My Omnivore’s Hundred

Yes, I know that I'm very late to the party on this. No, I don't expect this to be of interest to anyone but me.

For the uninitiated, the rules are:
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.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
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
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (I did a wine tasting at Florida Orange Groves and Winery in St. Petersburg during my senior year spring break. I forget what all I tried, but it was tasty!)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (We had a blackberry bush behind my house in Maryland when I was growing up.)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (I think the heat would make me insane in the membrane. I am such a wimp with spicy food.)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I don't see this happening. Not for any particular reason; I just don't see it happening)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal (Again, the spiciness and I don't mix)
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (No food is worth dying for, especially since I've read that fugu doesn't even taste very good)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal (Not out of snobbiness; I just hate their special sauce!)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (I'd rather have a dry vodka martini, thank you very much)
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (Maybe if I were starving?)
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
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict (I hate hollandaise sauce)
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (I wish. I did eat lunch at one though.)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
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

49 out of 100. Ohhh, I've got a lot of livin' to do...

8 Things About Me

Erika over at Bean's Bistro tagged me for the ever-popular "Say 8 random but interesting things about yourself" meme. Here goes!

1. I was born in the same hospital where my parents met. They both worked there in their teenage years.

2. I went to 6 different schools before I hit college: two elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. They were the consequences of both moving and new school districts being formed.

3. I've spent an afternoon inside a west London prison. I did an semester internship with a prison reform charity when I did study abroad there in 2000, and they held a fundraiser lunch inside Wormwood Scrubs. I went along to help out with making name tags and serving tea and cookies to the donors beforehand, and then we all got to eat lunch with the prisoners and tour the facilities. I ate a veggie burger patty with instant-tasting mashed potatoes and a cup of tea. Dear god, I do remember the shitty tea. I felt bad for the prisoners; it was all they had to drink!

4. I didn't know how to cook 3 years ago. I couldn't even chop an onion.

5. I attended the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. I was there with the fundraising firm I worked for at the time. Even though us staffers didn't officially have tickets, we managed to score passes inside every night. The after parties were the best part, though. I did so much dancing and drinking that week :-) Also, the whole experience made me fall in love with Boston a little. If it wasn't for the brutal winters, I would want to live there.

6. Wei and I adopted our first puppy the week my dad passed away in 2006. It was unrelated; we already had plans in motion to adopt when I got the bad news. The weeks immediately afterwards taught me a lot about how much a dog's love can help a person (i.e., me) in emotional need.

7. I took Latin for 4 years in high school. I still have a snobbish love of using Latin phrases and abbreviations (see above).

8. My ideal eating day would be breakfast in London, lunch in Paris, and dinner in Chicago.