious Fry like this hand drawn goodness? I think not!

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See 20 Clever Pizzeria Signs With Extra Cheese here