ACROSS AMERICA — If you’re craving boiled peanuts, Georgia should be a stop on your gastronomical pleasures road trip. What is food if not an adventure?

At first glance, The Food Network’s list of the Most Iconic Foods for All 50 States, released earlier this year, might seem to suggest Georgians love nothing better than a bowl of boiled peas, but the reasoning for the selection is more nuanced than that. It’s a compendium of foods that best represent a state’s history and geography.

It’s hard to argue peanuts aren’t as synonymous with Georgia as former peanut farmer and President Jimmy Carter is. Since the 1800s, farmers have chowed down on snacks of boiled peanuts, which have a texture similar to edamame and are cooked with salt and spices,

Curiously, boiled peanuts are both The Food Network’s most iconic Georgia food, and the state’s weirdest food, according to another list by a lesser-known media company, Far & Wide.

Foods landed on both lists in a handful of other states — Connecticut’s clam pizza, Idaho’s ice cream potatoes and Virginia’s peanut soup.

One of the weirdest foods on the Far & Wide list may be possum pie in Arkansas.

Had you at the possum, didn’t we? Relax. There are no marsupials in this pie.

It’s a layered dessert of chocolate pudding and cream cheese on a pecan shortbread crust and topped with whipped cream and pecans. According to legend, the chocolate under the whipped cream is like an opossum pretending to be something it’s not.

The Food Network says Arkansas’ most iconic food is fried pickles. In 1963, Bernell Austin, whose nickname was “Fatman,” served the nation’s first battered and deep-fried pickle slices at his Duchess Drive-In.

No slugs were sacrificed for the weirdest food Arkansas’ neighbor to the east, Tennessee, home of the slugburger. It’s a beef or pork patty mixed with soybeans, a cheap filler high in protein used to stretch it out a bit, according to Far & Away.

But If You Want A Swamp Rat …

And although no animals give their lives for Arkansas and Tennessee’s weirdest foods, anyone craving varmints in their vittles can head down to Louisiana and have nutria, a nice enough name given to what is basically a swamp rat. It’s supposedly high in protein and low in fat. But it’s vermin.

Louisiana’s most iconic food is the more respectable beignet.

Fried squirrel is West Virginia’s weirdest food. Visitors who want a more iconic flavor should go for the pepperoni rolls.

Oregonians like to eat the gooseneck barnacles that attach themselves to piers, coastal rocks and boats, according to Far & Away, which says they are “crustaceans just like lobster and shrimp” and are found anywhere the tides roll in and out. Gooseneck barnacles look a little like dinosaur feet, but they’re seem as a delicacy.

The state’s most iconic food is marionberry pie. That’s marionberry, not Marion Barry, the four-term District of Columbia mayor considered to be one of the most powerful local politicians of his generation. Marionberries were bred at the University of Oregon using different varieties of blackberries.

And what is up with Arizona’s scorpion lollipops? Sold at roadside attractions, these candies on a stick rightly qualify as weird. They have dead scorpions inside.

Validation comes with the chimichanga, Arizona’s gift to the world. According to The Food Network, El Charro Café founding chef Monica Flin accidentally invented the dish one day in the mid-1950s “when she dropped a burro (a big burrito) into the deep fryer” and “a legend was born.” The restaurant’s four Arizona locations still use the original recipe at their four Arizona locations.

Some Caution Is Good

The weird foods list introduces the blissfully unaware to “fries” and “oysters” that are not as they seem. Just know that if your gastronomical road trip takes you to Colorado, the Rocky Mountain oysters were never in the sea but, in fact, on the manly end of a bison bull. Follow that same drift to understand what you’ll be eating if you order Oklahoma’s lamb fries.

Let’s circle back to Idaho and its ice cream potatoes. Idaho is the Potato State (although it’s often confused Iowa, where sweet corn is king, according to the iconic foods list) but there are as many potatoes in this iconic and weird dish as there are possums in Arkansas’ beloved pie.

The vanilla ice cream in this dish is shaped like a potato, covered with cocoa powder to give it the look of a potato skin. Toppings such as whipped cream, peanuts, chocolate shavings or anything added to a sundae can give it a twice-baked look.

Buffalo’s Original Wings

The Food Network’s list is a culinary trail of history.

Buffalo wings are the undisputed “big game” snack, and they originated in Buffalo, New York. As the story goes, Anchor Bar co-founder Teressa Bellissimo’s son Dominic was tending bar and asked her to make a snack for his intoxicated friends. She deep-fried wings and flavored them with a secret sauce.

The Food Network said that although similar recipes are mainstays on menus across the country, “Teressa’s tightly guarded master recipe is only available at Anchor Bar.”

From the weird list is the garbage plate, a mixture of ground beef or sausage, with or without cheese, over home fries, French fries, and either macaroni salad or baked beans or both. Condiments are optional. Far & Wide says garbage plate was invented in Rochester in 1918.

The “3 a.m.steak and eggs” breakfast says “Nevada” like no other food, according to The Food Network. The “steggs,” as the early-morning breakfast is known, is a favorite among late-night casino workers, tourists and late-night partiers.

To stay up a little longer, Far & Away’s pick for the weirdest food is a Las Vegas-created cotton candy burrito, a sugar-charged ice-cream treat with sprinkles, gummy bears and any other sweet topping wrapped up in cotton candy.

If you go to Minnesota, you shouldn’t leave without sampling the state’s iconic hot dish, a combination of beef or chicken, vegetables and canned cream of mushroom soup, often topped with Tater Tots. Visitors who want to be more daring should try the state’s weird take on a hot dog. Instead of a bun, the dog is nestled in a split-open pickle. Ergo, the pickle dog.

Cincinnati chili is a must-taste on any culinary road trip that goes through Ohio. This is not Texas chili. It’s a thin, mildly spiced meat sauce served over Coney dogs or big platters of spaghetti, according to The Food Network.

When Ohioans want to get weird, they dish up some goetta, a German-American breakfast made of ground beef and pork with steel-cut oats, onion and garlic. It looks a little like livermush, according to Far & Away.

For that, head to North Carolina. It’s a combination of pig liver, parts of pig heads and cornmeal formed into a patty and fried, often served at breakfast or lunch.

The Iconic And The Weird

Below is a side-by-side look at the most iconic and weirdest foods in every state.

Alabama: most iconic food, chicken and white barbecue sauce; weirdest food: biscuits and chocolate gravy.

Alaska: most iconic food, king crab; weirdest food, Akutak.

Arizona: most iconic food, chimichanga; weirdest food, scorpion lollipops

Arkansas: most iconic food, fried pickles; weirdest food: possum pie.

California: most iconic food, avocado toast; weirdest food, sushiritto.

Colorado: most iconic food, lamb chops; weirdest food, mountain oysters

Connecticut: most iconic and weirdest food, white clam pizza.

Delaware: most iconic food, fries with vinegar; weirdest food, creamed chip beef.

Florida: most iconic food, Key lime pie; weirdest food, gator tail.

Georgia: most iconic and weirdest food, boiled peanuts.

Hawaii: most iconic food, shaved ice; weirdest food, ube

Idaho: most iconic and weirdest food: ice cream potato.

Illinois: most iconic food: deep-dish pizza; weirdest food, gravy bread.

Indiana: most iconic food, breaded pork tenderloin sandwich; weirdest food, sauerkraut balls.

Iowa: most iconic food, sweet corn; weirdest food: walking taco.

Kansas: most iconic food: barbecued ribs; weirdest food, bierock.

Kentucky: most iconic food, hot Brown; weirdest food, soup beans.

Louisiana: most iconic food, beignets; weirdest food, nutria.

Maine: most iconic food, lobster roll; weirdest food, tomalley (digestive gland of lobster).

Maryland: most iconic food, steamed crabs; weirdest food, stuffed ham.

Massachusetts: most iconic food, clam chowder; weirdest food: chow mein sandwich.

Michigan: most iconic food, pasty; weirdest food, Detroit-style Coney dog.

Minnesota: most iconic food, hot dish; weirdest food, pickle dog.

Mississippi: most iconic food, biscuits; weirdest food, koolickle.

Missouri: most iconic food, toasted ravioli; weirdest food, provel cheese.

Montana: most iconic food, huckleberry ice cream; weirdest food, pasties.

Nebraska: most iconic food, tin roof sundae; weirdest food, hot beef sundae.

Nevada: most iconic food, 3 a.m. steak and eggs; weirdest food, cotton candy burrito.

New Hampshire: most iconic food, poutine; weirdest food, Grape-Nuts ice cream.

New Jersey: most iconic food, disco fries: weirdest food, New Jersey-style sloppy joe.

New Mexico: most iconic food, Frito pie; weirdest food: green chili sundae.

New York: most iconic food; Buffalo wings; weirdest food, garbage plate.

North Carolina: most iconic food, Lexington-style barbecue; weirdest food, livermush.

North Dakota: most iconic food, cheese buttons; weirdest food, lutefisk.

Ohio: most iconic food, Cincinnati-style chili; weirdest food, goetta.

Oklahoma: most iconic food: steak; weirdest food, lamb fries.

Oregon: most iconic food, marionberry pie; weirdest food, gooseneck barnacles.

Pennsylvania: most iconic food: Philly cheesesteak, the weirdest food, scrapple.

Rhode Island: most iconic food, coffee milk; weirdest food, chop suey sandwich.

South Carolina: most iconic food, she-crab soup; weirdest food: chitterlings.

South Dakota: most iconic food, lefse; weirdest food: chislic.

Tennessee: most iconic food, Nashville hot chicken sandwich; weirdest food, slugburger.

Texas: most iconic food, brisket; weirdest food, rattlesnake.

Utah: most iconic food, fry sauce; weirdest food, Jell-O salad.

Vermont: most iconic food, apple pie (with cheddar); weirdest food, sugar on snow.

Virginia: most iconic and weirdest food, peanut soup.

Washington: most iconic food, seafood chowder; weirdest food, geoduck.

West Virginia: most iconic food, pepperoni rolls; weirdest food, fried squirrel.

Wisconsin: most iconic food; fried cheese curds; weirdest food, Butter Burger (Culver’s brand).

Wyoming: most iconic food, fry bread; weirdest food, chuckwagon breakfast.

We encourage readers to peruse The Food Network and Far & Wide sites to learn more about the origins of these dishes.