Why food is hard to score in
Everybody eats, so everybody has an instant list of foods in their head, and the lists overlap. Ask for a fruit, a vegetable, a dessert or a snack and the first three answers are shared by almost every player. Those answers score close to zero. The good news is that food is also the category where your own life gives you the biggest advantage, because what you eat is different from what the next person eats.
Five ways to step sideways
- Change the cuisine. If your first thought is a dish from your own country, ask what the same prompt looks like in another. Breakfast in Japan, a snack in Nigeria and a dessert in Turkey all have real, specific answers that few players will type.
- Change the stage. A food can be raw, cooked, preserved or served as a leftover. If the prompt allows it, think of the preserved or fermented version (pickles, cured meats, fermented cabbage) rather than the fresh one.
- Change the size. Think of the smallest garnish, the largest centrepiece, the thing that is only a side. Capers, sprinkles and garnishes are rarely anyone’s first answer.
- Change the season or occasion. Christmas, harvest festivals, weddings, street fairs, school dinners and hospital food all have their own foods that people forget until the prompt asks.
- Open the cupboard. Picture the back of your own cupboard or fridge door: the half-used jar, the tin you only open at New Year. Real items from real kitchens are exactly the answers the crowd misses.
Drinks work the same way
For drinks, the obvious pile is water, tea, coffee, cola and orange juice. One step out is a type of tea (not just “tea”), a style of coffee, a cocktail, a regional soft drink, or a drink from your childhood. Two steps out are fermented and traditional drinks that are common in one region and unknown in another. The trick is the same: name the particular, not the family.
A warning about being too clever
Rare only scores if the game accepts it. A dish you invented, or a brand name that is local to one town, may not be on the list. Prefer things that are real, documented and spelled in a standard way. If you are unsure of the spelling, type it anyway: clear slips are corrected for you.
See also how to score higher and what to do when your mind goes blank.