While catching up on my RSS feeds the other day, I stumbled across a food meme which originated on a food blog called Very Good Taste. It’s The Omnivore’s Hundred: a list of 100 foods that Andrew Wheeler of Very Good Taste thinks “every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life.”

It’s a random, entirely subjectively list, obviously, with an Anglo-American bias and some inclusions—and omissions—which seem startling at first glance. (Andrew Wheeler’s follow-up to the Omnivore’s Hundred meme puts the list in context and explains some of the choices.) I mean, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Root beer floats? Initially I chuckled, but when I gave it some real thought and looked at other people’s responses to the list, I realized just how much I take some of my most basic food experiences for granted. Peanut butter and jelly (that’s jam to my English readers) is commonplace to me, but I remember my German flatmate being horrified at the very concept of something like “peanut butter.” In turn, sauerkraut seems pretty much as commonplace as peanut butter and jelly, but maybe only because I lived in Germany for so long. And after eight years in England, chicken tikka masala is about as exotic as takeaway pizza.

It turns out there are 28 things on the list that I haven’t tried, only one of which I wouldn’t consider eating unless I absolutely had to. I guess that makes me very omnivorous indeed!

Here’s the drill:

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 here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

And here’s my list:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (I’ve had alligator, but I guess that doesn’t count)
6. Black pudding (I love black pudding, even when Jeremy jokingly describes it as “pig scabs”)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (I may have had carp somewhere, but I don’t remember, so it doesn’t count)
9. Borscht (I make a pretty decent borscht if I do say so myself—that’s what comes from getting so much beetroot and cabbage in our veg box)
10. Baba ghanous
11. Calamari
12. Phở (Just once, with my brother, in Seattle—a happy memory)
13. PB&J sandwich (Ideally with cheddar cheese as well)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (Smelly, but smelly-good)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (Plum wine, apple wine…)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans (I was born on a Monday in New Orleans—I have rice and beans in my blood)
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (I’ve cooked with them, but why would you eat one raw?)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (Though after getting sick from dodgy shellfish in Paris, my oyster intake has declined drastically)
29. Baklava (I always like the idea of it more than the taste—too sweet)
30. Bagna cauda (I keep meaning to make this—mmm, anchovy bath…)
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (Not a fan of the salted lassi, I gotta say)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I have had cognac, and I have had a cigar, but I don’t know if I’ve had them together)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (What American college student hasn’t had a Jell-O shot?)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail (Nothing beats rich, dark oxtail soup on a cold, miserable day)
41. Curried goat (Jeremy ordered this at a Jamaican restaurant in Massachusetts—yum)
42. Whole insects (This is the one thing on this list that I would really, really struggle to eat. If I were going to mortally offend someone by not eating a whole insect, then I suppose I’d choke one down—otherwise, I just don’t know if I could bring myself to do it. The only thing worse would be to eat a scorpion.)
43. Phaal (I like spicy food, but even I have my limits)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/€80/$120 or more (I’ve had some pretty expensive whisky in restaurants, but I’ve never spent this much on a bottle myself—yet.)
46. Fugu (Not yet, though it looks like I’ll be in Tokyo before the year is out, so who knows—but then, seeing as there’s no antidote if you are poisoned, probably not…)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (Smoked eel is lovely, but nothing beats unagi )
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (Warm, straight from the oven, after a wet, freezing day on a ski slope—fab)
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear (Lots of this to be found in Arizona—jam, salsa, etc.)
52. Umeboshi (Had my first one just a few weeks ago—really salty, quite sour, and strangely addictive)
53. Abalone (I kind of think I have had abalone somewhere, but I can’t be sure)
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spätzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (Hello, Belgium!)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores (Overrated, if you ask me)
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst (Hell yeah )
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (Yes, yes, yes, yes)
68. Haggis (Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it)
69. Fried plantain (One of those things that never tastes as good as I’m expecting it to)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (Not to my knowledge. But I’d eat well-prepared roadkill before I’d eat a whole insect.)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (God, I loved these as a kid—blueberry or apple)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum (One of Jeremy’s favorites)
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (I’ve had rabbit, but not hare)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (Pretty in a salad)
89. Horse (I think I had horse goulash in Vienna—and incidentally, for a good laugh, check out the machine-translated version of this German restaurant’s menu, which I came across when I Googled “horse goulash”. I particularly like “shrimps in self-making dressing” and “escalope of calb on the crust of rolled oafs represented on cream-fungi”. Good lord, people, hire a professional translator!)
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab (To be honest, soft-shell crab really creeps me out.)
93. Rose harissa (I’ve had—and made—harissa, but I’ve never had rose harissa)
94. Catfish (Ideally blackened or cornmeal-crusted)
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor (Seems like overkill to me, though; I’d stick with fresh lobster dipped in melted butter—or better yet, fresh crab)
98. Polenta (The best I ever had was at a restaurant called Robert’s Creekside Cafe in Sedona, Arizona—which, sadly, is no more…)
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake