How to Play Food Origins

Overview

Food Origins is a food geography game where a dish photo and a culinary hint appear each round. Your job is to find the country that dish comes from on an interactive world map before the 30-second timer expires.

With over 180 dishes spanning every continent — from Japanese Sushi and Italian Pizza to Bhutanese Ema Datshi and Peruvian Ceviche — no two sessions are the same.

Step-by-step guide

1. 1
   Choose solo or multiplayer

   Tap Solo to play alone, or Multiplayer to face a real opponent. Both players see the same 10 dishes drawn from the same random seed — so the result is always decided by geography knowledge.
2. 2
   Study the dish and hint

   A dish photo appears alongside its name and a short culinary description. Read the hint carefully — it often contains a regional clue, an ingredient or a historical note that narrows down the country.
3. 3
   Find the country on the map

   An interactive world map is displayed. You have 30 seconds to locate the dish's country of origin. Zoom in with the scroll wheel or pinch gesture to find smaller nations. Pan by dragging the map.
4. 4
   Preview before confirming

   Hover over any territory (desktop) to see its name and flag before clicking. On mobile, tap a country once to preview it, then tap the Confirm button to lock in your answer.
5. 5
   Click to submit your answer

   Click or tap the correct country to submit. The map will highlight the correct country and show whether you were right or wrong, along with the distance if you were off.
6. 6
   Repeat for all 10 rounds

   A new dish appears each round. Dishes are drawn at random from a pool of 180+ items covering Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania — every session is different.

Scoring

Tips to score higher

• Read the culinary hint first — it often contains a regional ingredient or cooking technique that points directly to the country.
• Zoom in for smaller countries — many dishes come from island nations or landlocked countries that are easy to miss at the default zoom level.
• If the dish name sounds unfamiliar, pay attention to its description: spices like berbere suggest Ethiopia; fermentation techniques suggest Korea or Japan.
• Don't confuse regional cuisines — many South American dishes look similar, so the hint's geographic clue is key.