For millions of Americans, ordering dinner without getting out of the car is about as ordinary as driving to work. But the familiar routine of pulling up to a speaker, ordering a burger, and collecting food through a window was once a revolutionary idea. The drive-thru restaurant transformed American eating habits, reshaped the fast-food industry, and helped turn the automobile into something resembling a mobile dining room.

Throughout history, wealthy diners have gone to extraordinary lengths to enjoy foods that ordinary people could barely imagine eating. From tiny songbirds drowned in alcohol to elaborate banquets featuring exotic animals, some of the world's most prestigious delicacies came with disturbing consequences. Many were celebrated as symbols of wealth and sophistication, even when their preparation involved cruelty, environmental destruction, or ingredients that would disgust modern diners. The history of these unusual foods reveals just how dramatically our ideas about luxury and acceptable eating have changed.