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Here’s a fun little food exercise. Andrew at Very Good Taste, an English food blog, posted a list of one hundred things every omnivore should eat or drink, asking bloggers across the world to post the list, annotating it with the items they’ve had and crossing out the ones they’d never, ever try. There’s an even an FAQ about the list, which answers some basic questions about how it came about. So without further ado, here’s the list:
The Very Good Taste Ominvore’s 100
- Venison
- Nettle tea
- Huevos rancheros
- Steak tartare
- Crocodile
- Black pudding
- Cheese fondue
- Carp
- Borscht
- Baba ghanoush
- Calamari
- Pho
- Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich
- Aloo gobi
- Hot dog from a street cart
- Epoisses
- Black truffle
- Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
- Steamed pork buns
- Pistachio ice cream
- Heirloom tomatoes
- Fresh wild berries
- Foie gras
- Rice and beans
- Brawn, or head cheese
- Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
- Dulce de leche
- Oysters
- Baklava
- Bagna cauda
- Wasabi peas
- Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
- Salted lassi
- Sauerkraut
- Root beer float
- Cognac with a fat cigar
- Clotted cream tea
- Vodka jelly/Jell-O
- Gumbo
- Oxtail
- Curried goat
- Whole insects
- Phaal
- Goat’s milk
- Malt whisky from a bottle worth $60/$120 or more
- Fugu
- Chicken tikka masala
- Eel
- Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
- Sea urchin
- Prickly pear
- Umeboshi
- Abalone
- Paneer
- McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
- Spaetzle
- Dirty gin martini
- Beer above 8% ABV
- Poutine
- Carob chips
- S’mores
- Sweetbreads
- Kaolin
- Currywurst
- Durian
- Frogs’ legs
- Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
- Haggis
- Fried plantain
- Chitterlings, or andouillette
- Gazpacho
- Caviar and blini
- Louche absinthe
- Gjetost, or brunost
- Roadkill
- Baijiu
- Hostess Fruit Pie
- Snail
- Lapsang souchong
- Bellini
- Tom yum
- Eggs Benedict
- Pocky
- Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
- Kobe beef
- Hare
- Goulash
- Flowers
- Horse
- Criollo chocolate
- Spam
- Soft shell crab
- Rose harissa
- Catfish
- Mole poblano
- Bagel and lox
- Lobster Thermidor
- Polenta
- Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
- Snake
I did a lot better than I expected I would, with 63 already tried, not counting any that I’m not entirely sure what the are. Case in point, I originally left off epoisses. My friend and colleague, Stephen Beaumont, however, reminded me that he actually brought us some of that cheese when my wife Sarah was pregnant with Alice. You can read his own account of the list on his On the House blog.
How many have you tried?
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
48. Must try harder.
As Harmony stated in her comment at VGT, I never realized how many strange things I’ve eaten until I did this exercise. Got 87 in total, with two qualifications. http://onthehouse.typepad.com/on_the_house/2008/10/a-fun-food-exer.html
100/100 - epicurean parents, and travel does that.
Spam, was school dinners. I am suprised, no Boar. And, Andouiettes are now a great experience, whilst fried catfish in Alabama was a great experience. Real Jamaican coffee, why not Kopi Luak? and no Balut?
You’ve never had a clotted cream tea? Fly back over here immediately, and I’ll whip you down to Cornwall, where they put clotted cream on their ice-cream (your arteries start to clog up just looking at it …)
I’ve had 60 on that list, and a few other odd things besides - brains (by mistake, in a restaurant in Florence; emu; human milk (don’t ask …)
67. Thanks for giving me something to shoot for!
59 - not bad for being a vegetarian for 22 years…in the “by mistake” category I’d like to add pigeon, and no it wasn’t on the streets of San Francisco.
Damn…only 58. I’m chagrined to see at least 20 on my “yet to taste” list that have been a matter of lack of opportunity, things I’ve wanted to try for a while. Must get out more.
66 for me. I’m an adventurous eater, but I don’t think I’m ever going to eat roadkill. Who eats road kill?
My roadkill adventure happened when I was a kid. My family visited a cousin of my stepfather’s for dinner. Halfway into our meal, our host announced that we were eating Squirrel Pot Pie, and that the main ingredient had been indeed found on the side of the road. My mother whisked us out of there, I never saw that particular relative again. But every experience has an upside, I guess, and now I can tick off roadkill as something I’ve eaten.
I assumed alligator would be equivalent to crocodile. And, would prickly pear ale (from defunct Austin brewpub Bitter End) count for prickly pear? Sadly only 38 (39 if the prickly pear ale counts.) Not really surprising as I’ve been a notoriously picky eater most of my life (just ask my family.) I suspect I’ve had some of the others at various events without knowing what they were.
If I’d know have known when you were here, I could have easily supplied you with #79 Lapsang souchong (a smokey chinese tea) and #37 Clotted cream tea (don’t let the “clotting” put you off.) Also, #54 Paneer (Indian cheese, a bit like very firm tofu) and #14 Aloo Gobi (Potato and Cauliflower) would have been easy to come by, though I seem to recall you don’t like Indian food.
I did better than I expected as well with 57.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know I “needed” to try those to eat those items when I was over your way last week. If I had, it would have been feast day. It’s true I don’t usually like Indian food, but i the interest of science (or whatever you’d call it) I would have given it a try. Thanks, Keith, for the offer.