The Omnivore’s Hundred

I just came across something fun, sort of a game for food bloggers. It’s a list, put together by Andrew from Very Good Taste, of 100 things he thinks “every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life.” It’s not meant to be a list of the world’s best foods; it includes strange stuff like whole insects. It’s just Andrew’s personal idea of the variety of foods that should be tried at least once during a lifetime. He calls his list The Omnivore’s Hundred, and I found it via Chocolate and Zucchini.

Anyway, here are his rules for the game:

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.

Note: If you want to do this on your blog, I suggest you copy the list from the source code. That way you’ll get all the links Andrew has thoughtfully included to make it easy to look up any unfamiliar items.

The bolded items are the ones I’ve had. The crossed-out ones I probably wouldn’t try.

1. Venison(It was in third grade and I don’t remember what it tasted like.)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros(An old favorite I was just reminded about at I’m running to eat.)
4. Steak tartare(Yum! Although I prefer carpaccio if I’m going to eat raw beef.)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding(I’ve read about this, and really want to try it!)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht(Blech! I hate beets!)
10. Baba ghanoush(Very good, although I prefer Melitzanosalata.)
11. Calamari(My recipes: Fried Calamari and Calamari cooked in wine.)
12. Pho(Soon! Soon!)
13. PB&J sandwich(Even as a kid I preferred peanut butter and butter, no jam.)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle (Heavenly!)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes(Critters got more of them than I did, though.)
22. Fresh wild berries(Berry picking! I miss it!)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper(But I wouldn’t try a whole one, just a little piece!)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas(Not interested in this combo, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try it.)
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/Jell-O (Wow! What a thought!)
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(I’m not a risk taker.)
47. Chicken tikka masala(I’ve got a recipe I’ve been meaning to try.)
48. Eel(So far only on sushi.)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin(On sushi, and I didn’t care for it. Haven’t tried it Greek-style.)
51. Prickly pear(Does he mean the green paddles or the fruit? I haven’t had the fruit.)
52. Umeboshi(Just last week!)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini(A favorite of mine, but too strong to indulge in very often.)
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips(Chips?)
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian(Of course he just had to include this!)
66. Frogs’ legs(I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis(This one’s been on my to-try list for a long time.)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho(For some reason I just don’t like it. I want to try “White Gazpacho” sometime though.)
72. Caviar and blini(Sadly, caviar is rather wasted on me. Too fishy tasting for me.)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie(As a child.)
78. Snail(Find out how to harvest your own!)
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict(An old favorite and the reason I learned to make hollandaise sauce as a teenager.)
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(Best I ever had was fried and served with watermelon pickle.)
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano(Yum!)
96. Bagel and lox(Not without cream cheese though.)
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee(Seemed overpriced and overrated to me.)
100. Snake

Conclusions:

1. I have lots of new tastes ahead of me.
2. I’ll try practically any food. My only strikethroughs were the cigar in #36, the liquor absinthe in #73, and the sometimes-fatally-poisonous fish in #46.