The food meme.

It is Thanksgiving, that American traditional holiday of gratitude and gluttony. What better time for a food meme?

This is the Omnivore's hundred list of foods the gastronome 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.

1. Venison My dad was a hunter. We ate venison steak most nights when I was growing up. The roasts were icky, the steaks and chops were good, the hamburger and sausage were excellent. In addition to venison, i.e., deer, I have eaten antelope, moose, and bear. And squirrel and rabbit.
   

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare I sneak bits of raw hamburger and raw steak every time I prepare them. But I have had the real thing -- once.

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese fondue I lived through the 70s and have the fondue pot to prove it.

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari The calamari we ate at various places in South Africa was excellent. #1 son and I both decided we liked calamari.

12. Pho Huh?

13. PB&J sandwich Duh. I am an American of the 20th century. I especially like to eat pb&j on tortilla, rolled up.

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart Can you say "state fair"?

16. Epoisses Huh?

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes Does dandelion count? Oh, wait, I think I have had elderberry. And Annie Green Springs.

19. Steamed pork buns Maybe. Don't remember. We go to a lot of Chinese buffets.

20. Pistachio ice cream Just last week, in fact.

21. Heirloom tomatoes The upper Midwest is largely devoid of heirloom tomatoes -- growing season too short. Damn.

22. Fresh wild berries Many times -- strawberries, red raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, usually eaten within seconds of picking.

23. Foie gras Yuk, liver.

24. Rice and beans Yellow rice and black beans, a Key West favorite we brought home to the Great Frozen Tundra.

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters Smoked in a can only, never raw or in oyster stew.

29. Baklava Too sweet. I'm not a big fan of honey.

30. Bagna cauda Huh?

31. Wasabi peas Yum. I just discovered them a couple months ago. Too bad I have to drive 50 miles to buy them.

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl Probably. This is not something so distinctive I would necessarily remember it.

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut Sauerkraut and ribs, mmm. Although I could do without the sauerkraut.

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar I had cognac once. It gave me a migraine. Skip the cigar... forever.

37. Clotted cream tea Sound disgusting but is actually delicious.

38. Vodka jelly

39. Gumbo Only if Campbell's Chicken Gumbo counts.

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat There was goat in the dish, don't remember if it was curried or not. It very well might have been; it was a Chinese restaurant.

42. Whole insects Never on purpose. Once I grabbed a can of Coke that had been sitting on the floor. Where the ants found it. Ants taste sour.

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin We kept one in a pail of sea water once while camping in the Keys. You can eat them?

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal See #13, above, re: American, 20th century.

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8%

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores See #13, above, re: American, 20th century.

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin I thought kaolin was the kind of clay used to make porcelein. Apparently not.

64. Currywurst

65. Durian No, but I do know what it is.

66. Frogs’ legs Tasted really, really fishy.

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake State fair, hello?

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain In the Keys, I think.

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost We used to have a house mate who relished her Norwegian heritage; she often had gjetost in the fridge. It wasn't bad, as I recall.

75. Road kill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie College vending machines.

78. Snail Eww, have you ever stepped on a snail and smelled the resulting stench?

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom yum WTF is that?

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky (or something similar).

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant I have never been IN a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

85. Kobe beef Not only have I eaten it, I ate it in a teppanyaki steak house in Japan.

86. Hare

87. Goulash In rural southern Minnesota where I grew up, every hotdish (that's what we call casseroles in the Midwest) made with macaroni, tomato sauce, and hamburger was called goulash. I'm guessing that is NOT what this item is referring to.

88. Flowers Violets, nasturtium, nasturtium pods.

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam In our family, pancakes and fried Spam is considered the ultimate camping breakfast.

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish Blackened. Yum.

95. Mole poblano I have a dandy WW recipe for chicken mole poblano; I have eaten authentic mole, too.

96. Bagel and lox Yum!

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Comments

[sophanne]

email your snail mail address. We get them cheap and easy here.

[sophanne]

wasabi peas that is.

[Cathy-Cate]

I thought Sophanne was offering you snails by mail! But you didn't want them! (Besides, they'd be gross by the time they got there. I know, you think they're gross already. Like several other things I can think of, they're an excuse for butter and garlic.....)

Interesting and amusing, I'll have to do that sometime. Maybe soon, given that I'm still NaBloPoMo-ing.

By the way, if you've ever had catfish in any form, you've had carp!

[lisa]

I still haven't done this meme... one day I will... check out my comment in the Nov 23 post at Gramily's, http://www.mifflettes.com/, about prickly pear fruit.

[Erika]

Ohhh I wish I could send you some Pho. It's a Vietnamese soup based on a clear beef broth. In the classic version they slice flank steak very thin, put it in the bowl, and cover it with boiling beef broth to cook. It's got noodles and Thai basil and bean sprouts and you squeeze a bit of lime over it and YUM I WANT SOME RIGHT NOW.

I think if you've had Chinese Hot and Sour Soup, you can check "tom yum" off the list. Purists would disagree, but hey.

[Helen]

I'm gonna try this one too...
It's amazing how long it takes to undo someone else's mark ups so you can do your own :-)

[k]

Catfish smoked with apple wood chips. To die for, if I remember correctly.
Amazing how many of these things us pitiable Midwesterners have eaten. I guess we're not so culturally dumb after all.
Gosh, now I have to try to remember the name of the story that I saw goulash described in. What's that site where you type in the plot, and somebody volunteers the name of the book? I think it was about vampires...

[Miss T]

Yes, kaolin is clay, used to make porcelain. I really don't understand why it's on that list.

I know a great pho joint. Maybe sometime when you're in town...