I like to think of myself as an adventurous person, one might say a brave soul; at the very least brave in consideration, if not in action.
I very seriously considered, for example, a "bungee" jump recently and did not back down when, only three days ago, a very aggressive squirrel tried to get a bite at my feet. (He had me kind of cornered, and I flailed a bit, but it was powerful flailing that saved my pinkie toe.) I try not to let fear hold me back - last summer I kayaked with my sister in Mexico despite a great fear of falling into what I'll admit was a calm bay, and quite a bit of flailing.
As in life, in food, I say!
Fire-eating aside, I've made it a point not to be too quick to judge something as edible/inedible just because its different. So imagine my delight when I came across The Omnivore's Hundred, an interactive questionnaire of sorts compiled by Andrew over at Very Good Taste, giving eaters of all kinds the opportunity to consider what they have eaten before, what they would be willing to try at least once, and what foods are completely non-negotiable. The Omnivore's Hundred lists 100 foods of all kinds, the good, the bad and the very ugly, ranging from high-brow to junk food to food oddities beyond, at least, what I could imagine. (Roadkill!??)
I was surprised not so much by what I had eaten, as clearly it wasn't much, but rather by how many foods were completely foreign to me and how many I would be willing to try, albeit it with a considerable amount of flailing.
Here's Andrew's list, complete with a key to my answers:
Bold - eaten at least once - 43/100
Unmarked - never eaten - 57/100
Italicized - slim or no chance of ever eating - 2/100
Red - what is it? (Yay Wikipedia!) - 15/100
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (Could've been alligator; memory escapes me.)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (plum wine)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (When I was in middle school, I went through an I-want-to-be-a-grownup phase, which, for some reason, meant that all I ate was coffee and pistachio-flavored soft serve, oftentimes separately but sometimes together. I p'shawed at strawberry and turned my nose up at chocolate. To this day I feel like I'm doing something very proper and beyond my years when I slurp up pistachio ice cream.)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (I was born and lived for five years in Sweden, in a small town outside of Stockholm. One of my earliest memories is collecting strawberries and raspberries from wild bushes that grew rampant across the region.)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (My host mother when I was living and studying in Paris as a wee 21-year-old college student was from Argentina in some capacity that I never quite figured out, and she traveled there quite often. With each return, she brought for me a large batch of dulce de leche, and I grew accustomed to having an open jar with a spoon rattling around inside on my bedside table.)
28. Oysters (I tried raw oysters for the first time just last year during a trip to Seattle. My best friend grew rather concerned that I wasn't swallowing them whole. It's quite a trip to chew on the little guys. No two oysters are alike, and the way each pops in the mouth is a little surprise.)
29. Baklava (Not all baklava is created equal. It is absolutely worth trying different kinds - Greek versus Persian, store-bought versus homemade - if the opportunity presents itself.)
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I tried this for the first time after a long day of sightseeing with my sister in San Francisco earlier this month. The bread was a little stale and the chowder a little bland, but I was so cold and hungry that I remember it as one of my best meals in the Bay Area.)
33. Salted lassi (If I correctly understand what this is, it's very similar to doogh, a Persian beverage made of yogurt, water and mint. That's another one to add to the list.)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (never again)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (I once took a deep breath while on my middle school playground and some kind of bug flew in. I don't know why but I started chewing. Woof. I might be willing to give insects another whirl, but I'd be more willing if I couldn't tell they were insects while eating them...)
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk (and cheese and yogurt)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (I may be the only New Yorker, current or former, who has never had one. The prospect of addiction deters me.)
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer (I've had the Persian kind, which may differ from the Indian version.)
55. McDonald's Big Mac meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores (Mmm.)
62. Sweetbreads (Less mmm. Bad experience. Needs another try.)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (Yes, yes, yes and more yes.)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (But why??)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
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
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
***
To get in on the action
Copy the above list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
Bold all the items you've eaten.
Cross out any items you would never consider eating.
Optional: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
No comments:
Post a Comment