When it comes to selling food, simply saying your dish is delicious just doesn’t cut the mustard. Everyone thinks their food is delicious. So, restaurateurs will tag on modifiers that sound impressive but don’t have a lot of meaning: Their signature entrée. Their gourmet hamburger. Their world-famous dish.

However, that last one does have a real definition: well-known around the world. But, really, beyond McDonald’s, there aren’t many restaurants that are genuinely globally known, are there? We contacted seven restaurants in San Diego and asked them to explain how world-famous their creations really are.

“All fermentation is a form of pickling, but not all pickling is fermentation,” says Austin Durant as he takes me on a tour of his various projects. By “tour,” I mean he sets down several jars of fermented goodies and I happily sample them all. From a smooth Finnish yogurt called viili to a complex, delicious kimchi lacking the monotonous sourness of its store-bought counterpart, I become more and more taken by the power of yeast and bacteria.