14:07 August 29, 2008 | All news from "Healthy eating, healthy food & recipes"

The Omnivore's Hundred - Just Hungry version

If you follow me on Twitter you may know that today was not a good day (nor was it a particularly good week). So, this little distraction via @nandita comes at a great time. It is a meme, but is a good one! It is called…

The Omnivore’s Hundred

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. (I’ve marked ones I really love in red)
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at Very Good Taste linking to your results.

So, here I present…

The Just Hungry Omnivore?s Hundred

Venison
Nettle tea
Huevos rancheros
Steak tartare (I actually love steak tartare, when it’s really really fresh. Also love beef carpaccio.)
Crocodile (Not a big fan…it’s like tough fishy bland chicken)
Black pudding (Love the English kind, with chunks of fat in it and fried! Not a huge fan of the boiled kind.)
Cheese fondue (Well duh… I do miss Martha’s first rate fondue :()
Carp (Carp is the traditional festive whole fish served at feasts in Japan)
Borscht (Love a good borscht)
Baba ghanoush (Love just about anything with eggplant)
Calamari (Love…eh am I getting redundant?)
Pho (Have not had Vietnamese food in ages…)
PB&J sandwich (an urge for one comes over me about once every 3 years)
Aloo gobi
Hot dog from a street cart (though the best imho is just off the street)
Epoisses (there are very few named cheeses in France or Switzerland I haven’t tried… :o)
Black truffle (and how)
Pistachio ice cream
Heirloom tomatoes (every day in the summer)
Fresh wild berries (we have wild strawberries in the garden. Also have had wild blackberries)
Foie gras (Once I ate a whole half poached foie gras by myself. I later became violently sick. Learned my lesson.)
Rice and beans (in many forms)
Brawn, or head cheese (I kind of like the gelatinousness)
Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (yes once, by mistake…)
Dulce de leche
Oysters (raw oysters are fine, but have you ever had a deep fried oyster?)
Baklava
Bagna cauda
Wasabi peas (rather overrated imho)
Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
Salted lassi (lassi in all forms I love)
Sauerkraut (not a big fan)
Root beer float (I actually love root beer. All my Japanese and European friends and family think I’m nuts.)
Cognac with a fat cigar (Please, a cigar is not food)
Clotted cream tea (Clotted cream that is thick and yellow…yummo)
Vodka jelly/Jell-O
Gumbo (Love New Orleans…must go back soon)
Oxtail (My mother used to make a mean oxtail stew)
Curried goat
Whole insects (sweet-salty grasshoppers (tsukudani) and bee larvae (hachi no ko) in Japan)
Phaal
Goat?s milk (better as yogurt)
Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (my stepfather is a whisky connaisseur)
Fugu (but without the added zing of poison :) it’s quite bland really, but the texture is what fugu fanatics love)
Chicken tikka masala
Eel (I couldn’t eat eel for a long time when I was a kid - it made me sick. Have since learned to appreciate it.)
Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (overrated)
Sea urchin (as sushi, or as an appetizer. Fresh with a little yuzu or lemon is the best.)
Prickly pear
Umeboshi (umeboshi onigiri, the flavor of my grandmother)
Abalone
Paneer
McDonald?s Big Mac Meal (A Big Mac urge also occurs about once every 2 years)
Spaetzle (another ‘duh’ item for anyone living in Switzerland/Germany/Austria)
Dirty gin martini
Beer above 8% ABV
Poutine (used to have a Canadian BF…don’t remind me)
Carob chips (why is this on the list?)
S?mores
Sweetbreads (I had them for the first time oddly enough at Epcot)
Kaolin (during one of my healthy-nutty phases)
Currywurst (tweeted about this recently…it’s one of the saddest snacks on the face of the earth. urgh.)
Durian (yep, it stinks)
Frogs? legs (love a good frog’s leg plate. Best I’ve had was at the Restaurant Buerhiesel in Strasbourg, when it was still under the care of Antoine Westermann, papa of the current chef. Which reminds me I need to get back there again!)
Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (All of the above…omg)
Haggis (even the ‘vegetarian’ version, which is served at some Indian restaurants in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and is not that bad really)
Fried plantain
Chitterlings, or andouillette (not too fond of the te xture…)
Gazpacho
Caviar and blini (What can I say…caviar is heaven)
Louche absinthe
Gjetost, or brunost (this often appeared at breakfast in Norwegian hotels…it is pretty bad)
Roadkill (not knowingly…)
Baijiu
Hostess Fruit Pie
Snail
Lapsang souchong
Bellini (heaven in a glass)
Tom yum (very popular these days in Japan…you can get instant versions)
Eggs Benedict
Pocky (I’m not a big fan of Pocky and don’t see why people make a big deal out of it…)
Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (not in the past year tho….last time was at The Fat Duck I think)
Kobe beef
Hare (though I do feel bad about eating..bunnyyy)
Goulash
Flowers (Nasturtiums are very nice in a salad)
Horse (they eat horse sashimi in Japan, honest :) They also have cured horsemeat in Switzerland :))
Criollo chocolate
Spam (do not like)
Soft shell crab (overrated)
Rose harissa
Catfish
Mole poblano
Bagel and lox (oh I miss Ess-A-Bagel…)
Lobster Thermidor
Polenta (another food that is so common it’s ‘meh’ around these parts)
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (this is the ‘ultimate’ coffee in Japan, but the best cup of Blue Mountain is at the Schwarzenbach in Zürich)
Snake

So let’s see…I think I have scored 97.5. I am not totally against eating snake, if the occasion should arise, and if the roadkill is nice and fresh maybe…but refuse to smoke cigars, or consider them to be food.

So there you are. How about you?

Have a great weekend!

(Edit/added a bit later: This list is quite Anglo-American, as is explained. So by no means does it really represent what an omnivore might eat anywhere in the world - not even in the non-British parts of Europe, as was brought up when I showed this list tonight to some Swiss peeps. It’s interesting anyway, and a good talking point!)