[Sca-cooks] The Omnivore's Hundred

[Lilinah]

>The Omnivore's Hundred is a list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler
>thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.
>
>The rules of the meme:
>bold those you have tried
>strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet.

i'm just adding "won't"

>2a) Italicize any item you'll never eat again.
>2b) Asterisk any items you'd be interested in trying but have not yet.

I've removed all the things i've tried, since it's most of the list.

I'd eat all of them again, except the Hostess fruit pies, which i ate 
more than once when a child (cherry), and would only eat if there 
wasn't going to be anything else to eat for a very long time.

36. Cognac with a fat cigar - i've had cognac, but i will NEVER smoke a cigar.

38. Vodka jelly - if this is jello shots, as i suspect, i HAVE had 
this, blue ones at a Goth Christmas party.

73. Louche absinthe -  is a brand name: "Louche" means cross-eyed (or 
suspicious) in French. I've never had this brand, but i've often 
sampled homemade absinthe made by Goth friends - most Goths make very 
bad absinthe, because they add way too much wormwood/absinthe in 
hopes of getting that supposed hallucinogenic quality.

75. Roadkill - If we just killed it and it was fresh, and i was with 
someone who knew how to dress it, i would eat it.

93. Rose harissa - From what i've read, this appears to be ordinary 
harissa - looks like tomato paste... but is made entirely of red 
chili - mixed with ras al-hanout. I've got tubes of harissa in my 
kitchen. And i've got homemade ras al-hanout with rose petals. So in 
some in a sense i've had this.

Here's what i haven't tried yet, because i never had the opportunity :-(
*  5. Crocodile
* 16. Epoisses - apparently this is a cheese from the village of 
Epoisses in Burgundy and "has a powerful rich flavor, salty and 
creamy with a pungent smell". I love stinky cheeses...
* 37. Clotted cream tea - i have had clotted cream, just not yet in tea
* 42. Whole insects - i've eaten food with small insects in it, just 
never a large insect
* 43. Phaal - supposedly the hottest Indian curry
* 59. Poutine
* 63. Kaolin - but i've intentionally eaten sand and chalk, and more 
than once...
* 64. Currywurst
* 76. Baijiu - a colorless potent Chinese liquor - sure, i'd take a 
sip. Heck, in my ex-husband's village on the shores of Lake Toba in 
North Sumatra we drank Chinese medicinal wine mixed with Indonesian 
beer... How festive... (note: it was awful, but it as all there was)
* 80. Bellini - sparkling white wine with peach puree
* 89. Horse
* Plus 1: a balut  Try it IF YOU DARE! - i'd dare, just never had the 
opportunity

I've never had and won't be seeking to eat:
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut - well, maybe if it was on 
the buffet at a white trash party
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal - would if there was going to be nothing 
else to eat for a very very long time. I do occasionally eat at 
"In-and-Out" when on long road trips here in California. But i won't 
eat any other fast food burgers.

-----

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee - tried
This is just very mild, very weak coffee, with no strong acidity and 
no body. It's only a big deal because so little is grown, and most is 
bought up by Japanese, so it's very expensive.

There's a lot of better coffee in the world. Right now, I've got 
several Peet's coffees in my freezer: from two Yemeni villages that 
is the best stuff i've ever had, and they're both different from each 
other; some rare Panamanian that tastes of jasmine and lemon; and 
some amazing unusual Ethiopian that tastes like berries - it's 
natural - i refuse to drink flavored coffee - flavors are only added 
to cover the bad taste of inferior coffee beans.

I'm on the mailing list for Peet's Coffee and i'm a sucker for 
unusual *and naturally flavorful* coffees.

-----

I have eaten Pilipino Dinaguan and a related Sumatran Batak dish, 
Saksang, more than once.

Dinaguan is made from many organs cut into little pieces, seasoned 
with black pepper, garlic and vinegar, in a sauce made mostly of 
blood - it is a cooked dish and is "chocolate" in color. I used to 
dated a Pilipino-American back in the 1970s and had some at his 
aunt's house. I guess i passed the test, since i wasn't grossed out 
when they told me what was in it :-)

Saksang is made of pretty much every part of the pig cut into tiny 
bits (but the skin still had a little hair on it, even though they 
singed most of it off), seasoned with many spices, especially 
andalimon, the Sumatran relative of Szechuan pepper, and fresh 
coconut meat roasted until golden and then ground to a puree, and the 
cooking is finished with blood. I was served a lot of this when i 
visited my husband's village.

-----

Where's the jellyfish? i've had it Chinese style more than once
the sea cucumber? i've had it Chinese style more than once
the octopus? A bit tough, but it's so cute! i love looking at the 
little suckers on the arms :-)

When i was in Morocco more than once i bought food off a street cart 
having absolutely no idea what i was getting, just having seen other 
people eating it.

I also bought food with great frequency off street carts in Indonesia 
when i lived there.

The first time i had tripe, i did not like it. So i ate it again and 
again - i've had tripe a la mode de Caen, menudo, Thai tripe, 
Peruvian tripe... by performing this test, i figured out the problem 
was not in my mind, i'm just not fond of the texture.

The one thing i'm not in a hurry to eat again is kidney. The one time 
i had them, it was like dining in a urinal. I have been assured that 
this means they were not properly prepared. If they were, i'd try 
them again.

I guess that's one advantage of living in the US in a region with 
people from many different cultures who have opened restaurants. When 
i see a restaurant featuring a cuisine i haven't yet tried, i plan a 
visit. I figure that those in NYC have similar possibilities.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

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