The Omnivore’s Hundred

Very Good Taste had a meme for food bloggers that looked like fun called the Omnivores Hundred. Out of the hundred foods listed you're supposed to find the ones that you have eaten. After getting 84 out of 100, I really have to thank my mom and dad for dragging me all over the world and making me try everything! I didn't see dried squid bought off a street pushcart in Bangkok on the list, that would put me at 101 :) some of these are things I'd never eat again, but at least I tried them (hear that kids????)

Here's the instructions if you'd like to try it, along with my list.

Here’s what I want you to do:

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.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

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
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
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
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
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
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
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
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
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

Seared Scallops with creamed bitter greens

Saute a large pan full of bitter greens in olive oil with a little salt. Deglaze with 1/2 c chicken stock, reduce, add 1/3 c heavy cream and 1T horseradish. Cook over med/low heat till cream is reduced. Add 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese.

Saute dry scallops till seared. Serve on top of greens with bearnaise butter. I also served some roasted beets with this.

Vietnamese Chicken with baby bok choy and scallion dirty rice

Vietnamese Chicken with baby bok choy and scallion dirty rice
Originally uploaded by elfed.

Recipe from Sunday Nite Dinner.
Somehow I didn't quite get the skin crispy enough, but the sauce worked well.

Pan Seared Scallops, roasted beets, Russian Kale, horseradish emulsion

Pan Seared Scallops, roasted beets, Russian Kale, horseradish emulsion and roasted potatoes

This recipe came from WrightFood and we *loved* it. I sliced the potatoes and oven roasted them with fresh rosemary, then included them in the plating rather than doing them separately and that worked really well. I think next time I might slice the beets the same way and roast them as slices with the thyme and olive oil, then plate everything together. We got frozen scallops from Woodmans and they were actually quite good. I also used fingerling potatoes, kale and beets from Willy Street Co-op.

Pot Roast

Pot Roast
Originally uploaded by elfed.

I don't really have a recipe for this - Val asked me to write it down and I forgot. Basically, you take onions, celery and carrots, saute them in olive oil then throw them in a crock pot. Take a largish chuck roast, season and flour it and sear it off in the pan you used for the vegetables. Throw that in the crock pot. Add about a half bottle of good red wine and a cup of water. Cook it on low for 8 hours or so while you're at work. When you get home from work, throw in a bag of baby carrots and some quartered fingerling potatoes - turn it up to high for about two hours, et voila.....

Breakfast Pizza

Breakfast Pizza
Originally uploaded by elfed.

Bacon, egg and tomato pizza using the olive oil dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

Preheat the oven as high as it will go. Use a baking stone if you can, I used a pizza tin.

Fry 1lb bacon (I used Nueske's) till crisp, drain and crumble.

Whisk together three eggs with 1/2 cup of ricotta and 1/2 cup grated parm.

Slice a large handful of cherry tomatoes.

Roll out your dough and place it on the peel or in the tin. Pour the egg mixture onto the dough and spread it around evenly. Scatter the bacon and tomatoes over the egg mixture. Salt and pepper. Top with mozzarella cheese and bake at 500 till browned.

Thomas Kellers Coffee and Donuts

Thomas Kellers Coffee and Donuts
Originally uploaded by elfed.

Best donut ever.....

This was fun, and fun to eat! There were extra donuts, which the kids loved. No extra semi-freddo though!

This was from the French Laundry Cookbook again. Buy it. Really. It looks intimidating, but it's very easy to follow. Truly. A two year old could do it...

well....with help.....

New Years Eve 2007

Butter-Poached Maine Lobster with Leeks, Pommes Maxim, and a Red Beet Essence
Originally uploaded by elfed.

Yes, I spent my New Years Eve cooking crap I cannot eat. I just don't like lobster, but the boys do, so this one was for them.

Butter-Poached Maine Lobster with Leeks, Pommes Maxim, and a Red Beet Essence from Thomas Keller's French Laundry cookbook. And a much better blogger than I am has already run down the steps to this one, so go read the French Laundry At Home.

The Tru Dinner

Comments will be added later, but I wanted to at least get these out as it's been months since the dinner actually happened!

We wanted to do a full dinner from Tru using recipes from Rick Tramonto's book, Tru: A Cookbook from the Legendary Chicago Restaurant. The menu for the evening was:

Prosciutto di Parma with Tricolor Melon and Mascarpone

Caramel Taffy Apple Foie Gras with Lavender Salad
and Green Apple Chips

Salad of Baby Vegetables and Greens

Arctic Char Poached in Duck Fat with Spinach Almond Puree

Heirloom Tomato Water

Duet of Venison with Rutabaga Mash

Chocolate Malted Semifreddo with Chocolate-Bergamot Paint

We had my cousin Patrick and his family over and my brother Dan with his family made it for dessert and leftovers. Del had already eaten their foie gras and fish portions by then! The prosciutto dish tasted nice but was messy and hard to eat, everything else was wonderful, especially the fish and the foie. Prep was not too bad, I started a week or so early and had time to throw things together or heat them up in the kitchen between courses. We did wine pairings as suggested in the book. I'll add more comments and sources to specific dishes later, but here are the photos:

The above are prep shots, the one to the right shows the venison bones ready to roast for stock.



the foie!!!!!


Arctic Char poached in duck fat. This was absolutely amazing! We got the fish online from Gortons Seafood, which was really reasonably priced.




The duet of Venison.









The dessert....chocolate malted semi-freddo with chocolate bergamot paint. This recipe made a ton of leftover semi-freddo which was marvelous. It really tasted much better than the photo looks!





more to come..............

Tilapia with curried veg

20070806 011
Originally uploaded by elfed.

Long beans, eggplant and scallions sauteed with coconut milk and curry paste. Served with pan fried tilapia.

Lamb chops

20070806 012
Originally uploaded by elfed.

Lamb chops marinated in rosemary and garlic, served with a port wine/fig reduction flavored with chipotle and espresso