Food meme

[desperance]

This is from Andrew Wheeler's "Very Good Taste" blog, though I actually picked it up via cherylmmorgan and suricattus.

Andrew says:

Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.


The odder ones did originally come with Wikipedia links, but those have got lost en route and I'm sorry, I'm not going to reinstate them.


1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16.Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

At a rough count, that's twenty-eight that I haven't tried, including only three that I really don't want to. Twenty-five to track down, then... (And yes, I know, some of them would be easy. That I haven't consciously eaten pistachio ice cream by the age of nearly-fifty is a fair demonstration of the fact that I don't actually like ice cream, but I am prepared to eat it if it comes my way.)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

How did you escape wasabi peas while visiting us? The marquis must have been asleep.... You will just have to come back: we love wasabi peas in this house and make everyone eat them. (Apparently a certain famous Derbyshire-based novelist still hasn't forgiven us for addicting her beloved to them.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay - an excuse to come back!

(There are novelists in Derbyshire? Apparently we get everywhere...)

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I was about to offer to mail some, if only for the report on Mac's reaction after he ate one.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. And you do just know that he would.

I'll take photos...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

don't actually like ice cream

I know what all of these words mean separately....

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. I know, it is a weirdness. Actually, it's more like a Position, that I adopted a long time back and cannot now resile from.

Essentially, my argument is that just as food can be too hot to taste properly, so it can be too cold; and ice cream is too cold by definition. I'd rather have a warm or a cool dessert, where all the flavours are accessible.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I would recommend that you reconsider your dislike of s'mores. It is, indeed, a too-sweet treat for adult tastes at most times. But there is no better way to end a long day spent hiking or on the water, than s'mores made at the campfire with friends. (Along with passing a bottle of schnapps....)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've reconsidered. My initial position was informed by (a) a lifelong dislike of marshmallow, and (b) an equally lifelong dislike of camping (they go hand in hand, these two, and are absolutely epitomised by the conjunction, the toasting of marshmallows over a campfire: discomfort and distaste, both at once...).

However, if I ever find myself confronted by s'mores, in whatever circumstance, I promise I will try the things.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Good dark chocolate helps a lot.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Good dark chocolate helps everything, I think?

*tries to think of something unaided by good dark chocolate*

*fails*

Yup, I was right.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I don't see how being "a good omnivore," in the sense of trying to eat food that is not appealing of itself, can be a worthwhile goal. Or even a sensible one. Obviously, they're not talking about being "an omnivore," as the usual human default (not vegetarian, not keeping kosher, not protecting oneself from allergies) in parallel with related ways of being "good" (courtesy to grocers and fellow shoppers, tipping waiters, offering friends food they enjoy.)

[julesjones]

And of course, for some of us, some of those items are completely pointless. I'm a supertaster. I *have* tasted a tiny quantity of a spirit that cost over sixty quid a bottle (though it was a cognac rather than a whiskey), but really, what's the point of wasting a fine spirit on someone who is physically incapable of tasting what makes it worth that much? And raw Scotch Bonnet is nothing but masochism when you think that it is utterly obvious that the cook didn't properly wash the wooden spoon between using it in the chili and using it to stir the chili-free dish. From my perspective, that list looks like a dick-size competition.

[anef.livejournal.com]

That's...a very odd list. And quite American? (No deep fried Mars bars, I note, nor haggis pakora)

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend salmiakki as a lovely drink. Last time I had any was at the Glasgow SF World Convention, during the Finnish room party, and it brought back fond memories of Finland. That and laaka are two reasons Finland could turn me, if not into an alcoholic, at least into someone a lot more alcohol-greedy than I actually am.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Brr - liquorice! Which has the almost-unique distinction of being something that I still don't believe I like. Most of those distastes-from-childhood I have outgrown or otherwise overcome, but liquorice remains.

Perhaps a trip to Finland is what I need, to tackle it in situ?

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Well, the vodka might help you to enjoy the liquorice. I know it was the other way round for me. Liquorice and OJ are the only things I can drink it with. Otherwise, the first aid smell just turns me off.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Feeling a little bemused at the overlap, or lack thereof, in our lists.

Pistachio ice cream is green, or at least it was when I was a kid and loved it.
Clam chowder (the white kind) in sourdough bowl must be a regional specialty to both "coasts"
No root beer float??? On a hot summer's day, nothing better.
... agree with you on malt whiskey, single or other, but alcohol isn't my thing
... ditto on Krispy Kremes. Save the calories for something worth while
Prickly pear (nopales) can be wonderful, but not trustworthy when prepared by gringos. All those thorns, y'know.
Carob chips are "why worth the effort when you can have chocolate?"
Pocky is... not my thing, either. Definitely a fad with the kids.
Flowers -- nasturtiums in salad, lovely. Or stuffed squash blossoms.
Catfish is firm enough to do many wonderful things with, like dredge with cajun spices. Farmed properly, it's a sustainable fish.
I have to admit it, I have eaten horse. And me a true horse-lover. Back in my deeply-impoverished student days. It's very like venison. Now I don't eat red meat at all. I wonder if there's a connection?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure we had pistachio ice cream when I was a kid - it was mostly white, brown or pink - and I haven't really eaten ice cream since.

I've made clam chowder, but not in a sourdough bowl; the only time I tried anything similar, it was actually borscht in a bread roll that I'd hollowed out and baked in the oven, which immediately soaked up all the liquid in the borscht...

It may be possible to get root beer over here, but I don't believe I've ever seen it; certainly never drunk it. Don't know what you float in it.

Malt whisky I love; I've just never had a really expensive one.

I'm fairly sure I can get prickly pear, but the Asian store up the road has so many curious vegetables, I need a guide...

Carob chips and pocky - well, I 'spect I will sometime, when someone offers them to me. I'm not going in search.

Flowers - I will, quite happily, I just never have. Nasturtium leaves, yes, but - oh, wait! You're right! Courgette (zucchini) flowers! Of course I have...!

Catfish: never met it.

Horse: ditto (as far as I know; there are of course always rumours about the contents of certain pies, etc).

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Ate horse when young. Younger. ^_______^

There were butcher shops in France which specialized in horse meat. Don't think there are, anymore. Vague memories of tough meat, a bit stringy, not so good.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Ice cream is the floating part of any float drink--it's a species of ice cream soda, except that, instead of pouring the soda over the ice cream, you pour the soda and then gently deposit the ice cream into it. Of course, if you don't like either item, you're in difficulties there. I do wonder how something like lemon sherbet (or, if you want to move up the scale) any of several diferent corbets) would be in ginger beer, preferably not the really heavy, molasses-tending sort.

Of course, the ice cream part slides into meltyness as a result of contact with the soft drink.

If the roll/small loaf is fresh and not toasted, it doesn't soak up the liquid in the soup quite so fast, in my experience. The presence of dairy and potatoes in the chowder may also slow things down a bit.

Catfish is fairly bland, with a firm texture--you can do a lot of things to it because the flavor, expecially with farmred fish, isn't pronounced.