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Birthday cake
Birthday cake: frosted celebration cake with lit candles, one per year of life, blown out with a wish. Originated in 18th-century Germany's Kinderfest; also a vanilla-sprinkle flavor.
Biryani
Biryani (बिरयानी) is a layered South Asian rice dish of basmati rice with spiced meat or vegetables, sealed and finished by dum cooking; distinct from one-pot pulao, with kachchi and pakki schools and many regional styles.
Biscotti
Biscotti, plural of biscotto, are Italian cookies whose name means twice-baked; abroad the word means the hard Tuscan almond cookies called cantucci or biscotti di Prato, baked, sliced, and dried in a second oven pass for long shelf life.
Biscuit
Biscuit: from Latin panis biscoctus, twice-cooked ship bread. Means a crisp cookie-like item in British English and a soft scone-like quick bread in North America; biscuit products have 1–5% moisture.
Biscuit (bread)
Biscuit (bread): the North American quick bread, a chemically leavened round distinct from the British cookie-biscuit; Southern staple adopted for its buttermilk, lard, and soft wheat flour.
Biscuits and gravy
Biscuits and gravy, also called sawmill, country, or white gravy and biscuits, is an American Southern breakfast of leavened biscuits smothered in white sausage gravy made from pork drippings, flour, and milk, originating in Appalachian frontier and logging-camp cooking.
Bisleri
Bisleri is India's leading packaged drinking water brand, owned by Bisleri International (Parle/Chauhan family) since 1969, Italian in origin, RO-purified and remineralized under IS 14543, with about 36% organized market share and the Bottles for Change recycling program.
Bison hunting
Bison hunting: 13,000 years of communal Indigenous hunts (jumps, pounds) on the Great Plains, Métis horseback hunts, the 1870s–1880s hide-trade collapse from tens of millions to a few hundred, and modern Tribal restoration hunts.
Bistro
Bistro (bistrot): a small informal restaurant of French origin serving simple, inexpensive food. Parisian slang from 1884; the Russian bystro etymology is folk legend; bistronomy is its modern gastronomic offshoot.
Bitters
Bitters are concentrated botanical essences in alcohol, dosed by dash; once patent medicines (Stoughton's, 1690; Angostura, 1824; Peychaud's), they became required cocktail ingredients and remain bar staples.
BJ's Wholesale Club
BJ's Wholesale Club is an American membership warehouse club chain headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts, operating 263 clubs and 199 gas stations across 21 eastern states since 1984.
Blac Chyna
Blac Chyna, born Angela Renée White (1988, Washington, D.C.), is an American model, rapper, and reality star from Rob & Chyna; since 2023 she goes publicly by Angela White after leaving OnlyFans and embracing sobriety and faith.
Black & White (whisky)
Black & White is a blended Scotch whisky created by James Buchanan in the late 19th century, now owned by Diageo and known for its black and white terrier mascots.
Black and white cookie
Black and white cookie, also called half-moon or Amerikaner: a soft, cake-like New York City bakery cookie frosted half chocolate, half vanilla fondant; origin debated between Glaser's Bake Shop (1902) and Utica's Hemstrought's Bakery.
Black Day (블랙데이) (South Korea)
Black Day (블랙데이) is South Korea's unofficial April 14 observance for singles who received nothing on Valentine's Day or White Day, marked by eating jajangmyeon, wearing black, and drinking black coffee; it emerged in the 1990s.
Black Forest gateau
Black Forest gateau (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte), also called Black Forest cake, is a German layer cake of chocolate sponge, sour cherries, whipped cream, and Kirsch, which German food rules require; credited to Josef Keller in 1915.
Black garlic
Black garlic is fresh garlic aged 15–90 days at 60–90°C and 70–90% humidity without additives, turning black, sweet, and soft via the Maillard reaction; allicin drops and antioxidant activity rises.
Black pepper
Black pepper (Piper nigrum; Milagu), the dried berry of a Western Ghats-native vine; piperine activates TRPV1; black, white, green forms by processing; Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, India lead production.
Black pepper oleoresin
Black pepper oleoresin, a solvent-extracted concentrate from Piper nigrum peppercorns (FEMA 2846, CAS 8002-56-0), carries both aroma volatiles (20–36%) and pungent piperine (35–55%), used to flavor processed foods and authorized as an EU feed additive in 2024.
Black Rifle Coffee Company
Black Rifle Coffee Company (BRCC, BRC Inc.), founded 2014 by Green Beret Evan Hafer, is a veteran-founded American premium coffee, energy drink, and media company on the NYSE, selling via Wholesale, DTC, and Outpost channels with $398.3M FY2025 revenue.
Black soup
Black soup, mélas zomos (μέλας ζωμός) or Spartan black broth, was the pork-and-blood broth of the Spartan syssitia, made with pork, blood, salt, and vinegar; no recipe survives and outsiders mocked it.
Black tea
Black tea (Chinese hongcha, 红茶, "red tea") is fully oxidized Camellia sinensis tea, made by withering, rolling, enzymatic oxidation, and drying; distinct from heicha dark tea, standardized in ISO 3720, with India its largest producer.
Black tie
Black tie is a formal evening dress code built on the dinner jacket and black bow tie, less formal than white tie. Originating with an 1865 Henry Poole & Co. commission for the Prince of Wales and named the tuxedo at New York's Tuxedo Club in 1886, it is worn for evening events after 6 p.m.
Black Versace dress of Elizabeth Hurley
The black Versace dress of Elizabeth Hurley, also called the safety-pin dress or "that dress", is Gianni Versace's spring 1994 black silk gown with gold Medusa safety pins, worn by Hurley to the 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere.
Black-figure pottery
Black-figure pottery (black-figure vase painting): ancient Greek technique, Corinthian origin c. 700-720 BC, Athenian peak with Exekias, black slip silhouettes with incised detail, replaced by red-figure after c. 530 BC.
Blanca Soto
Blanca Soto (Blanca Delfina Soto Benavides, born 1979, Monterrey) is a Mexican actress and former Miss Mexico World (1997) who won Miss Verano Viña Internacional 1998, starred in Eva Luna and Señora Acero, and left Telemundo's No te puedes esconder (2019) as her last TV role.
Blanching (cooking)
Blanching is a cooking technique in which food, usually vegetables, is briefly boiled or steamed, then cooled in ice water, chiefly to prepare it for freezing.
Blancmange
Blancmange (blanc mangier, "white food") is a molded milk pudding set with cornstarch or gelatin, flavored with almond or vanilla. Medieval chicken-and-rice savory dish, now a British dessert, cousin of panna cotta and manjar blanco.
Blazer
Blazer: a lightweight semi-tailored jacket, usually navy, with metal buttons and patch pockets, worn with contrasting trousers. Origins in HMS Blazer 1837 and Lady Margaret Boat Club; distinct from suit jacket and sport coat.
Blender
Blender, the kitchen appliance: a motorized jar with a bottom blade that liquefies and purées foods with liquid. Distinguished from food processors (solid chopping), IEC 60335-2-14 scope, Poplawski 1922, Waring 1937, portable-model recalls.