Church Stuff

16 October 2008

The Food List

LutheranChik posted this on her blog, and I thought it looked pretty fun. "It's a list of food and drink that someone -- I forget who -- thinks we all need to taste before we die. The boldfaced items are things that I myself have actually eaten."

1. Venison. LOVE me some deer sausage...
2. Nettle tea.
3. Huevos rancheros.
4. Steak tartare.
5. Crocodile.
6. Black pudding/Blood pudding/Blutwurst. First time was on an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, by accident ("What is this? Hmmm. Salty and good, whatever it is...") Didn't have it again until a three week stay in Germany in 2003. Still good stuff but, as LutheranChik notes, "enough cholesterol to infarct an elephant."
7. Cheese fondue.
8. Carp.
9. Borscht. But I don't remember what I thought, so I'll need to try it again.
10. Baba ghanoush.
11. Calamari. Chewy rings of deep fried deliciousness.
12. Pho. What, pray tell, is pho? Vietnamese soup of sliced rare beef and well done brisket. I DO NOT EAT RARE ANYTHING.
13. PB&J sandwich.
14. Aloo gobi. Not sure even after I looked it up on Wikipedia.
15. Hot dog from a street cart. How, exactly, have I not done this yet?
16. Epoisses. "A pungent unpasteurized cows-milk cheese." Whatev.
17. Black truffle.
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes. Berry wines from Carlos Creek Wineyards in Alexandria, MN: sweet summery goodness.
19. Steamed pork buns. Think I had this at a dim sum restaurant in San Francisco. We ate a lot of weird shit that day. Good, but weird.
20. Pistachio ice cream. Eww, eww, eww. Ice cream should be vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry, with chunks of real nuts and stuff mixed in if you like, but NEVER pistachio.
21. Heirloom tomatoes.
22. Fresh wild berries. We had several mulberry trees around our house on the farm where I grew up. Have not tried wild blueberries or blackberries, but I hear they're tremendous. Hope I get to someday.
23. Foie gras. Never ever ever.
24. Rice and beans.
25. Brawn, or headcheese. Not that I know of, and I don't think my mom would have been that sadistic.
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper. A cousin of the habanero, apparently. Considering spicy oriental cuisine can make me break into a sweat, I don't think this one's likely to happen.
27. Dulce de leche.
28. Oysters.
29. Baklava. But I hope to someday soon: it sounds delicious.
30. Bagna cauda. A hot dip from the Piedmont area of Italy, made of garlic, anchovies, olive oil, butter and sometimes cream. You dip vegetables in it, apparently. Sounds yummy to me.
31. Wasabi peas. Hope to, though - love horseradish and I hear it's similar.
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl. Good stuff, that.
33. Salted lassi. Blech. You don't want to know.
34. Sauerkraut. Ja, Ich liebe!
35. Root beer float.
36. Cognac with a fat cigar. Someday...
37. Clotted cream tea. Never ever ever.
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O. Vodka, Everclear, Schnapps - whatever we could mix with it. Ten years ago, in the Cape Cod. Ahhhh, the Cape Cod, home of unscrubbed bathrooms, flying forks and Trash Can Punch. Those were the days...
39. Gumbo.
40. Oxtail.
41. Curried goat.
42. Whole insects. No, nay never!
43. Phaal. Hottest curry dish in Indian cuisine? Not on your life.
44. Goat's milk.
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$130 or more. Uh-huh. Like that's gonna happen on a campus pastor's salary...
46. Fugu/Pufferfish. No, but it's the main topic in one of my favorite Simpsons episodes.
47. Chicken tikka masala. Chicken in a curried tomato sauce. Interesting, but haven't tried it yet.
48. Eel.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut. All together now: "mmmmmm, doughnut..."
50. Sea urchin.
51. Prickly pear.
52. Umeboshi. Japanese, pickled ume fruits. I'd try it.
53. Abalone.
54. Paneer.
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal. But I prefer the Doublecheeseburger meal, complete with the McGurgles and the McHeartburn.
56. Spaetzle. The Black Forest Inn in Minneapolis makes good spaetzle.
57. Dirty gin martini.
58. Beer above 8% ABV. Well, duh.
59. Poutine. From Wikipedia: "Poutine is a dish consisting of French Fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients. The freshness of the curds is important, as it makes them soft in the warm fries, without completely melting." Again, how have I not tried this yet? God bless the Quebecois...
60. Carob chips.
61. S'mores.
62. Sweetbreads. Nope - even though Dr. Lecter mentions sweetmeats in The Silence of the Lambs, one of my favorite books/movies of all time (though, to be accurate, he was talking about human sweetmeats...).
63. Kaolin. This came up as a type of Chinese clay. I hope things aren't so desperate that gourmets are now recommending dirt - that might prove un-tasty.
64. Currywurst. Seriously? Currywurst? Sounds intriguing, but I doubt I'm going to get it any time soon.
65. Durian. A fruit with such potent odor it's been banned from hotels in Southeast Asia. Next!
66. Frogs' legs.
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake. Yes, yes, yes and YES. Deep-fried heaven, all of them!
68. Haggis. Someday, laddie, someday...
69. Fried plantain. No, but would Bananas Foster count?
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette. Nope - try to keep my intake of hog innards to hot dogs, thank you very much.
71. Gazpacho. But not since the last time Ex-Mom-In-Law made it for us. Mmmmm...
72. Caviar and blini.
73. Louche absinthe. I hear that Absinthe is coming back. Why, exactly?
74. Gjetost, or brunost. I'm pretty sure my Grandma Johnson served this for Christmas several times.
75. Roadkill. No, no, no, no...
76. Baijiu. Gesundheit. (Thanks, LC)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie Not for several years, though - WAAAYYYYyy too much sugar.
78. Snail.
79. Lapsang souchong. "Smoked tea." Sounds interesting, but no.
80. Bellini. Sparkling wine & peach puree. Sounds yummy.
81. Tom yum. Sounds like authentic Hot & Sour soup, as opposed to what we get Stateside. I'll pass.
82. Eggs Benedict. But I don't really care for it.
83. Pocky. Thin shortbread Chinese cookies.
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. Again, campus pastor salary? Not likely.
85. Kobe beef. See #84.
86. Hare.
87. Goulash. Both the American mac-and-beef-and-tomato-sauce version and the authentic stuff. Good eats.
88. Flowers. Not sure what it was, but I know it was flowers in a salad, once. Unremarkable, actually.
89. Horse. Had my shot several times in Germany. Hear it's a delicacy. No thanks.
90. Criollo chocolate. Apparently some incredible type of cocoa. I like the good stuff, but haven't heard of this one.
91. SPAM. For some reason, SPAM was our meal whenever the power went out in the winter as a kid. I don't ever remember eating it at any other time. But I have since, and I generally like it.
92. Soft shell crab.
93. Rose harissa. North African hot sauce. Yikes!
94. Catfish.
95. Mole poblano. I've eaten enough Mexican to be sure I've had this at least once.
96. Bagel and lox. Nope - just the bagel.
97. Lobster Thermidor. Never eaten lobster - too much work!
98. Polenta. Ground cornmeal paste. Actually big in certain parts of Minnesota, but I never got the chance.
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. One of the few types I haven't tried. This, and the stuff that cats poop out. Might try the former someday, but not the latter.
100. Snake. ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Bonus round
Most unusual food you've ever eaten: Has to be Lutefisk. Can't believe this didn't make the list, actually - is it really that bad? I don't care for the stuff myself, but it's definitely a distinctive food. Another one I'm surprised didn't make the list is Rocky Mountain Oysters. This one I've avoided, since I grew up on a farm and, ahem, "harvested the crop" several times with my dad - but it's a food that should be on the list, absolutely.

This one takes a while, but if you wanna, consider yourself tagged.

1 comment:

  1. oh crocodile i have had... it's "ish"... nothing that swims or lives in water is passin' these lips ever. ever. ever. so that takes about 1/3 of the list... kobe beef.. what a joke. massaged cows? cows who drink beer? give me a break....

    just finished a bowl of mocha latte swirl ice cream and that should totally be on the list!!!

    ReplyDelete