musings.schelley.org

The latest trend to hit food blogs: a 100 list of food, detailing what you have eaten, what you haven't eaten and what you won't eat. This seems to have originated from Very Good Taste (a blog that I don't read), but I found it here, at Another Glass of Champagne Please.

Here are the rules:

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. (These are italicized, mainly because I don't have the crossout feature in the blogging tool I'm using.)
4) Optional extra: Post a comment linking to your results.

Here we go. I've added comments to each one.

1. Venison: I remember eating freshly killed venison chicken fried steak style. A few years ago at Boulevard, Nilay, Carrie, Emil and I feasted on venison carpaccio.
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros: I lived in the Bay Area until 2 1/2 years ago. I adore!
4. Steak tartare: I love. Huge thanks to Bryan for introducing me to this one.
5. Crocodile: Does alligator count? If it does, than it's a yes.
6. Black pudding. Every morning for breakfast in Ireland when I was there in May. Delicious.
7. Cheese fondue. Fondue is an Olhava Christmas Eve tradition, and once Ed and I reached cooking maturity, it became all about the cheese fondue. One of the things that I miss about family holidays.
8. Carp
9. Borscht. I lived in St. Petersburg for a summer. I love beets. One of my favorite meals ever, at a monastery, involved borscht and pelmeni (Russian style ravioli)
10. Baba ghanoush. Mashed up eggplant with garlic, lemon and tahini. What is not to love?
11. Calamari. The fried tentacles are my favorites.
12. Pho. Someday, I'll learn to make proper pho.
13. PB&J sandwich. Um, duh. I'm a white girl from the suburbs.
14. Aloo gobi.
15. Hot dog from a street cart.. In NYC. And at the ball park.
16. Epoisses. I had to look this one up - it's unpasteurized cow's milk cheese. And it's delicious, or at least the unpasteurized version, as I live in a country that is mortally afraid of any sort of germ.
17. Black truffle. Absolutely any chance. In the meantime, I have truffle salt to augment everything.
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes. Rhubarb wine. Not that great.
19. Steamed pork buns. Mmmm...
20. Pistachio ice cream. Maybe as a child, but I really can't remember.
21. Heirloom tomatoes. Of course!
22. Fresh wild berries. During my first Seattle summer, I picked them off the side of the street while walking home from the gym. Then someone pointed out that they probably weren't very good for me, considering the exhaust from the freeway a few feet away. And of course, Grandma Luttrell would pick buckets of berries by the creek when I was a child.
23. Foie gras . At almost every opportunity.
24. Rice and beans. One of my favorite Mexican food staples.
25. Brawn, or head cheese. I honestly don't know. I did slice it when I spent two summers working at the Vallergas deli.
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper. No - that stuff is HOT. As in, wear plastic gloves when cutting. No way it's going in my mouth.
27. Dulce de leche. Mmmmmm...
28. Oysters. Any opportunity.
29. Baklava . Delicious. About a year ago, someone at work brought in the Turkish variety. I fell in love all over again. Honey: human's original sugar.
30. Bagna cauda. I also had to look this up. Sounds delicious, but not yet. It's on my list.
31. Wasabi peas. I wonder how many cocktail sized bowls I ate in Dublin at the Westbury with my Guinness?
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl. The San Francisco tradition.
33. Salted lassi.
34. Sauerkraut. I'm Polish, of course I adore sauerkraut.
35. Root beer float.
36. Cognac with a fat cigar. Does this count if you've had each, but separately?
37. Clotted cream tea. I'm assuming that this refers to the traditional English tea, and yes. Most memorable: the Pump Room at Bath.
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O. Thanks to Kanaka, every year at Big Game.
39. Gumbo.
40. Oxtail. I love oxtail. Quinn's does an exceptional job. Some day, I'll be brave enough to cook it at home (the recipe from Like Water for Chocolate has ALWAYS tempted me)
41. Curried goat. Surprisingly, no.
42. Whole insects. Unless I didn't know.
43. Phaal. I'm going to italicize this one. I think I had it with Nilay and Jai in Bath, but am not quite sure.
44. Goat’s milk. I just ate Goat's milk cheese last night!
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more. Maybe when tasting at the Jameson distillery, but no. I have a whiskey drinking partner at work, and am thinking it's time to start dropping some hints.
46. Fugu. Almost an italic, but I've heard it's an amazing culinary experience.
47. Chicken tikka masala . I consider this dish Indian for beginners. It's actually not really Indian, the British invented it, and now it vies with fish and chips as the #1 dish in England.
48. Eel. Sushi staple. And some delicious eel at Quinn's a few weeks ago.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin. Had it, hated it.
51. Prickly pear. Not a prickly pear, but does the syrup that Richard uses to make me margaritas count?
52. Umeboshi. No, but I want to try these Japanese pickled fruits.
53. Abalone. A great thing about living near the California coast. I remember eating growing up.
54. Paneer. Mmmm..saag paneer.
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal. Once, when I was in high school, because I had a coupon. I don't remember how it tastes, and doubt I'll ever have another one as I hate almost everything that McDonald's stands for.
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini. I'm going to say vodka counts as I rarely drink gin.
58. Beer above 8% ABV. Did you really think I wouldn't bold this one?
59. Poutine. Featured on Smith's menu. A Canadian dish combining fries, gravy and curds, baked into delicious goodness. (Smith does a similar dish, also with demi glace and if you're especially decadent, foie gras.)
60. Carob chips. Nature's chocolate, to quote Kitty Forman.
61. S’mores. It would be more often if I did nature activities, like camping. I also make a killer S'mores ice cream cake.
62. Sweetbreads. I'm thinking menudo counts. And I have a feeling that I've had sweetbreads, just don't know where. Sweetbreads were a standard menu item at the Napa Valley Inn, my family's favorite restaurant growing up, where we had a waitress who knew us, knew our drink orders and our food preferences.
63. Kaolin. It's clay and mud, sometimes mixed in with food. No, although if the apocalypse hits, then maybe I'll revisit.
64. Currywurst
65. Durian. Never eaten, but want to try. Must remember next time I'm at an Asian market.
66. Frogs’ legs. Amazingly, I've never eaten. Someday.
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake. Beignets in New Orleans. Churros at a fair. Yummy sugary goodness.
68. Haggis. I ate every morning for breakfast in Scotland. Delicious. When seasoned properly, organ meat is some of the best stuff for you.
69. Fried plantain. Interesting that I despise bananas (practically made a co-worker leave a conference room to finish eating her banana a few weeks ago), but prepared properly, I think plantains are lovely. Especially the ones that I ate with almost every single meal in Panama.
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette. Pork intestines. I don't think so, but they sound delicious.
71. Gazpacho. This reminds me - it's August and time to make gazpacho.
72. Caviar and blini. Mmmm...ultimate decadence, particularly with some good champagne or vodka.
73. Louche absinthe. Can I tell you how excited I am that absinthe is now legal in the U.S.?
74. Gjetost, or brunost. Oh yeah, baby. Stinky cheese.
75. Roadkill. I'm fairly certain I ate cat the summer I lived in Russia. Kittens played in the restaurant we frequented, and then one day, they were gone...and we had a lot of meat in our stew.
76. Baijiu. Not yet, although it sounds quite similar to shoju, a bottle of which I have in my liquor cabinet waiting for me to crack open.
77. Hostess Fruit Pie . I can honestly say I have never had one. And I probably never well - the hostess fruit pie goes against all of my non-processed food rules.
78. Snail. It tastes like steak, with garlic and butter
79. Lapsang souchong. Can't get past the smell.
80. Bellini. The only reason this is a no is because I absolutely hate peaches (Parents, never, ever force your children to eat food they find disgusting. Trust me, it will scar them in ways you never imagined). But every other sort of champagne and juice combination is loved, including the standard mimosa, the poinsetta (cranberry and champagne) and pomegranate juice and champagne.
81. Tom yum. Thai. Yum, indeed.
82. Eggs Benedict. A staple at Venus Cafe.
83. Pocky.
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. The French Laundry! I'm surprised De Kas isn't the Michellin list.
85. Kobe beef. So delicious.
86. Hare. For some reason, I'm thinking rabbit does not count.
87. Goulash
88. Flowers. Edible ones are delicious, on drinks, in salads...
89. Horse. I'm conflicted. I've heard that horse fat makes the best french fries ever, but not sure I can eat Flicka's friend, even though they do scare me.
90. Criollo chocolate. I'm not exactly sure what kind of chocolate this is, but considering the amount of chocolate I've consumed in 35 years, I have had to had this.
91. Spam. I ate fried up as a kid. Not such a big fan as an adult, but admit that I love it as musubi (Hawaiian way on rice)
92. Soft shell crab. Mostly, in spider roles.
93. Rose harissa. In Morocco, a few years ago.
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano. Mmmm...mole...
96. Bagel and lox.
97. Lobster Thermidor. I believe I have, maybe at the French Laundry (or at least a variant).
98. Polenta. A staple in my house.
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. Not yet.
100. Snake. I may have, in Hawaii when I was 17. But I don't know.

Twenty items that I haven't tried. Two that I won't eat. Not as impressive as I would have thought, but gives me some culinary goals.

A few things are missing from this list: brains (no, but want to try); kim chee (Korean pickled cabbage, absolutely delicious); raw quail eggs (excellent on sushi); squid ink (deep and dark flavor, reflective of the color); red beans (as in the Asian dessert variety); marrow; a Twinkie; pickled lemon; pickled herring ... do you have any others?

Sitting an extra day on this post gave me some time to think. My first thoughts were around the completeness of this list - it seems to be a bit heavy on the Western food experience, and really, not that obscure or exotic. Come on, who hasn't tried chicken tikka masala? And where are some of the more obscure Indian and Asian dishes?

But then, it occurred to me, for many people, this food list is exotic. Even though I think chicken tikka masala is beginner's Indian, a lot of people probably would never try it. It contains odd spices, it's not American, it, and so many others on this list, push the boundaries of what we consider "normal" or "acceptable". I forget that not everyone shares my attitude of "try everything". Or find out ingredients and immediately hate a dish because it contains something they think they don't like. Or live in a geographic area where Olive Garden is the epitomy of good Italian food.

I guess acceptable food is in the eye of the beholder. But really, people's unwillingness to try the unfamiliar kills me.