All questions are from Everything You Pretend to Know About Food And Are Afraid Someone Will Ask by Nancy Rommelmann; it is billed as a “culinary compendium to season your gastronomical wisdom along with your cuisine.”

1. What is a Coney Island chicken?
A Coney Island chicken is a regional specialty of New York city and is better known as the hot dog!

2. Why can’t you buy bluefish on the West Coast?
Bluefish, a rich, dark-meat fish caught off the Northeast Coast, is extremely oily and does not transport well. In a matter of days, its firm brown-and-white flesh takes on the taste of used motor oil. While there is no substitute, sturgeon or mahimahi comes close in flavor.

3. How much is a peck of peppers?
Literally, a peck is eight quarts (dry), yet the term is also used to indicate a large quantity. So how many did Peter pick? Zero…since you can’t pick pickled peppers!

4. What is an alligator pear?
An alligator pear is an avocado (the name avocado coincidentally is a derivative of the Nahuatl word for “testicle”, presumably a reference to the avocado’s shape). When avocados were planted in Florida in the 1830s, their bumpy green-and-black skins were thought to resemble the local alligators, hence the nickname.

5. Which stays colder—beer in a bottle or beer in a can?
While an aluminum can is a good conductor of cold and therefore chills beer very quickly, it is also thin, which means the beer loses its chill just as quickly, especially when held in a body-temperature hand. Glass may take a little longer to cool, but its thickness keeps the beer inside cold a lot longer.

6. What is Bubble and Squeak?
Bubble and squeak is a kind of hash, a British dish made by combining mashed potatoes, cooked cabbage, and cooked beef. The mixture is fried until crisp, during which time it makes quite a noisome racket, hence it name.