1. Vanilla Ice Cream & Fried Onion
I discovered this magical combination at my favorite place in the whole wide world, aka IKEA. I would always go early morning and around lunch time buy a hot dog and drizzle it in ketchup, mustard, relish, and fried onion bits. One day I ordered a vanilla cone afterwards and without thinking much, topped it with the onion bits that had fallen into my tray. The sweet refreshing taste of the vanilla went perfectly well with the crunchy saltiness of the onions. Ever since then that has been my favorite combo to eat at IKEA, no matter how many weird stares I get from other shoppers. #Vanillaonion (← Forcefully trying to make it a thing so I won't feel solitude at IKEA.)
2. Avocado & Olive Oil
As a healthy snack my mom would often cut an avocado in half, take out the pit, fill it will olive oil, and then sprinkle a pinch of good sea salt on top. I would then dig in like a hungry bear with a mini dessert spoon. It's amazing that something so simple can make avocado seem like it deserves to be the appetizer in a fancy French restaurant.
Also, among the Japanese, wasabi and soy sauce is a popular combination for those who want to feel like they're eating raw fatty tuna for half the price. Top it on rice and you got yourself a wannabe maguro donburi (tuna rice bowl).
3. Milk & Ramen
Milk used to be my absolute favorite beverage in the entire galaxy, until the age of 14 when dad converted me into an iced tea addict. This meant I would drink milk with every single meal I had, and I would ask for milk even in the most unseeming of restaurants, like curry or sushi places. My parents found it particularly disgusting how they would make ramen for me and I would drink milk with it, but in my opinion, one simply could not do better. I'm not sure if I'll actually like it or throw up now if I tried that combo, but the rather recent emergence of milk-soup ramen leads me to believe that my young self was actually a pioneer in the ramen world. And apparently it's healthy.
Bonus: Cocktails
Mexico, where I live, is no stranger to some exotic cocktails, perhaps most famously the michelada, which according to one waiter I asked, is a mixture of your beer of choice with Tabasco, lime juice, salt, and Worcestershire (Maggi) sauce. Sadly I'm the only foreigner I know that loves it but something about the tangy, spicy taste mixed with the fizzy bitterness of beer makes my taste buds leap in joy.
A slightly more exotic version would be with Clamato, a brand of special tomato juice flavored with spices and...... clam juice. It sounds slightly repulsive but it's so refreshing it'll blow your mind.
Add some shrimp and you got yourself the fanciest appetizer ever.
However, my absolute favorite concoction that I discovered after coming to Mexico is hands down the Carajillo - or as I like to call it, drunken coffee. While the recipe varies by location, here carajillo is espresso mixed in a shaker with ice and Licor 43, made, you guessed it, with 43 types of different herbs. The mature sweet taste of the liquor goes astonishingly well with the bitter strong taste of coffee, leading you to feel 50% alert, 50% sleepy, and 100% happy afterwards.
I don't know how commonly Licor 43 is sold in other parts of the world, but if you like coffee and rum-like liquors, I highly recommend you give it a try.