12 of the Best Foods The Simpsons Ever Gave Us

“One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish” (season 2, episode 11)

For someone who shovels a lot of food into his mouth, Homer can be quite difficult to please and is reluctant to try new foods. When the family heads to a Japanese restaurant, he’s initially cynical, positive he won’t enjoy any of it. But after a few bites of sushi, he’s hooked, and is soon wolfing down the whole menu. Homer’s ravenous joy is infectious, and we find ourselves equally craving some of the delish raw fish. Except, of course, the fugu.

It also helps the delectability of this scene that the waiter, Akira, is voiced by George Takei. His voice would make anyone hungrier.

“Marge Be Not Proud” (season 7, episode 11)

Bart puts a marshmallow into his hot chocolate, but instead of floating on top of the cocoa, it expands from the heat, absorbs the hot chocolate entirely, and morphs into a bouncy, chocolatey log. This marshmallow incident is meant to reflect how badly Bart’s fortunes have declined since disappointing his mother, but it really has the opposite effect—it looks delicious, a small throwaway joke turned aspirational snack. Grandpa implores Bart to give him a slice, and we wish we could do the same.

“Maximum Homerdrive” (season 10, episode 17)

Avert your eyes, vegan friends. This episode sees the family visit an ultra-carnivorous restaurant, complete with a fountain of blood and complimentary baskets of hooves. While there, Homer rises to the challenge of a fellow diner and enters an eating contest where he must consume “16 pounds of indomitable tenderloin”. The Sirloin-A-Lot is not only huge, but somehow visually delectable, with the right amount of juiciness and a decent fat-to-meat ratio inked into the animation. The steak proved to be too much for Homer to handle, and literally killed the other guy, but that does nothing to knock it from this list.

“Homer the Heretic” (season 4, episode 3)

We’re talking about Homer’s Moon Waffles—his Patented Space-Age Out-Of-This-World Moon Waffles, to be precise. The ingredients include caramel, waffle batter, and Liquid Smoke; the entire container of each should do. The mixture gets cooked in a waffle iron until it appears to be burning, and then the pièce de résistance: the waffle is wrapped around an entire stick of butter. It’s a mess, but so are many of the decadent creations we whip up when we have a well-stocked kitchen and no people around to judge us. The Moon Waffle is lifted right out of our most fattening fantasies. Special mention goes to the ASMR elements that can be heard during the cooking scene. The Simpsons truly did everything first.

“Lisa Gets an ‘A’” (season 10, episode 7)

Lobsters are desirable but very expensive things to eat, which motivates Homer to purchase a scrawny little lobster in order to fatten it up with fine foods and eventually feast upon it (or “eat the profits,” as Homer says). The plan works until Homer grows attached to the lobster, which he names Pinchy, and instead decides to adopt it as a member of the Simpson family. However, giving Pinchy a “nice hot bath” after a stressful day leads to exactly the culinary outcome you might expect.

One of the most inadvertently disturbing scenes in Simpsons history features Homer eating the crustacean that he had, just a short time prior, been lovingly raising as a pet. In between sobs are impassioned moans about how tasty the lobster is. As a viewer, it’s confusing to be so put off by Homer’s display and yet want to feast on the very same lobster.

“Homer Badman” (season 6, episode 9)

It’s the rarest gummy of them all, carved by gummy artisans who work exclusively in the medium of gummy: the Gummy Venus de Milo. Homer is captivated by the exquisite sight—even among the infinite distractions of the greater candy convention at which the gummy is found—and decides to do whatever he can to possess it. Although normal candy fans wouldn’t do what Homer eventually did in order to obtain the Gummy Venus (that is, peel it off someone’s behind), we certainly appreciate a sweet masterpiece when we see it.

“The Food Wife” (season 23, episode 5)

Many claim that The Simpsons has grown stale in later seasons, but it remains capable of giving us food moments that are anything but. This episode sees Marge, Bart, and Lisa sampling Ethiopian food for the first time after the family car breaks down in an unfamiliar area. The feast they are served, “exotic” to them, is scrumptiously drawn and manages to satisfy three very different Simpsons’ palates, even kicking off a literal party in Marge’s mouth.

If online comments are to be believed, this episode left many viewers keen for some Ethiopian food, and it did a solid job at depicting the deliciousness of traditional stews eaten with injera flatbread.

“The Boy Who Knew Too Much” (season 5, episode 20)

All the deliciousness of a Rice Krispies square, in gigantic, gravity-defying form. Bart spots this beauty when he sneaks into a party of elites while skipping school, and viewers live vicariously through him as he sinks his teeth into it with a satisfying snap, crackle, and pop.

The sight of someone having taken a bite from the big square temporarily overshadows the crime scene of which it is eventually a part, although this could be more indicative of the police chief’s uselessness than the Rice Krispies square’s magnificence. Both are possible.

“22 Short Films About Springfield” (season 7, episode 21)

We’ve all craved a Krusty Burger and fries at some point, but their temptation reaches its zenith in this scene. Not only are they served on a fancy tray and given an elegant (if inapplicable) name, they also form the centerpiece of one of the most iconic and oft-referenced sequences in the show’s history. Skinner’s Hams even manage to earn a rating of “good” from the chronically grumpy Superintendent Chalmers. That’s about as great an endorsement as Simpsons food can get.

“Lisa’s Pony” (season 3, episode 8)

It wouldn’t be an animated series without a comically oversized sundae. After Homer grievously disappoints Lisa by ruining her sax solo at the school concert, he attempts to mend fences by treating her to this epic dessert at the local ice cream parlor. At a cost of $88—that’s $194, adjusted for inflation—Mount Bellyache is a dazzling heap of ice creams, bananas, cherries, and more, requiring a wheelbarrow to serve it. The sundae fails to lift Lisa’s spirits, but she does take one polite spoonful before declaring herself finished. We’ll take the rest.

“Homer Loves Flanders” (season 5, episode 16)

Isn’t it strange that a 20-second joke from 1994 remains an enduring concept that many of us remember clearly? That’s the power of a tasty Simpsons food moment. The Nacho Hat may not be the most practical or architecturally sound example of a fantasy stadium snack, but hey, it’s nachos that you can wear. We’re here for it, and we want it at our football games.

“Guess Who’s Coming to Criticize Dinner?” (season 11, episode 3)

When Homer’s career as a tough food critic threatens to sink multiple businesses throughout Springfield, the town’s restauranteurs conspire to kill him. The weapon? A lethally decadent éclair. It contains over one million calories, has 25 pounds of butter per square inch, and is covered with chocolate so dark that light can’t escape its surface. Just a photo of the éclair is enough to reduce a bunch of distinguished food professionals into ravenous zombies. Shut up and take my life!