Spain Has a Taste for Immortality

The Great Barrier Reef and the Taj Mahal may have to make room on the UN's World Heritage list for ... sangria. Spain's culture minister wants Mediterranean cuisine added to UNESCO's list of humankind's treasures, and he may get his way, Der Spiegel reports—Portugal, which currently holds the EU presidency, supports the idea.

One skeptic is Germany's agriculture minister, a fan of Bavarian pig knuckle, which can only aspire to Spain's description of the Mediterranean diet: "rich, varied, balanced, healthy and delicious." The decision-makers, UN officials who decide issues of "intangible heritage," are the ones with the power to put gazpacho on a cultural par with African pygmy dances and Mexican death rituals. (More cuisine stories.)