Lunch time. Time for lunch.
Something completely different today...a little blog meme. (A "meme" is basically what it sounds like -- a bunch of information about, well, me. So let's take a moment and focus on...me. 
This is the Omnivore's Hundred 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, strike through those you wouldn't eat on a bet.
My personal comments are in the parenthesis as is an explanation of what the food is if I had to look up. I hope I don't insult anyone who might say "Well, of course I know what pho is you uncultured cretin." Which, admittedly, in some respects I am. I am fairly adventurous with food but I definitely lack exposure to most Asian or African dishes and traditions.
1. Venison (I've had very good venison and very bad venison -- 'cause when it's bad, it's really bad.)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding (OK, I guess, but I think I might have a problem with the texture.)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (Have you seen these in the Erie Canal? Have you seen the water in the canal?)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (French unpasteurized cheese)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (Yum, one of my favorite homemade flavors.)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (I may actually have a moral problem with that one -- force feeding geese and all.)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (Again a texture issue, I think).
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (No way....I need to protect my taste buds.)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (I didn't really enjoy them though. They were fried and I bit it in half and there were just way too many colors represented in the other half for me to feel good about it.)
29. Baklava (Anytime, anywhere, thank you.)
30. Bagna cauda (Italian dipping sauce made with garlic, anchovies and olive oil)
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (Indian yogurt drink)
34. Sauerkraut (What else does one eat with kielbasa?!)
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (Ewwwww.)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (I had some kind of African ant in a peanut brittle at a special event at the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls. Really couldn't taste the ants but there was some rather disturbing picking stuff out of my teeth afterward.)
43. Phaal (It's an Indian dish described as being hotter than vindaloo so no...keeping the taste buds safe yet again.)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whiskey from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (I think I'll beg off on potentially dangerous food.)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin (Had some at a Sushi restaurant -- too squishy)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (Pickled fruit from Japan...sounds like it has potential.)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (Have you seen Supersize Me ? There's just too much goop on the Big Mac.)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (Oh, yum. French fries, squeaky cheese curds and gravy...what's not to like?)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores62. Sweetbreads (Again, a texture thing)
63. Kaolin (I couldn't find out for sure what this is....)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (That's the stinky fruit from southeast Asia...I've never even seen one here in the states. Now if you send me to southeast Asia, I would be happy to try one.)
66. Frogs’ legs (I've heard they look like little ballerina legs on the plate so I guess I don't know.)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chiltterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini73. Louche absinthe (No dangerous food please.)
74. Gjetost, or brunost (some kind of Nordic goat cheese)75. Roadkill (Um, no.)
76. Baijiu (Chinese wine)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong (Chinese tea with a smoky flavor)
80. Bellini (cocktail)
81. Tom yum (Thai hot and sour soup)
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (Japanese stick biscuit dipped in chocolate -- they're very satisfying and reasonably common and you can get them at most megamart groceries).
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate (some kind of Spanish coco)
91. Spam (Tried it in a cheap moment in college, not my greatest culinary moment.)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (North African hot red sauce made with ground chilies and rose petals.)
94. Catfish (I am a women full of contradictions. Although I wouldn't eat carp, I like catfish, which I believe, is also a bottom feeder.)
95. Mole poblano (I like me a good mole.)
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (Actually, I've never eaten any kind of reptile. Although everyone says it tastes like chicken.)
James, please, please, please.... I want to see 51-100! I read every character of 1-50 with relish...(hee, hee, hee. Get it?) (If it's cutting you off, try replying to the 8/16 entry. )
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Okay, here we go again. To avoid irritating HTML incidents, I'm not including the numbers I haven't eaten in this post.
01. Venison (Courtesy of Social Science prof. Jim Slusarski fifteen years ago. It was unbelievably good and I'd kill to have it again but, aside from killing the deer itself to have it again, I don't know where to get it.)
03. Huevos rancheros
04. Steak tartare (If it ain't a quality cut of meat, though, this is unpleasant.)
07. Cheese fondue (Though lethal, I eat this frequently.)
08. Carp (I'll eat any fish, anytime, anywhere.)
10. Baba ghanoush (Hummus is more flavorful and texturally interesting.)
11. Calamari (A favorite. See also: Crispy Squid Tentacles.)
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich (I had one for the first time at twenty-four. I couldn't swallow the single bite I took. I was three scotches deep before I forgot the texture and flavor.)
15. Hot dog from a street cart (Better than home grilling, the accumulated grease really blocks the flavor of hog anus inherent to the dog itself.)
16. Epoisses (Also: any cheese, anytime, anywhere.)
17. Black truffle (Overrated.)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
20. Pistachio ice cream (It looks like mint chocolate-chip, but it sure isn't mint chocolate-chip. What a let down.)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (Everyone has a moral problem with this one 'til the second it hits his palate. Foie is possibly the tastiest thing I've ever eaten. Cruelty, it turns out, tastes exceptional.)
24. Rice and beans (Daily)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (And a gallon of milk later...)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (I've had sex less enjoyable than the worst oysters I've ever had. I'd snort them.)
29. Baklava
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I worked at a joint which served this and it the chowder was so heavy that, one of every five times I ate it, I'd be in gastric pain for four hours. And yet, I ate it once weekly--it was that bloody good.)
34. Sauerkraut (I'd rather be raped in prison than do this again.)
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whiskey from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (I'm drinking a fifty-dollar glass of scotch right now, actually.)
46. Fugu (It's a dream of mine to dine at Nobu in New York and have them serve me a grand of potentially lethal sushi and sashimi. Of course, since I haven't got a grand to blow on a Tuesday night dinner, it's still a dream.)
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (Like sugary air. Worthless.)
50. Sea urchin
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51. Prickly pear (As a syrup and infusion, never as a vegetable/flower. I actually wasn’t aware anyone did this.)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (I suppose it's cheating: when I ate them, years ago, I ate them without the special sauce. Texturally, it felt a bit too much like a mouthful of vomit to me.)
56. Spaetzle
58. Beer above 8% ABV (Fat Tire, at 11% and out of Colorado, isn't bad. Delerium Nocturnum, out of Belgium, is fantastic--and twenty bucks a glass.)
59. Poutine (Purchased for me as a sort of gross-out gag. Apparently, the purchaser didn't know good food when he saw it.)
61. S’mores
66. Frogs’ legs (Yep. Unremarkable.)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake. (Monthly.)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chiltterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (Caviar, as I suspected in my youth, is appalling. And I have a fairly adventuresome palate.)
73. Louche absinthe (Absinthe, yes. And though I wanted desperately to love it--for reasons involving a sort of writerly cache, I did not and instead found it repellant. The "louche" refers to the ritual of the drink, involving extract of wormwood, laudanum and the requisite melted sugar cube. Extract of wormwood, yes, I've had it, and it was more bitter than anything else I've ever tasted. I mixed it into my absinthe and, with a slotted spoon, did the whole nine with the fire and stirring. But what was missing from my glass was laudanum. Laudanum, yes, I had it on a separate occasion--and it was delightful, as are all opiates. Without it, absinthe isn't worth the suppression of gag reflex and, I'll speculate, laudanum alone was probably what gave the drink its luster in fin de siecle Europe to begin with. One might be surprised: add laudanum to spoilt milk and, suddenly,it would be drinkable.)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (One bite. Once. And I regret it. See also: Ho-Ho, Snowball, Twinkie.)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (I had an acquaintance who was obsessed with this. Eh.)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (Two and a half stars. Rats.)
85. Kobe beef
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
90. Criollo chocolate (I actually dislike chocolate. Thereby proving that I am not a woman.)
91. Spam (I recall enjoying this, fried, as a child. I'd cook it with Steak-Umms and make a sandwich that now I'd probably be forced to call The Arterial Sclerosis Melt. Then I'd eat it while watching Divorce Court. Weird.)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (A derivation thereof.)
94. Catfish (Last Friday. I bolted two portions in under ten minutes. Any fish, any time, anywhere.)
95. Mole poblano (I've tried for four years to acclimate my palate to mole. And still,I'm grossed out. If anything, I like it less now than I did on first taste.)
96. Bagel and lox
98. Polenta (Last Friday, with the catfish.)
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (Grossly overrated. I prefer diner coffee to this.)
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This list comprises those Great 100 Gustatory experiences I have not yet had. My rule, generally, is that there's nothing I won't try once. But there are some tough sells out there.
2. Nettle tea (No idea such a thing existed.)
5. Crocodile (Years ago, I saw Croc-on-a-Stick at a street festival, but I was on a first date and thought it might freak the girl out if I scampered over for it. In retrospect, I should have opted for the croc and ditched the lass. I won't make the mistake again.)
6. Black pudding (I despise puddings. De-fucking-spise.)
9. Borscht (Never had the chance to have a good one.)
14. Aloo gobi
19. Steamed pork buns (I haven't a clue what this refers to.)
21. Heirloom tomatoes (Again, I don't know what separates an heirloom tomato from a regular one. Unless it's as it sounds and it is a fruit willed to me by a dead person. Then, in that case, no, I haven't had any fruit that's gone through probate.)
25. Brawn, or head cheese (This would be a case of daring myself to do something I know I should, but really don't want to.)
30. Bagna cauda
33. Salted lassi
37. Clotted cream tea (See, I'd avoid a food which entails the adjective "clotted." I also won't eat "scabbed" tapioca, or "hemmorrhaging" pie if those're options.
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (See "head cheese.")
43. Phaal
47. Chicken tikka masala
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone (I've just never had the chance to have abalone. I'd be enthusiastic.)
54. Paneer
57. Dirty gin martini (Gin is the only spirit I can't handle. I had it once and was so repulsed that I still can't even stand to smell it. Every other alcohol and I are at least in detente, if not bosom buddies.)
60. Carob chips
62. Sweetbreads (Like haggis, if I were to do this, I wouldn't want Mama Jones' sweetbreads. I would only eat them if prepared by a master--if I was guaranteed that the sweetbreads I am eating are as good as they could ever be. Then I'd feel okay about liking or disliking them. Most people can't even make a good sandwich, much less prepare delicate internal organs.)
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
68. Haggis (See "sweetbreads.")
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (I would totally do this.)
76. Baijiu
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
86. Hare (I don't know any hunters, sadly. I'd love to munch on bunny.)
89. Horse (Where do they eat horse?!)
97. Lobster Thermidor (Despite my love of well-cooked waterlife and my lifetime tenure in food-service, I've never had lobster except as bits stewed into a bisque. Watching people eat it is, well, a bacchanalian death orgy. The process sort of pushes me away and I've abstained for two reasons: first, the mess seems like more effort than it's worth ((I didn't have my first chicken wing until I was twenty-seven)); second, like most waiters, I can't afford to eat where I serve, or anyplace else comparable.)
100. Snake (I'd love to.)
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James, you are truly an accomplished eater...and any time you want, come out to dinner with us and I'll treat you to lobster although lobsters taste better within sight of the Atlantic.
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