100 Foods to Eat

My Facebook ticker has seemingly been blowing up lately with lists of things I need to do. 100 Places to Visit Before You Die! 100 Beers to Drink Before You Die! 100 Ex-Girlfriends to Apologize to Before You Die!... and so on.

So, it seems, either my friends are all way more obsessed with their own mortality than I had ever appreciated (doubtful... I've seen them all party), or else they just really like to know how well-traveled or well-read or well-fed they are compared to their friends (bingo). I've mostly avoided these lists, because in my experience they tend to be pretty brutally arbitrary--imagine that. But for some reason, I just couldn't help myself when it came to "100 Foods To Eat Before You Die". Maybe it's because I love cooking, or love eating, or I was just oddly curious to see what some unknown person in the darkest corners of the internet considered to be "must eat" cuisine.

As I expected, the list was indeed insanely arbitrary (Frito pie? WTF??), but I was nevertheless impressed by how many foods on the list I'd eaten--many of them for the first time in the past few years. By my count, I've hit 71 of the 100 on the list. Of the 29 remaining, there's probably 5 or 6 that I have little interest in trying, and 2 or 3 that I've literally never heard of.

1. Abalone

2. Absinthe

3. Alligator 

4. Baba Ghanoush

5. Bagel & Lox

6. Baklava

7. BBQ Ribs

8. Bellini

9. Birds Nest Soup

10. Biscuits & Gravy

11. Black Pudding

12. Black Truffle

13. Borscht

14. Calamari

15. Carp

16. Caviar

17. Cheese Fondue

18. Chicken & Waffles

19. Chicken Tikka Masala

20. Chile Relleno

21. Chitlins

22. Churros

23. Clam Chowder 

24. Cognac

25. Crab Cakes

26. Crickets

27. Currywurst

28. Dandelion Wine

29. Dulce De Leche

30. Durian

31. Eel

32. Eggs Benedict

33. Fish Tacos

34. Foie Gras

35. Fresh Spring Rolls

36. Fried Catfish

37. Fried Green Tomatoes 

38. Fried Plantain

39. Frito Pie

40. Frogs' Legs

41. Fugu

42. Funnel Cake

43. Gazpacho

44. Goat

45. Goat's Milk 

46. Goulash

47. Gumbo

48. Haggis

49. Head Cheese

50. Heirloom Tomatoes

51. Honeycomb

52. Hostess Fruit Pie 

53. Huevos Rancheros

54. Jerk Chicken

55. Kangaroo

56. Key Lime Pie

57. Kobe Beef

58. Lassi

59. Lobster

60. Mimosa 

61. Moon Pie

62. Morel Mushrooms

63. Nettle Tea

64. Octopus

65. Oxtail Soup

66. Paella

67. Paneer

68. Pastrami on Rye

69. Pavlova

70. Phaal

71. Philly Cheese Steak

72. Pho

73. Pineapple & Cottage Cheese

74. Pistachio Ice Cream

75. Po' Boy

76. Pocky

77. Polenta

78. Prickly Pear

79. Rabbit Stew

80. Raw Oysters

81. Root Beer Float

82. S'mores

83. Sauerkraut

84. Sea Urchin

85. Shark

86. Snail

87. Snake

88. Soft Shell Crab

89. Som Tam

90. Spaetzle 

91. Spam

92. Squirrel

93. Steak Tartare

94. Sweet Potato Fries

95. Sweetbreads

96. Tom Yum

97. Umeboshi

98. Venison

99. Wasabi Peas

100. Zucchini Flowers

I think I'm gonna make a concerted effort to knock a few of these off this year... What's that you say? Hickory-smoked squirrel with a side of chitlins and some absinthe to wash it all down? Why not, sounds like a party...