1. Venison - I first tried this as part of the grand menu at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago. It was served with quinoa and collard greens, delicious.
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros - Mexican for breakfast in the Mission, son! Always ordered with extra sour cream and salsa.
4. Steak tartare - First tried this at the Les Fines Gueules in Paris. It had pesto and almonds ... just heavenly.
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding - English breakfast in Covent Garden, son! Whenever I think of happy times in London I always picture a plate with all this stuff in it.
7. Cheese fondue - oh, what lovely memories I have of eating herb fondue in Zermat, Switzerland with two of my very favorite people at the time. If I remember correctly, it involved one of us (not me) playing with fire in the restaurant, and one of us (me) subsequently abandoning them for the rest of the trip.
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho - I live in the Bay Area, where it is customary to love Pho and also to pronounce it correctly.
13. PB&J sandwich - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are OK, but have you ever had Peanut Butter and butter sandwiches? Yum.
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart - this features in every single trip I take to New York City.
16. Epoisses - one of my favorite cheeses! I first sampled this on a recent day trip to Sonoma.
17. Black truffle - They served this with the sea bass at Bouley, during my last trip to New York City.
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - plum wines are my favorite!
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream - First had this at a Google cafe a couple of months ago.
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras - the best foie gras I've ever had was at Nobu in New York City. It was served with the chef's famed black cod dish.
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas - these are awesome with a couple of pints of your favorite beer.
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a
37. Clotted cream tea - High tea on the High Street at Oxford is one of my favorite memories of England.
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk - not a fan, but someone double-dog dared me to drink it so there you go.
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more - I've had the privilege of trying the Glenrothes 1978. Looks like it goes for a cool 400 quid.
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala - another favorite of mine from when I was living in England.
48. Eel - Unagi!
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin - sea urchin gonads, to be exact.
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle - I first had these noodles at the home of a friend in Boston.
57. Dirty gin martini - no other way to drink a Martini, in my opinion.
58. Beer above 8% ABV - recently had the Trappistes Rochefort 10, which, after a couple of pints, knocked me out at 11.3% ABV.
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads - again, I'm fairly certain someone double-dog dared me to eat these.
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian - Spent my childhood in the Philippines, where this stinky fruit was not so unusual.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis - I skipped out on haggis when I first visited Scotland (incidentally with the same friends that I ditched in Switzerland). But a few months later I got up the courage to try haggis in a dingy pub somewhere in London.
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 - first tried escargots at Landmarc. I literally almost puked all over Landmarc.
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum - this is good, but my favorite will always be Tom ka ghai!
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. - I'm lucky to have experienced the "Prestige Menu" at the Guy Savoy in Paris.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash - one of my best friends loves to cook this in the winter.
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
For someone who once individually picked out the peas and the carrots and the onions in fried rice before eating it, I'm pretty tickled at how many foods I've actually tried on this completely arbitrary and subjective list. I'm still a fairly picky eater to be sure, but I'm pretty open to trying out lots of unfamiliar foods these days.
Some other foods that I think an omnivore should experience at least once: marzipan, mangosteen, nutella and chicken liver. Yum.
