Thanks to Margie for bringing this fun foodie game to my attention!
The Omnivore’s Hundred is a list created by British foodie Andrew Wheeler of Very Good Taste. It’s a list that Andrew believes is “100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food – but a good omnivore should really try it all.”
Fellow food bloggers, if you want to participate:
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.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison (I live in Texas, how do you avoid eating venison after hunting season?)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare (rare is about as raw as I can go for now)
5. Crocodile (fried alligator tail counts, right?)
6. Black pudding (probably wouldn’t do it again though)
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 (that’s the best place to get one!)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (it’s not wild if it grows in your backyard, right?)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (I may not be able to eat this… but I would probably try)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas (how about fresh wasabi, I think that would be a better item than wasabi peas!)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (Is this the drink that Bourdain got high on in India?)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I may never try this because I hate smoking)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (I believe the technical term is Jello shot)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal (does any restaurant serve this in Dallas? It sounds interesting)
44. Goat’s milk (does goat’s cheese count?)
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
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (I’m going to say yes because I’ve had the Chinese hua mei in many versions)
53. Abalone (I’ve had the broth of the soup but never the abalone itself)
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (I’ve actually never had a Big Mac. Its size has always intimidated me)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (I actually haven’t tried this yet, but have been meaning to for over 2 years)
63. Kaolin (I don’t know how keen I am on the idea of eating dirt)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (I don’t think I’ve ever had any absinthe)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (even though I did grow up in Arkansas)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (thanks vending machines)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Not yet)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse (even though I’ve never raised horses, I have an ill feeling about this one)
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 (I don’t think I’ve ever eaten this? Unless it was something unrecognizable I ate in China??)
By this list, I’m 67% omnivore. I can always bump it up if I go eat a Big Mac… maybe I’ll split one with someone. And only one thing on the list I would absolutely not eat. I don’t know, I’m pretty adventurous but I can’t imagine eating horse… unless gelatin counts? I do think the list is a little biased towards the British taste, haggis, black pudding, clotted cream, and chicken tikka masala all on the same list?
Donna Cooks 
I’m sure you’ve had lapsang souchong – chinese sausage.
Wiki says it’s a type of tea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapsang_souchong
Although I do think Chinese sausage should be on the list. It’s a favorite in our house!
I can’t believe the Big Mac made it on the list…is that really food? I thought it was bits of cardboard and grease 🙂 I say skip the Big Mac and go get a real burger…the Wendy’s Baconator!
WR coffee had jamaican blue last week…but at $50 a pound i don’t think it’s worth it to be honest.
where would you actually get kaolin anyway? shouldn’t any type of dirt count?
i probably have a pretty low number on this list actually. and i’ve never even driven past a 3 star michelin restaurant.
My lapsang souchong anecdote:
My dad loves lapsang souchong tea – not sure if it is in spite of, or because, it smells like dirt. When we were in SF chinatown and he saw the tea store he had to buy some. The Chinese clerk said in Chinese to my wife (my dad can’t speak Chinese) “You wouldn’t like this, only westerners like this.”
This list could certainly be improved on by making it a little more international. Where is the stinky tofu and the natto?
I think I would try everything on this list, but some of it only if a wager were involved. A substantial wager in a few cases. And as I’ve already indicated to Margie, I will try the $120 Scotch and 3-star Michelin restaurant if someone else is buying!!!
This list doesn’t make complete and total sense to me. What benefit are we to take away from a tasting menu consisting of roadkill, horse, Big Macs and jello shots? Sounds more like gastronomic truth-or-dare 🙂
Lisa,
There is an Q&A post with Andrew Wheeler on Very Good Taste where he explains some of the reasons why he picked the items he picked: http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/hundred-reasons/
But, it’s just a list, not really meant to “score” anything. People’s tastes vary, measure of exoticness varies greatly in cultural context. A fun self assessment, but no more useful than those magazine quizzes that ask “which vegetable/dog breed/character on reality TV show are you???” Hehe.
DG,
Bold the stinky tofu (though not one of my favorite taste experiences) but haven’t tried natto yet.
Luniz,
If you join beer softball league, I can demonstrate how to eat dirt.
Czar,
Can’t help you on the Michelin tasting menu, But Chivas and Johnny Walker occasionally have events in Dallas where you can sample their higher end whiskies (25-year reserve for Chivas and Blue Label for Johnny Walker).
And finally, dear DIY, might want to cut back on the baconators until you have better health insurance 😛
I gotta run through this list,
forget about the Bucket list, lets talk about an “Eat it” list.
Donna, I’d be glad to let you introduce me to Pho!
Ahh, the hot dog stand. We had got ours in Amsterdam, in a sketchy park. Best hotdog ever!
Had got? Do I teach English?
I’ve had the dirty gin martini, but I’ll take a dirty vodka martini over that one any day!
Damnn…forgot to feed you some lapsong souchong and absinthe last night.
I would have been too gone to remember it anyway.
Real Absinthe? Isn’t that illegal?
@diynovice — it’d be easy enough to answer your own question with a quick internet search, no?
Re: Phaal, India Palace at Preston and 635 serves a lamb phall. I haven’t tried it yet but you can bet I’m going to now. 🙂
I know the answer to that without an internet search…yes, real Absinthe is illegal in the US, so I hope you don’t have any…but, knowing your reputation, I bet you do.
quoted from Wikipedia:
“In 2007, TTB relaxed the US absinthe ban, and approved several brands for sale.[73] These brands must pass TTB testing, which is performed by the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry method[74] and TTB considers a product to be thujone-free if the FDA’s test measures less than 10ppm (equal to 10mg/kg) thujone.[75] A US distillery also began producing and selling absinthe, the first US company to do so since 1912.[76]”
the referenced sources:
[73] “Absinthe, a Collection of TTB Label Approvals”. Lehrman Beverage Law. Retrieved on 2008-09-17.
[74] “Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau “Screening of Distilled Spirits for Thujone by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry”. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-09-17.
[75] “Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau Industry Circular Number 2007-5”. Retrieved on 2008-09-17.
[76] Stacy, Finz (2007-12-05). “Alameda distiller helps make absinthe legitimate again”. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
**sigh** Don’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia.
Real Absinthe, or Grand Absinthe (Absinthe made with Artemisia absinthium, or Wormwood), contains the chemical thujone, which you already know. However, according to the FDA [the latest FDA code is here: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=172.510 ] you can only use Artemisia if the “Finished food thujone free” which means the thujone must be under 10 ppm (10 mg/kg).
Ref 75 [ http://www.ttb.gov/industry_circulars/archives/2007/2007_05.html ] only states that the TTB is revising its position. It used to not allow drinks to be called Absinthe at all. But, now, they will allow distilleries to label their drinks “Absinthe” as long as they follow FDA guidelines (see above).
Of course, the real deal Absinthe has much more thujone than 10 ppm, and was never banned and is still sold in some European Countries, such as Spain and Portugal
Now, if you’re thinking that you will bring Absinthe into the US from abroad, you better plan ahead. US Customs has banned the importation of any product containing Artemisia absinthium [search “Artemisia absinthium” here: http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/travel/knowbeforeyougo.ctt/knowbeforeyougo.pdf ]
Therefore, you can drink/buy thujone-free Absinthe here in the States legally, but, it is not Grand Absinthe. Go to Spain or Portugal if you want that.
I’m not sure what you consider “real deal” absinthe. If you define “real deal” as >10 ppm thujone, then I guess you’re technically right, although the value of such a definition isn’t clear to me. If your definition includes hallucinations, then there doesn’t seem to be any real evidence of thujone being the causative agent, or of absinthe inducing hallucinations at all.
St. George Spirits in Alameda, CA is distilling Absinthe, using wormwood.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/05/MNQJTO9FM.DTL
and
http://www.chow.com/stories/10977
there’s also some interesting info on the FAQ of the Wormwood Society Absinthe Association
http://www.wormwoodsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=184&Itemid=137
in particular:
“Yes, most of the absinthes now available in the US are real.
That is, they contain the same species of wormwood and more-or-less resemble pre-ban absinthes in style and flavor. Analysis of pre-ban absinthe during the last ten years, and particularly the last year or two, have shown that they contain only a small trace of thujone, the compound blamed for absinthe’s alleged harmful effects. Still, there are no legal guidelines as to what may be called “absinthe,” so buyer discretion is advised; be well-informed “
No worries about me believing everything I read on Wikipedia (or virtually anywhere else, for that matter). LOL.
So I will agree that what is legally available in the US is not “Grand Absinthe”, but *real*, pre-ban absinthe (as one example, original Pernod absinthe) probably hasn’t been legally available anywhere since 1915. That said, there’s plenty of absinthe with more than 10ppm thujone to be had in Europe, most falling under the EU limits on thujone level. It’s not uncommon in Germany, the Czech Republic (made according to Swiss or French recipes), Switzerland, Romania, Russia, or even in the more cosmopolitan cities of Asia.
Besides, under the circumstances and back to the original focus of this thread, I think that if Donna were to have a sip of US-legal absinthe, wouldn’t we all accept that she can legitimately check it off her list?
Now, if I could just fine some sugar cubes to effect my louche caffe…
😉
It’s a foodie list rather than a drug list, so I’d count the “legal” absinthe, or, in my case, not enough of the good stuff to make you trip.