Tiptoe Through the Tuna Trivia Quiz

Answer: It has fish heads sticking out of the crust, looking skyward.

Stargazy pie is a unique-looking pie - it has fish heads (and sometimes tails too) sticking out of the pastry! The fish are traditionally sardines or pilchards, and egg and potatoes are used to make the filling, though some recipes use meat. It originates from the Cornish village of Mousehole, and is traditionally eaten on Tom Bawcock's Eve on 23rd December. Tom Bawcock was a legendary resident who saved the village from starving by going out in a terrible storm to catch fish. Sometimes, a parade with lanterns and a giant stargazy pie will take place; the pie is eaten by the villagers.

Answer: Tomato

Lomi-lomi salmon stems from Hawaii, and is a salad made principally of raw salted salmon and tomato. It can also contain sweet onions, cucumber, and sometimes chilli flakes. The dish gets its name from 'lomi', the Hawaiian word for 'massage', which refers to the preparation technique. Massaging the salmon with the other ingredients helps to shred it, as well as thoroughly rubbing in the ingredients and adding to the flavour.

It is often served at lu'aus, traditional Hawaiian feasts.

Answer: California

To be precise, it was San Francisco, which saw an influx of Italian immigrants in the 19th century. Many Italians coming to San Francisco from the port of Genoa worked as fishermen, and used the day's catch - a mixture of Dungeness crab, clams, prawns, mussels, squid and freshwater fish - to make fish soups and stews similar to the ones from back home. Any fisherman who ended up empty-handed would take a pot round asking other fishermen to contribute, and would use whichever fish or shellfish ended up in the pot to make cioppino.

It became a popular dish in Italian restaurants in San Francisco. Tomatoes and wine are used to make the sauce, and bread is used to sop it up, rather than pasta.

Answer: Beef steak

Surf 'n' turf is part shellfish, usually lobster (the surf part) and red meat, usually beef steak (the turf part, as cows eat grass). The most standard version has lobster tail as the surf and filet mignon as the turf. It is a popular pub dish in the UK, the US - its country of origin - and Australia.

The origins of its name are unknown; the earliest mention of surf and turf comes from the 'Los Angeles Times' in 1961. A burger variant exists which uses a ground meat patty and seafood.

Answer: Bouillabaisse

Bouillabaisse is a Provençal fish stew which takes its name from the Occitan 'bolhabaissa', which comes from 'bolhir' ('to boil') and 'abaissar' ('to simmer'). Originally, Marseilles fishermen used the rockfish that they could not sell to make the stew, but nowadays it contains several types of fish, as well as conger eel and shellfish such as crabs and mussels. Bouillabaisse is distinguished from other French fish stews by the mixture of Provençal herbs and local fish traditionally used.

The broth is eaten separately from the fish, and served with bread and rouille (a sauce made with breadcrumbs, olive oil, cayenne pepper, saffron and garlic).

Answer: Fermented shark

Hákarl is one of those dishes that often appears in articles about weird foods, and is not for the faint-hearted. It is shark, usually Greenland shark, which has been cured and left hung out to dry for 4-5 months. The shark has to be cured in order to be edible, as it is toxic when eaten fresh. The smell is so strong that people eating hákarl for the first time are advised to hold their noses. It is traditionally eaten with a shot of an Icelandic liquor called brennivín.

(Incidentally, seal skin stuffed with auks and fish pickled in lye are real dishes, known as kiviaq and lutefisk respectively. The former is a traditional food eaten by the Inuit peoples of Greenland, the latter hails from Norway.)

Answer: Bacalhau

Bacalhau is the Portuguese word for cod in general, but in a culinary context, it means dried and salted cod, a staple at Portuguese fish markets, and is also consumed in former Portuguese colonies such as Mozambique and Brazil. There are many different regional types of bacalhau, and many dishes containing it, such as bacalhau ŕ Gomes de Sá (a casserole which also contains olives, potato, eggs and onion) or bacalhau ŕ Zé do Pipo (bacalhau layered with mashed potatoes, onion and mayonnaise)

(As for the other answers, cebolada is an onion stew, cabidela is a rice and meat dish made with rabbit or poultry cooked in its own blood, and dobradinha is a type of tripe made from cow's stomach lining.)

Answer: Egg yolks, mustard and brandy

Lobster Thermidor is a rich dish consisting of lobsters stuffed with egg yolks, mustard and brandy, usually cognac. The stuffed shells are topped off with a mixture of cheese browned in the oven, traditionally Gruyčre. It was created in the late 19th century by the French chef Auguste Escoffier while he was working in Maison Maire, a restaurant near the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris.

The dish got its name from a hit play, 'Thermidor', which was performed in the theatre, about the overthrow of Robespierre; the owner of Maison Maire changed the name of the dish to lobster Thermidor in tribute to the play. (A side note: Thermidor was the eleventh month of the French Republican Calendar, which fell around July/August and was named for its heat.)

Answer: Salmon

Gravlax is eaten across Scandinavia, and consists of raw salmon cured with salt, sugar and dill, and cut into thin slices. In medieval times, sailors would leave salmon to ferment by salting it and burying it in the sand above the high-tide line; this is where the name of the dish comes from, 'gräva' ('to dig') and 'lax' ('salmon').

The modern method involves curing the salmon in a dry marinade for anything from twelve hours to a few days. Gravlax is traditionally served on rye bread or with potatoes, with a dill and mustard sauce known as 'hovmästarsĺs' ('maitre d' sauce').

Answer: Tekkadon

Tekkadon is a type of donburi, or rice bowl dish, which consists of a bowl of steamed rice topped with raw slices of tuna (though some variations use salmon). It is named for tekkaba, a type of gambling room common during the Edo period, where the dish would be served. Another source suggests that 'tekka' (iron) is a reference to the fact that the red tuna resembles hot iron.

As for the other answers, unadon is an eel and rice dish, butadon is pork and rice dish, and oyakodon contains chicken and egg - 'oyako' means 'parent and child', a reference to the use of both chicken and egg.