Saturday, August 16, 2008

Good God, where do these things come from?

BikeMonkey thinks I'm worrying too much. Looking back at my past week of posts, perhaps I can concede that I have been a bit....somber and irascible. However, his prescription for me is another meme. I suspect that being tagged has nothing to do with improving my mental health and everything to do with trying to find someone who will play, but I'm willing to give anything a try at this point.

Usual meme ground rules, bold those you’ve eaten, italics those you’ve tried and couldn’t gag down, strike anything you would never, ever, ever consider eating.

1. Venison (had a boyfriend who hunted, I've had venison steaks, venison chile,....)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare (have you people never had a food bourne diseases class?)
5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding (honestly, I think the English have some weird psychological problem with food)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp -

9. Borscht (not as bad as I thought it would be)
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 (just the tiniest little shavings in a risotto in a foreign country but damn it was pretty good) 
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (not proud, but yes)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
(do I get extra points if they're in my backyard?)

23. Foie gras (when in France....)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (no, I mean really. What is wrong with the English?)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper-

27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda (no, but damn that sounds good. I have got to go to Italy!)
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (I've had almost every other type of lassi, maybe I'll have to order this one just to say I have)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar (Cognac yes, fat cigar no)
37. Clotted cream tea (all right, so there is one non-disgusting thing the British have done to a food-type object, but it is a shockingly short list)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail (I found it hysterical that ProfinTraining is a 'picky' eater and has all sorts of comments about other foods but this one she ate and it passed without comment on her list....having said this there is a possibility I have eaten  oxtail. I once visited a land far far away where the people giggled at me in a pub for eating something that obviously Americans would shudder at and locals thought was great...In retrospect, it might explain the weird bones....)
41. Curried goat (goat yes, curried no)
42. Whole insects- (so, is this list about things we've eaten by choice? Because I have definitely swallowed a few insects but I don't know who was more surprised, me or it.)
43. Phaal (good god, hotter than vindaloo? Do you have to have proof of health insurance before they serve it?)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (I prefer to not eat anything where I have to trust someone else to have done it right or it'll kill me)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut- (BikeMonkey is clinically insane if he thinks Dunkin’ Donuts are better.)

50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer-

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56.
Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (Gin is the most disgusting alcohol....ever)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (love that Belgian beer)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips (my parents were health nuts...try explaining carob chips to other 6th graders)
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads (Dude, it's a gland)
63. Kaolin (again, is this by choice? Because I took a pottery class once and it wasn't pretty)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake- (honestly funnel cakes are the best part of childhood).
68. Haggis (Dude....did Freud ever analyze the psychology of the culinary practices of the British Isles? I mean a deep seated hate of food)
69. Fried plantain- BikeMonkey may be clinically insane, but I agree with him here. In my mind, the plantain is the best evidence available for some sort of superior being running the universe

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho - (soups should be hot)
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill-  (I refuse to elaborate) 
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (shudder)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (it's even better when you have to spit out the buckshot)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (I assume they put them on the plate at restaurants because they're edible...though I have never eaten one where I thought "Holy Crap where can I get more of that?")
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam  (yes, I have eaten it, no I will never eat it again)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish (not too digusting if it's fried....heavily fried)
95. Mole poblano (ummmm, mole)
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake- the rattlin’ variety (me too)

Maybe I do feel a little better....

Now what do I do with this? I owe PhysioProf, but see that BikeMonkey got there first. Well, since Nat is busy constructing his own meme, I'll get him before he gets me, and let's see....how about some regular commenters at Professor Chaos that BikeMonkey hasn't already gotten to: DamnGoodTechnician and Academic!

5 comments:

Professor in Training said...

Damn it - I must have forgotten to make a sarcastic remark about the oxtail soup. I didn't eat/drink it by choice ... my mother used to force-feed me stuff like that even though it was clearly psychologically damaging. The general rule in our house was that there was no ice cream unless everything on the plate was eaten ... needless to say, I was a very, very skinny child :)

JaneB said...

Oy, it's not some deep-seated DISlike, it's a reluctance to be wasteful like those darn Yanks - I mean, what SHOULD you do with all the other bits of the cow or pig after the steaks and hams have been cut off? Make it into something useful/edible of course.

Remember that the value of pigs is that they live on scraps and waste, act as rotovators AND once you kill 'em you can use every part but the squeal...

Professor in Training said...

Yeah - but my mum also makes pea and ham soup from PIGS TROTTERS. That's just not right. I'm all for eating pig flesh (roast pork is just the best), but feet??? No way in hell.

Professor Chaos said...

LOL! I will admit that there is some phenomenal cuisine in England....but it all comes from somewhere else! I'll concede that perhaps it's not a DISlike of food, but the British Cuisine definitely does not reflect an inherent love of food.

Cath@VWXYNot? said...

Haggis is awesome. Seriously. And I'm not even Scottish.