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?