the omnivore’s hundred
The kitchen has been full of repeats the last few days, with some (much prettier) sweet dough cinnamon rolls making an appearance and 2 more loaves of cheddar potato bread. Along with the cinnamon rolls I made some bacon pastry slices modeled after a croque monsieur, but I may have eaten all of them before any photos were taken.
Tomorrow my angel food pan
For tonight, my blog contribution consists of the Omnivore’s Hundred, a list of one hundred foods every good omnivore should try at least once in their life. Created by Andrew Wheeler of Very Good Taste, and as seen on Chocolate and Zucchini :
To participate
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 at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
Andrew has also published a FAQ answering some of the more obvious questions that come up from seeing this list.
The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding – I’m counting blood tofu as satisfying this requirement
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart - impossible to live in NYC and not
16. Epoisses – cheese shops are a lot of fun
17. Black truffle – only the US “false” truffle so far
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes – tastes like what I remember tomatoes tasting like when I was a child.
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese - tried it for the first time a few weeks ago. Quite good. Reminds me of certain Chinese sausages.
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 Not a smoker. Never will be.
37. Clotted cream tea – Scones with clotted cream and jam, yes, but not with tea.
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O Shots
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects – not intentionally, as far as I can remember, but my mother may tell a different story.
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk – goat’s milk yogurt is quite good. Sheep’s milk yogurt, on the other hand, is distinctly…rustic? pastoral? agrarian? Strongly evocative of farms, in the worst possible way.
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu – soon, I hope
48. Eel – purchased live from a street vendor in China. And also in sushi, but that’s more boring.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut – meh. Mine are better.
50. Sea urchin – One day I will try this again with good quality sea urchin, as the one I had was quite vile.
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone – the texture is not unlike biting down on a thin piece of balsa wood. Very odd.
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV – I initially skipped this, but Chimay apparently qualifies.
59. Poutine – Not for lack of trying. I’ve ordered it at a restaurant only to have it not brought out.
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin – bwuh?
64. Currywurst
65. Durian – not as bad as advertised. The Boyfriend finds it quite objectionable, but I think he’s just being dramatic.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake – all of the above
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe – I’ve had absinthe, but only in cocktail form.
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill - I can imagine a few scenarios that might change my mind, but it’s not very likely.
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 – *sob*
85. Kobe beef – Only beef called Kobe but is technically Kobe-style Wagyu.
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 – it took a recent trip to Rivera for me to see the light on mole.
96. Bagel and lox
98. Polenta - I’m especially fond of the Thomas Keller way: cook off the water and replace with butter and cream.
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake – not particularly special except for the foodie cred.
If I counted correctly, that’s 74 tried, 24 to be tried, and 2 items that will never make the list. A few items I had to really think hard about, and it’s a mystery how I managed to avoid ever having a single Jello shot. That said, for the most part my policy is that for the most part, I’ll try anything once. Many of the more exotic items on the list appeared so long ago in my past that I forgot several at first pass.
My personal additions to the list:
101. Jamon Iberico - sweet, nutty, and melt-in-your-mouth amazing. I would eat this every day if I won the lottery.
102-104. Tripe. Tongue. Trotters. – all delicious. The Boyfriend was not amused when I made trotters. At all.
105. Marrow – fat is flavor
106. Wild mushrooms – of course, I’m biased on this of late
107. Huitlacoche - humorous link aside, I find the premise interesting and a recent mention by Rick Bayless pushed me over the edge into wanting to try it for myself.
108. Natto – also appears in a Steve Don’t Eat It! segment. I’m curious to see how it compares with Stinky Tofu.
109. Bitter Melon – I knew I was a real grown up the day I ordered this at a restaurant and enjoyed eating it. When I was a kid, it was the worst kind of culinary torture. I won’t drink espresso and I avoided dark chocolate for the longest time, but bitter melon I’ll eat.
What food needs to be at 110?
Full feed
uh duh, 110 – lutefisk.
What about hákarl? o_O