If you’re anything like us, dear Pandas, then you’re very likely also thinking of food at this very moment. Full disclosure, some of us are busy daydreaming about pizza, donuts, and Friday barbeques when we should be writing about our gracious feline overlords and collecting cute dog photos. In fact, we’re so hungry, we’ve started seeing food everywhere we look… though we’re not the only ones!
Our gastronomic geniuses and illusion-lovers here at Bored Panda have cooked up for you this delicious list of photos of various things that look just like food. From soap that looks like chocolate to mushrooms that look like fried eggs (and make us yearn for a good old English breakfast so badly, it’s ridiculous).
Upvote the pics that you personally found to be the tastiest, and let us know which of these you’d love to take a bite out of. Once you’re done, check out our other recent articles about inedible things that look like food for desert right here, here, here, and here!
A small warning though: this list will likely leave you very hungry, so just keep in mind that you shouldn’t eat random things, no matter how tasty they appear. Stick to real food!
This post may include affiliate links.
This Rock Found In Indiana That Looks Like Fried Chicken
It IS fried chicken, but mistaken for a rock because it came from chick-fil-a. Popeyes rules!!!
I'm with you on this! I tried that Popeyes sandwich and now I understand why folks were stabbing each other to get one. So good!
Load More Replies...Ok look, after the mushroom fried egg and now a rock that looks like fried chicken I’m starting to feel like the Earth is revving up her defenses and pointing them straight at us. 👀🤨😱 Earth: humans in this region eat fried chicken and fried eggs Next up: leafs that look like waffles
I refuse to believe this is a rock! It's just someone with tiny hands holding a regular size piece of chicken.
Okay, Who Took A Bite Out Of The Forbidden Peanut Butter Brownie?
No, the real question is, did they find the missing bite spat out on the floor? Or was the person responsible, so drunk they ate it?
Load More Replies...Beat me to it. You'd have to be a special kind of stupid to do that, no matter how drunk.
Load More Replies...I was gonna get a chocolate scented soap the other day, but I thought I would be too tempted to eat it XD
A Hummingbird Which Looks Like A Jalapeño
Anita Pickle, if it were dead, it wouldn’t be able to hold its head up...the head would be flat on the person’s fingers.
Load More Replies...Professor Kang Lee, from the University of Toronto, explained to Bored Panda that our imaginations have a very strong impact on our perception. Our imaginations come from our frontal cortex in our brain, meanwhile, our perception takes place first in the visual cortex, found in the occipital lobe in the back of our head.
One of the more common phenomena that people tend to come across in their daily lives is pareidolia, or rather, seeing faces where there aren’t any. Perhaps you’ve spotted a cloud that looks just like your loved one or you’re looking at the trees and the leaves make them look like a stranger’s staring right back at you.
The Surprising Amount Of Bite Marks On These IKEA Display Apples
Why would you eat them anyway? If they're on display it's not to eat
Ok, let's say they were real apples. Why on earth would I want to bite an apple left on a plate in an IKEA?!
And one that's already been bitten into by someone else at that
Load More Replies...So someone sees a bitten apple left on display and tries to... take a bite??
As we've seen over the last few years in particular, our world is densely populated with... well, dense people.
Load More Replies...Hmmm... The same person attempting to bite multiple apples? Or many people each trying to bite one apple?
at least one of those was attacked by a fork. i'm not sure what this shows about people worrying about covid... we don't stand chance anyway
My 5 year old son swiped an artificial grape and you could hear him cussing all over the store. Everyone else thought it was funny, I'm like "Where did you learn those words?"
This Tree Looks Like Broccoli
My mom got me and my siblings to eat broccoli by calling them little trees. It worked.
My uncle refused to eat cauliflower on the grounds that it was small trees. He's got over it now.
Load More Replies...I Found A Mushroom That Looks Like A Fried Egg
Idk but I feel threatened👀 this looks like something a witch would come up with. Poison Apple and mushroom fried eggs
I think that if you eat it, you will *feel* like a fried egg...
Yeah, nah: 'Some sources claim that it is mildly toxic though, while others consider it edible after washing (to remove the mucus)' (wikipedia)
Looked up "mushroom that looks like bacon" out of curiosity, and... 6281338566...e06930.jpg
You guys need to see a Fried Egg Jellyfish. When it’s lying flat on the beach it looks just like a fried egg. Common on the BC coast.
"Pareidolia illustrates the interaction between the visual cortex and the frontal cortex of the human brain. It suggests that our brain is highly sensitive and expecting to encounter and process some special classes of objects in our environment because they are biological and socially important to our adaptions to the environment," professor Lee told Bored Panda during an earlier interview.
"For example, when you are walking in a dark street in the evening, your brain is on high alert to detect whether any threat will jump out any moment. In this case, you are more likely to have face or human pareidolia because it is important for you to err on the side of caution if you mistake a tree as a human being,” he said.
Frog That Looks Like Cheese On A Burger
Imagine being trapped in a jungle , and starving . Then you see this little …..
Forbidden Pasta (Rattle Snake Rattler)
I've eaten rattlle snake with the Wixarikas in México. They skin and debone the snakes, and dry them in the sun. You eat all but the rattle.
Would You Be Interested In A Cup Of Latte?
“However, for some people, their frontal cortex’s expectation for certain objects (e.g., faces) become so high that they see faces in many situations where no faces exist."
He continued: “Even in this kind of situation, it is normal. There is nothing wrong with these individuals," he stressed. "Pareidolia is different from paranoia or delusion or abnormal vision of individuals with psychosis. In fact, a recent study shows that those people with pareidolia tend to be more creative. Also, people who are religious may be able to see religious icons in nonface objects as well."
Forbidden Milk
Why the cow? That makes it even more likely to confuse it with milk.
Load More Replies...Forbidden Fried Chicken
Hospital Staff Gave Me A Snack On The Bed Sheets, Turns Out It's The Sponge I Need To Use In The Shower Before Surgery
"It was the toughest, least flavorful sponge cake I've ever had... but I still finished it."
... usually patients don't have to do that themselves. Especially since it's done directly before surgery, just moments before the first incision.
Meanwhile the patiens have to shower and wash with iodine soap befor the surgery. It's sort of an extra desinfection stage. They are properly desinfected right before surgery.
Load More Replies...But I thought everyone knew you’re not supposed to eat before getting surgery! 😅
Professor Lee reiterated that our imaginations greatly affect our perceptions. “What we see are not things over there in the world but actually the co-creation of what is out there physically and what is in our mind mentally through our expectations and imaginations,” he said.
"Pareidolia is a broader phenomenon as it extends to touch and sound and other sensory channels. For example, you sometimes sense your phone vibrating when it is not, it is a tactile form of pareidolia. When you hear voices in a noisy environment, it is an auditory form of pareidolia."
This Coaster
and tasted kind of woody and might have left splinters in the tongue
Load More Replies...If you went to school at my school, and had the hamburgers OR the sausages, you'd understand.
LOL! I had a nephew come over to visit. It was late, and I was watching TV. He sat on the couch and began eating a bag of crunchies. He looked at me after a few minutes and said: These snacks are stale. They don't taste good. I looked over in the dark, and he was eating Doggie Crunchies...it was dark, so I guess he couldn't tell. LOL!
Nah, it's just thin cork, basically breaks off on its own
Load More Replies...Broccoli Birb
Forbidden Banana
The title could mean either the snake that looks like a banana or the banana because it's protected by the snake.
And that, lil snek, is why you never trust the photo on tinder
One Is Chocolate, One Is For The Dishwasher
They actually were a media panic, not a fad. But small children do indeed get these things mixed up and poison themselves
Load More Replies...Especially when you put the chocolate into the dishwasher :-P
Load More Replies..."Hmm, the dishes came out covered with chocolate again. Everybody, quick, spit out what you're munching on!"
So do I. I’ve also noticed that it looks like little wrapped candies.
Load More Replies...Forbidden Cookie Dough Ice Cream
I hereby lift the order of forbiddeness and and demand a new order to take its place - HUGS AND CUDDLES!
Someone needs to start labelling their Cookies 'n' Cream ice cream as Dalmation.
Outback Steakhouse's kid menus have a "Spotted Dog Sundae", which is cookies and cream. Of course, they mean spotted dog as in the wild animal, but still.
Load More Replies...Forbidden Ham
The inside looks like ham, the outside looks like potato or a chicken nugget maybe. Lol
My Nana used to coat her ham in bread crumbs. Just need some bread and butter and pickled onions... I do make it myself these days, but it's not like hers
Load More Replies...Look like some kind of Microorganism
Load More Replies...Forbidden Salami
The windowsill design at my school looks exactly like salami and I can't even look at it without feeling hungry.
With the amount of preservatives in today's meat products, the two may well be interchangeable.
Someone Left Some Mashed Potatoes In The Car
Hmm, quite furry and sleepy these potatoes. 10/10 for cuteness though, say hi from us!
This Printer At Work Uses Small Colored Balls For Ink, They Look Like Forbidden M&M's
Toner pearls, basically it melts and sprays toner on-demand like an inkjet, rather than using powder on a statically charged drum.
Load More Replies...My company just moved into a new building and we have one of these. I'd never seen one before.
Wow - I want that for my personal printer! It looks much better than those stupid ink-things
Forbidden Croissant (Sofa)
Mmmmm I want to eat a croissant sandwich then nap on the croissant. Lol
The coffee table looks like when my daughter was younger she would lick out all the inside of oreo cookies...
This Kiwi Looks Weird Though
Forbidden English Muffin
Nowadays the tops of english muffins don't look as good as this.
Just throw yourself out. Don't need people like you around
Load More Replies...Forbidden Rare Steak
I think it IS earth... some kind of reddish stone (quartz perhaps?)
Load More Replies...Forbidden Cinnamon Sugar Donut Hole
A Tim Hortons opened near me last week (Washington UK); the queue hasn't stopped!
Load More Replies...Landscaping Stone I Found That Looks Exactly Like A Hunk Of Crab Leg Meat
Rock hound club meeting always have a display of "food". I have a petrified ice cream sandwich, some crystal cauliflower, and a breakfast biscuit. My favourite looks just like a graham cracker.
Forbidden Cookie Dough. Who Thought This Was A Good Idea?
OMG I saw some of that at the shops the other day! They had multiple delicious-sounding flavours - who on earth thought that was a good idea?! Kids that age already stick things in their mouths that they shouldn't!
The same person who designed scented scissors and school glue.
Oh man, nearly forgot about scented scissors. Now I'm picturing some kid accidentally stabbing themselves in the face and saying "Yep, smells great!"
Load More Replies...This One Rock In The Entryway Of A House
I will admit that the bacon in England is superior. But this is what we have, and you have to admit that any bacon is better than no bacon.
Load More Replies...I hate you. I really don't hate you. I'm just jealous.
Load More Replies...one of the workers left part of their BLT on the floor when laying the floor!!
That's messing with me. Why on earth ! That's expensive stone and why even bother if you are going to do it like that? I mean flagstone, flagstone, bacon, flagstone,wait just a minute!! Lol
That would drive me crazy because it doesn't match anything else!
Load More Replies...Forbidden Loaf Of Bread
This just gets funnier when you know there's at least one speciality baker who makes buns shaped like corgi butts. I've seen pictures. :p
Forbidden Ground Beef
There's very little meat in these mop heads!
Load More Replies...Forbidden Ciabatta
Forbidden Seedless Strawberry Jelly (Violin Rosin)
I used to play the violin, and that stuff smells AMAZING. Not in an edible kind of way, though, of course. It's made from pine tree sap.
As a former musician, there is nothing better than a fresh round of rosin!
Although that makes it hurt more when you need to score it with a coin to make it adhere better
Load More Replies...my violin teacher told me to not lick it, i'll get diarrhea n stuff. guess who blocked the toilet for 3 days?
Forbidden Rice Noodle (The Inside Of My Inflatable Air Mattress)
Forbidden Potato Chips
All hail the only potato chip company that doesnt sell air, PRINGLES
In Germany many companies are using puffcorn made of cornmeal as packaging material. You can even eat it but you can definitely compost it
When I was little, I bit into a packing peanut. Worst decion I made for a long time.
Forbidden Mushroom Soup (Slugs Attracted With A Bowl Of Beer Overnight)
I will not google Rat Lungworm for fear of the image I'ill never be able to erase from my mind, but I believe you.
Load More Replies...Death: the only hangover cure that actually works.
Load More Replies...Forbidden Oreos (Adhesive Furniture Pads)
Forbidden Pez
Yeah, that's why they threw it away. Obviously, this is a PEZ-dumpster where the mistakes get dumped. Duh.
Load More Replies...Realgar (An Arsenic Sulfide Mineral) That Burns Bright Blue And Releases Toxic Fumes But Also Forbidden Candy
I'mma look this up on Wikipedia now! This sounds so cool that I'm kinda jealous...
Is it man-made or does it come out of the ground looking like this?
Forbidden Mango
We tricked my dad with a few sponges that we covered in icing and presented as a birthday cake.... we held our laughs in while he tried to cut the cake! Of course we did give him a real cake after. This just reminded me of that 😆
The kind that is cut up and sold on the streets in major cities. People typically add chili powder and lime. I just saw some earlier today in NYC.
Load More Replies...Forbidden Bread Buns
Questioning Why Someone Would Try To Sell These Cheetos At A Garage Sale
Forbidden Ice Cream Sandwich
Scent Beads Looking Like A Snack
With the number of your local emergency services on the side!
Load More Replies...Do the scent beads ever come mixed like that, or did the person mix the beads/scents? I've only ever seen them come on one color in a bottle.
Hold up you cant go around makin this kind of stuff look like candy. My dad used to take over the counter diabetes pills when his prescription wasnt coming for some reason, and they looked like straight up hot pink candy
Perfumed wax beads that coat your clothes/laundry with scent. They are also a bad migraine trigger for some people.
Load More Replies...I want to know where you can buy a bucket (like this) of scent beads!? I need this
Forbidden Gummy Lolly
Forbidden Brownie
As a barista, I worked with a girl who had previously worked at Starbucks and she said they'd sometimes put some whipped cream on an espresso puck and offer it to new hires as a prank! LOL!
This KitKat Bench
Makes me think of Homer in the land of chocolate. https://youtu.be/e3NoAq5hIZ4
And make sure you whack your head on the fire extinguisher when you sit down. That is a really bad place for it.
Forbidden Egg
Forbidden Orange Juice
And Old Mc Donald even pasteurized it too. Yum!
Load More Replies...Egg *product* ... and we have found reason #6,921,042 to never eat at McDonald's
Eggs+ milk+ oil+ salt, spices, coloring and preservatives ="liquid egg product". The name is def not the best, but it's still basically just eggs.
I don't get the carton of liquid egg, it takes two seconds to scramble an egg.
It's how they make fast food fast, those seconds add up if you're making hundreds of orders in the morning.
Load More Replies...Marshmallow Ball Pit
It better not be hard because I imagined helpy missing the ball pit and breaking his back again (fnaf joke if you know you know)
Forbidden Mints - Wulfenite With Mottramite From Ojuela Mine, Mexico
I Found A Candle That Looks Like A Bowl Of Cereal
They Repurposed Honey Bottles
We do this with practically everything in India. Old clothes are passed down till they’re tatters, then they become dust cloths then mops. Soda bottles are reused to store drinking water in refrigerators. “Single use” plastic bags are carefully folded, saved, and reused again and again till they tear. We repair everything, or sell it for scrap where the raw material is repurposed for something new. We have special dealers that go to every home for old books, paper, cardboard boxes etc and buy them to be recycled. We pass on our old fridges, washing machines, even vehicles to the needy or domestic staff. Nothing goes to waste, or at least didn’t till westernisation hit us in 1991. Even now though, if you visit immigrant Indians home, you’ll find plastic bags tucked away under the sink and cookie boxes in the fridge full of home cooked food. We Indians made reuse, reduce and recycle into an art form long before it became a hit in the West!
Load More Replies...Forbidden Dessert Slices
Our local festivals ALWAYS have a stall selling soaps in the shape of delicious slices, cakes and brownies (scented accordingly), and they're always right next to the stall selling fresh fudge, just to add to the confusion. I swear they do it on purpose.
Forbidden Roadside Cheesecake
Mmm, Forbidden Peanut Butter
My Roommate Cleaned Some Old Pool Balls And They Came Out Looking Like Jawbreakers
Forbidden Pringles
Forbidden Grapes (3D Print That Went Horribly Wrong)
I'd still keep it, paint some parts purple and call it a druun from Raya and the last dragon
Forbidden Snap Peas (Succulents)
Forbidden Gummy Worm
"Some day soon I vill be a beautiful butterfly, und zen everything vill be better! ...ooh, candy corn! Here, let me help you to finish it!"
Load More Replies...isn't that a Tomato Horn Worm? Why would you let that destroy your plants just to see how big it gets?
After some more googling, the hornworms being blue vs green actually depends on what they eat and I think ‘tobacco hornworm’ vs ‘tomato hornworm’ is just the name depending on the culture
Load More Replies...Tomato Horn-worm he could have wasp larva inside him. They would make him not be able to pupate. https://www.cleveland.com/insideout/2010/11/eggs_on_tomato_hornworms_are_r.html
This Rock My Son Found On Our Hike Looks Like A Potato
Forbidden Roast Beef Is Cooked To Perfection
Forbidden Bacon
Forbidden Taters
Po-tay-toes! Boil them, mash them, put them in a stew.
Load More Replies...Forbidden Chocolate Frog
Oh, so that's what happened to that one chocolate frog who escaped the Hogwarts Express...
Forbidden Salami
Forbidden Meringue
That one person who falls...that would be me. Add this to my list of places I can never visit.
Looks slippery, I can see someone sliding down the meringue mountain to the rocks below.
Forbidden Lettuce (Copper(II) Chloride Stained Paper Towel)
Forbidden Jam
Forbidden Poppy Seeds
Be careful! i got Lyme Disease and it f****d me something fierce.
Forbidden Fried Chicken
Didn't Realise It Was Forbidden Mints Until It Was In My Mouth
At least now you can say if you liked it or not, since you tried it! Lol
I Was Moments Away From Trying This ‘Yoghurt’ And Have A Smooth Organic Diarrhea In The Morning
Garnier has these hair masks that are incredible, and the banana one downright delicious. And while not to be ingested (even though 98% natural), the little regrettable lick tasted like banana smoothie for a few seconds. Made my hair look and feel fantastic!
How My Beer Matches This Floor Cleaner
To be fair, I had some beers (mostly IPAs) in my life that tasted just like a floor cleaner smells. And cost about 5 times as much as the floor cleaner.
Oh come on, they might be working together to clean but doing different tasks when she realized the floor cleaner looks like his drink.
Load More Replies...Only-Kinda-Forbidden Pomegranate (It’s Crab's Eggs)
If she had, she'd have to spend half a year with Poseidon.
Load More Replies...Forbidden Banana, Freshly Picked
Forbidden Street Apple Juice
They dont need to throw it out the truck window though. No excuse for not disposing if it properly.
Load More Replies...Mouse Mat Made With A Delicious Slice Of Bread
Forbidden Meatballs
Forbidden Ketchup
Gojo is for cleaning your hands when they're really greasy, like from working on cars. Usually it's this bright orange color, and orange scent (I guess the scent could also be described as bright orange, because it's a bit overbearing)
Load More Replies...Forbidden Sushi Rolls
Forbidden Chicken (Apricot Agate Stone)
Forbidden Lime Candy (A Rod Of Uranium Glass)
They are either in a glassblowing shop or at a place that makes the color, cuz I see jars of frit to the left
I would love to take a glassblowing class. It looks intimidating though.
Load More Replies...Forbidden Health Drink
Forbidden Chocolate
Forbidden Cola Gummies
Forbidden Whipped Cream
Forbidden Fruit Juices (Embalming Fluids)
I never knew what to imagine embalming fluid like, but it was not these party-cocktail bottles.
Metaflow Arterial Conditioner... :| It's like a dystopian beauty product from one of the old RoboCop infomercials...
Forbidden Spice Selection
It Doesn’t Get More “Forbidden” Than This
Thankfully, it isn’t poisonous. Calcium carbonate is chalk, which is edible. Tums are mainly calcium carbonate, so as long as they don’t eat too much, they should be alright.
Load More Replies...When my niece was in the UK she brought back these really great candies. They looked like sidewalk chalk sticks. They were so good. When I finished mine I noticed my sister had put hers on top the frig to save. I grabbed one and took a bite. It was a sidewalk chalk stick. 🤦🏼♀️
Forbidden Guacamole
Doesn’t look like guac to me! Thank god! But maybe some of that jello food they use to make in the 50’s 60’s 70’s?
Forbidden Caramels Keep Tempting Me
Forbidden Strawberry Smoothie (Bone Marrow)
My Plant Looks Like A Leaf
Forbidden Sponge Cake
Laundry Candies (Aka Gain Scent Boosters)
Great way to poison the planet, unregulated factory made scents sometimes carcinogenic.
Load More Replies...Or Delicious Grapes?
Forbidden Cheeseburger
Went To Make A Margarita Today And The Items On The Stove Made Me Do A Double Take
Forbidden Salmon (Banded Carnelian)
Forbidden Garlic Bread (Citrine Gemstone)
Forbidden Scrambled Eggs
Forbidden Steak
Forget Rock Cakes, Try This Crunchy Rock Sandwich I Found On The Beach Earlier
Forbidden Tiny Carrots
Forbidden Grapes
Found Some Forbidden Grapes Growing In The Pet Department At Walmart
Forbidden Cookie Crisps
It's leca, a type of soilless substrate for houseplants
Load More Replies...Milwaukee-Style Tic-Tacs. They Taste Horrible
A Hedgehog Without Quills Looks Like A Potato
https://www.boredpanda.com/bold-spikeless-hedgehog-massages-nelson/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic Four years ago. "We will likely never know what caused him to lose his hair and spikes"
Load More Replies...I want this thing!! I use to have a hairless chihuahua that looked a lot like this
This Table Looks Like A Piece Of Meat
This Japanese Food Truck Made Their Propane Tank Look Like A Big Bottle Of Sriracha
I’ll Take One Pulled Pork Sandwich
Forbidden Muffin
Forbidden Gummys
We used to get these in our pet shop. They’re called pinkies. We fed them to our snakes.
Forbidden Oreo Cake (Dry Cell Lead Acid Battery)
Forbidden Rice Krispies
Forbidden Gecko Gummy
Forbidden Pork Slices
Forbidden Hamburger Mince
We need a post for the opposite, things that ARE edible, but really look like they aren't, like chocolate pebbles
I LOVE "forbidden food" posts. In fact the first post on BP I ever enjoyed was a forbidden foods selection platter. :p
Technically, everything here is edible, but it doesn't mean you want to eat it...
I had a chip that had a few pieces broken off, but in reality, it was bigger than any chip I've seen! 20210731_1...14f619.jpg
If your reading this I hope you have a great day and know. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV
We need a post for the opposite, things that ARE edible, but really look like they aren't, like chocolate pebbles
I LOVE "forbidden food" posts. In fact the first post on BP I ever enjoyed was a forbidden foods selection platter. :p
Technically, everything here is edible, but it doesn't mean you want to eat it...
I had a chip that had a few pieces broken off, but in reality, it was bigger than any chip I've seen! 20210731_1...14f619.jpg
If your reading this I hope you have a great day and know. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV
