The Omnivore's 100 Foods to Try...just for fun

My extended family has had a food challenge going on for a few years now. One of the biggest wins was when my cousin Sue ate durian in Thailand; I'd love to get to the Far East but eating durian there is not one of my dreams. I countered this move by eating a block of gjetost, a Norwegian brown goat cheese, and the funny food challenge is still on.

Here's a bucket list of foods you might want to try if you're into unusual things, or if you want to be sure you've tasted some of the more common Western-culture items.

I've read the average person has eaten 20-30 of these, but you food-lovers will probably score more. Here are the instructions:

1) Copy this list into your blog, journal, or Facebook wall, 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) Comment on your results in the comments section.

The Hungry Lovers Hundred

1. Venison ( you can't get away from this in the Midwestern U.S.)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros (Joe likes these better than I do)
4. Steak tartare (Joe's eaten it, not me)
5. Crocodile (I've had alligator, does it count? Tastes like catfish)
6. Black pudding (Yes, I love the fried patties.)
7. Cheese fondue (OMG yes!)
8. Carp (meh.)
9. Borscht (Joe had it on a trip to the former USSR in 1989; maybe someday I'll try it)
10. Baba ghanoush (I've eaten it, Joe has not)
11. Calamari (The best calamari ever is at Tufano's Vernon Park Tap in Chicago's University Village neighborhood. We have references, if you want to verify this.)
12. Pho 
13. PB&J sandwich 
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (The Chicago redhot: Vienna Beef hot dogs, steamed poppyseed bun, neon-green relish, yellow mustard, onions, celery salt, dill pickle spear, tomato wedges, hot sport peppers, and NO ketchup. )
16. Epoisses 
17. Black truffle (we first tasted these from a vendor in Tuscany who sold us a pound of buffalo mozzarella embedded with thick shavings of truffles. We took this back to our Agritourismo and lunched on it for a week.)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (When I grew up in the fruit-growing region of southwestern Michigan, I tasted many varieties of fruit wine. Fruit ferments wonderfully, and hard cider is one of my favorites.)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream (heavenly)
21. Heirloom tomatoes (again, heavenly)
22. Fresh wild berries (see our Wild Berry/Lavender Jam recipe, and go forage next summer!)
23. Foie gras (Oh, yes please!)
24. Rice and beans (such a great combo)
25. Brawn, or head cheese 
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (in St. Lucia, USVI)
27. Dulce de leche 
28. Oysters (Joe yes; me, maybe never)
29. Baklava (have mercy!)
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas (my favorite snack in college)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (we love clam chowder, but bread bowls are annoying)
33. Salted lassi 
34. Sauerkraut (I love sauerkraut, but it doesn't love me)
35. Root beer float (fabulous)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (Cognac is wonderful, and Joe likes good cigars on occasion. My one cigar experience was not pleasant. How do we rate this?)
37. Clotted cream tea (I had the best clotted cream over scones in Edinburgh. God is good.)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O  (No thanks.)
39. Gumbo (Joe's is fabulous, but if he insists on a trip to New Orleans, I'm there for him.)
40. Oxtail (Oxtail soup is ok.)
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (sweet-salty grasshoppers (tsukudani) and bee larvae (hachi no ko) in Japan)
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 (lovely in sushi)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (call me, Krispy Kreme? Please?)
50. Sea urchin (in sushi, with lemon)
51. Prickly pear (in jam, meh)
52. Umeboshi 
53. Abalone 
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (One of my guilty pleasures.)
56. Spaetzle (yep. Try the Detzner family recipe.)
57. Dirty gin martini (a passion I share with my daughter's BF)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (we love the Belgian Delirium Tremens)
59. Poutine 
60. Carob chips (YUCK.)
61. S’mores (meh.)
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin 
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs (My mom served this, oddly enough, when I was young. It's a lot of work for a little meat.)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (Meh...although Joe is in love with beignets. New Orleans trip is in order.)
68. Haggis (Better than I thought, when I tried it in Inverness, Scotland.)
69. Fried plantain (Fabulous but a little greasy. I love the Puerto Rican mofongo and sweet fried platanos maduros.) 
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette 
71. Gazpacho (Tried it as a kid. Really need to try it again as an adult.)
72. Caviar and blini (I suggest the full caviar service at the Russian Tea Time Restaurant in Chicago's Loop.)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost (Pretty good.)
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (can someone mail me a cherry glazed one?)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini (heaven in a glass)
81. Tom yum 
82. Eggs Benedict (I will eat this anytime, anywhere, but Joe's low-fat version is amazing and guilt-free)
83. Pocky 
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant 
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (One of our most memorable dinners in Tuscany; we'll share the recipe one of these days)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (Cheese-stuffed squash blossoms in Rome? I'll go back any day.)
89. Horse 
90. Criollo chocolate (My ex-MIL made the best hot chocolate from this. Complicated but lovely.)
91. Spam (meh.)
92. Soft shell crab (meh.)
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish (Tastes muddy. Do not like.)
95. Mole poblano (We have several recipes, including Mole with Pork. Yum.)
96. Bagel and lox (One of our traditional Christmas Day breakfasts.)
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta (Good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.)
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

By the way, the Japanese blogger, Just Hungry, posted a list of 100 Japanese Foods to Try. If I find similar lists later on, I'll keep adding them.

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All About Onions

White onion slices

Girls, I realize that I haven't told you enough about onions, one of my favorite food ingredients. When you were growing up, I think I just did a lot of shopping and chopping without telling you why I chose one thing over another. I hope these types of kitchen tips will fill up the gaps in things I didn't get around to telling when you lived at home. So today, here's everything I can think of to share about onions.

Varieties

There are lots of different onions, but three show up most frequently in recipes and in my kitchen. White onions usually have a lighter, milder taste. Because they have a more delicate taste, they work well raw. Yellow onions are sharper and more onion-y; the smaller a yellow onion is, the stronger it is likely to taste. I like to use yellow onions in cooked dishes because the flavor holds up well but they lose the sharpness. Red onions are similar to yellow, but are a little mellower in flavor; when you cook them for a long time they lose the red color. Sometimes I use red onions specifically for the color they give the dish. 

Red onion slices

Some sub-varieties of onions are really sweet, like Vidalias (which are also really big) and Walla Walla onions. They have a higher sugar content and less sulfur, which makes them less pungent. Some people say that you can eat a Walla Walla onion like an apple, but I'm not interested in trying that!

I buy green onions when I want a very mild flavor and the bright green stalk color. I usually use them raw. Some recipes call for scallions, which taste like a mixture of garlic and onion. They are small and much more expensive than onions, so we don't use them very often. 

Buying

Yellow onions are usually the cheapest, so when it doesn't matter which type to get, those are the best option. If you buy a bag of onions instead of picking them individually out of a bin, try to get a look at all the onions in the bag. Don't buy onions that have a lot of sprouts, and don't buy ones that have black mildew on the skins, because they will taste bad and are probably old.

Look for firm onions with a good papery skin over them and ones that are not nicked or blemished or have mushy spots. If you're buying a lot of onions and the price is per-pound, try to take off as much of the skins as possible so you're not paying for the part of the onion you're not going to eat. 

If you buy green onions, make sure the tips are not wilted or soggy - they will not last long. It's best to buy green onions when you're going to use them soon, because they don't keep long, anyway. You can keep these in a glass of water in the fridge.

For Cryin' Eye

When you cut into an onion, sulfuric acid is released and will burn your eyes when it drifts upward. If you keep your onions in the fridge, the chemical won't be released so readily. 

It also helps if you wear contact lenses when cutting onions, since the fumes won't reach the surface of your eyes so easily. I know this doesn't help you, Jenn, because you don't wear contacts, but keep your face away from the cutting board and try to cut away from yourself. You can also turn on a fan or the stove's exhaust to pull the fumes away from you. 

White onions are usually the least likely to make you cry.

Cutting Onions

There are a lot of different ways to cut onions. Some people like to cut off the stem end, then cut lengthwise through the whole onion to the root end, then chop it width-wise. The advantage of this is that it holds the onion together during the process, which makes it quicker and less likely to burn your eyes. However, it's harder to peel the onion this way, and the onion tends to roll around the cutting board.

I like to cut off both ends and then cut it down the middle, then lay the cut side down and chop it into the size and shape I need. This is more stable, but of course you can't cut it down the middle if you need whole rings.

Try to keep your fingernails facing the knife, not the pads of your fingers, to minimize cutting yourself along with the food. If you have a good broad kitchen knife, try holding the tip of the knife against the cutting board with one hand while chopping the knife up and down with the other hand. Without lifting the knife tip, pivot the blade around to cut all the pieces. This makes chopping even faster. 

Always get all of the tough papery skin off the onion. This skin will just get tougher if you cook it, and it won't taste good.

Here's how Gordon Ramsay does it, and he's actually being polite about it: Gordon Ramsay How to Chop an Onion. 

Here's how the Reluctant Gourmet says to do it: How to Cut an Onion. This is a great site for other kitchen tips, too.

After you cut the onion, if you don't want such a strong taste, you can put the bits in a strainer and pour boiling water over them. Just let them drain completely before using them. You can also use onion powder when you want a milder onion taste without the actual onion bits. 

Storage

If you don't keep your onions in the fridge, keep them in a cool dark place like a bottom cabinet (heat rises, right?). Check on them once in a while to make sure they're not sprouting. If they do, you can still use them, but the flavor will change, and they won't last as long after they start to sprout. If one of your onions goes rotten, wash the other ones so that they don't start rotting, too. They keep best in a paper bag; they will rot or spout more easily in a plastic bag where the moisture is held around them.

If you use only part of an onion, and you want to save the rest, put it in plastic wrap and then in a plastic bag. This will prevent the onion smell from tainting everything in your refrigerator. 

That's all I can think of for now. Of course, you can always get ahold of me if you have questions.

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