It may look like a mound of spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce and cheese, but this is spaghettieis, or spaghetti ice cream. Spaghettieis is an illusion food, and quite popular in its birthplace of Germany. It was developed by Italian-German ice cream vendor Dario Fontanella back in 1969, before he even joined the family ice cream business. Back in the early days when Fontanella Ice Cream began serving the dessert, children would cry when presented with spaghettieis, because they were disappointed to get pasta when they were expecting ice cream!
But unlike Japanese spaghetti popsicles, which contain tomato ice cream, this treat is sweet through and through. Spaghettieis is made by running vanilla ice cream, or gelato, through a cold spätzle press to make the "noodles." These are dropped over a mound of whipped cream. The sauce is made with strawberries, and the "cheese" on top is grated white chocolate. Read how spaghettieis came about and how to make it yourself at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Frederik Hermann)