Milk Calendar Mondays: Kids Crazy Meatball Wraps

Yes, I'm cutting it close. No I didn't forget or bail out of this month's recipe. Just poor time management.

I thought, for a change of pace, it would be good to have someone (who's not me) who ate the meal actually report on it...just in case anyone's thinking I've lost my objectivity with this project.

So...here's the exbf with his take on this month's recipe. My comments are bracketed and in pinky-mauve.

Jasmine has been working her way through the recipes on the Milk Calendar and I have the distinct honour (or shall I say I seem to be paying a penance for things I’ve done and have yet to do) by playing the occasional role of guinea-pig.

I have to admit that while I like her cooking, I dread meals taken from Milk Calendar recipes. The mere mention of those words strike terror in my stomach because that it’s apparent the Milk Calendar’s approach seems to be to take some innocent recipe whose original form involves no milk and inflict dairy upon it. They seem to have little regard for how this affects the taste or texture. The end results are usually nearly tasteless and only barely digestible.

Since Jasmine’s cooking is usually a lot better than that, I have to assume the problem is the recipes and not the cook.

I would expect that this does not need to be said but if you are at all lactose intolerant, avoid the Milk Calendar recipes. After many I’ve tried, I can say the same caveat goes if you have functional taste buds combined with any level of desire to use them while eating.

This month’s offering was Kids’ Crazy Meatball Wraps which was meat-balls in a ketchup and I assume milk-based sauce that had corn in it in a wrap (Jasmine: yes, I chose the ketchup version...after so many disappointing meals I wasn't going to use my homemade tomato sauce, the good bottled tomato sauce or my homemade ketchup) :

“A fun dinner will get the kids excited and parents will be thrilled to make an easy, nutritious meal that everyone will love. Serve crisp veggie sticks on the side.”

The title of the recipe is like “employee empowerment”: if they have to tell you that they’re empowering their employees, they aren’t. In the same way, if they tell you it’s “crazy” and a “meal that everyone will love” it isn’t insane (Jasmine: Well, I question the thought processes behind mixing milk with ketchup and corn and carrots--exactly how much sugar should one have in a meal?) and you’ll probably be hard pressed to find a group of people who value good flavoured food to love it…choke it down, maybe.

I swear they’ve got a time warp back there to the 1950s or 1960s. It struck me as something a cautiously adventurous cook circa 1963 [1] who had heard of a burrito, but who had never actually seen one and who was a bit worried their families might reject anything truly exotic, might have come up with. The best one can say for it was that it was inoffensively bland and easy to chew. My favourite part of the meal was the pickles she served with them.

I would recommend this recipe for people easy intimidated by flavour. It might also be suitable for people in a persistent vegetative state, assuming they can handle semi-solid food.


1: Young readers should be grateful that they missed the era in which cutting-edge home-cooked cuisine in Ontario involved such knee-trembling excitement as Jell-O With Things That Are Almost Certainly Food (or at least Food-like) In and Pork Chops Baked to the Consistency of Tent Pegs. The reason Canadians have in recent years tended to be a little chubbier than previous generations is because until the 1970s, a surprising percentage of our food was only barely edible (Jasmine: Hmmm…you seem to forget the processed foods, fast foods and all those other things that the Milk Calendar people apparently want their readers to not rely so heavily upon, but I'd usually gladly take over certain Milk Calendar recipes I've made).


cheers!
jasmine

Daring Bakers: Lavosh crackers and toppings

Note to self: there's a reason you named your stove Beelzebub

Sigh...

You see, he fed me a line and I believed him. He actually made me believe he wasn't demon spawn, he wasn't a product of an unholy alliance between (insert your own despised political party *here*) and (insert your own despised corporate sector *here*), he wasn't put on this planet to convince people that big box prepared processed and cooked takeaway foods really is the way to eat

I thought we had a break through. I stopped cursing at him and he stopped playing with the temps to keep a constant heat. It was a lovely three weeks. I made banana breads, scones and cookies and lost nary a one.

Admittedly, my time management has been in the loo this month. I didn't get around to this month's Daring Bakers' challenge until this morning. Our dearest Natalie of Gluten a Go-Go and Shel from Fishbowl challenged the vast DB masses to make Lavosh crackers and toppings. The lavosh recipe is easy and I will keep it on hand to make again...hopefully with a different stove, whether mine or borrowed

Maybe Beelzebub picked upon my slightly elevated stress levels or he picked up on the urgency of the issue (heck, the post needs to be up today). Maybe he thought he was being taken for granted. I don't know, but he was a naughty boy. Whatever he thought, he played with the temperature dial like a bored teenager with his PSP.

The dough is very simple and easily adaptable to your palate. I had no issues making the ball, passing the window pane test, letting it rise, getting it to double in size or rolling out the dough. I had no issues choosing its flavourings--I chose freshly cracked black pepper, ground salt and sesame seeds. I wound up baking them on two trays...and I'm glad I did.

This is what happened to the first tray. I suppose if I were making cocoa or molasses lavosh, it would be fine...but I wasn't. Yes, I tasted a shard. Apart from the heavy charcoalish notes along with the bonfire-like aromas left in the condo, it was quite tasty.




Here's the second tray. MUCH better. Okay...slightly underdone in spots, but I can live with that. I think next time I'll toast the sesame seeds before sprinkling them on the wet dough.

Same dough. Same oven. Same cooking time.

Sigh.

The second part of the challenge was to make a dip for the crackers. Our lovely hosts suggested salsa. Even though we were recently in the throes of tomato season, I wasn't in the mood to make (or buy) a salsa. Instead, I opened a bottle of my lascivious peach chutney and tried the crackers with it--absolutely delicious.

Yes. It was my breakfast.


To read what the other DBs did with this challenge, take a meander through our blogroll.


cheers!
jasmine

White chocolate banana muffins

It used to be that I'd make banana bread once every four or six weeks-- usually when I found myself with fruit far too overripened even for me (the joke with my parents is that I won't touch bananas until all traces of green have been taken over by black spots and they won't eat bananas with any trace of spotted goodness).

Then all of a sudden I stopped. It's not that I stopped making banana bread--I just stopped buying bananas. I don't know why or exactly when, but I've not had a banana in the house for what seem like ages and ages.

Just as suddenly the bananas reappeared. The first bunch was courtesy of my parents--more spotted than green. I made muffins and they were good. Since then there seems to have been at least one banana in the house.

This week I just couldn't get through them all and they morphed into a gooey-and-slimy-on-the-inside and pitch-like-on-the-outside existence. It would almost be sad if they weren't finding themselves to a better fate. Well..okay, not better...just tasty.

My standard banana bread recipe is from Nigella's How To Be A Domestic Goddess. I've tried others and as good as they are, this one is the one I always come back to. Sometimes I add dried fruit or frozen berries, sometimes nuts, sometimes a combination. This time I decided to reach for my jar of white chocolate chippies.

I'm not a fan of white chocolate--I find it too sweet and even the smallest amount seems to leave me glugging water. I keep it in the house in case I need to make an emergency special cheesecake or I want a visual contrast in some midnight-like chocolatey cookies. But this time the chippies just called out to me from the cupboard (it's amazing how they do that).

The end result was sweeter than I'd prefer--a combination of the bananas, chips and brown sugar--so next time I'd probably lessen the amount of sugar. Friends who've tried them really like them. They're easy and relatively quick and are good with a nice hot cup of tea.

White Chocolate Banana Muffins
adapted from Nigella Lawson's Banana Bread in How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Yield 15 muffins

175g plain flour
1 dspn baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
125g butter, melted
150g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
300g mashed overripe bananas
100g white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F; paper the bowls of a cupcake tin.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter and bananas with sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture, then the chips. Pour into lined tins and bake for 20-30 minutes or until done.


cheers!
jasmine

Waste not, want not

Am I the only one who finds this seemingly newfound frugality fad mixed distrust of the food industry with a bit comical?

I mean...it just seems like a few years ago most people I knew were more interested in loading their shopping trolleys with loads of processed foods or simply just getting coffee, bottled water and snacky foods, leaving their meals up to office cafeterias, restaurants and fast fooderies. These were the same people who would mock me for baking my own bread, brownbagging my lunches, buying "family packs" of meat and *gasp* using the produce weigh scales when buying fresh fruits and veggies.

Today colleagues ask me how to make the breads and pastries they used to buy at the shops, the lunch hour microwave queues are longer (while caf lines are shorter), total strangers stop me and ask me about portioning with family packs and what on earth they can do with all those pork chops (do I have a forehead tattoo signalling a passing familiarity with cooking?) and I actually have to wait to use the scales.

Don't get me started on the food boors.

As someone raised on home-cooked foods by budget-conscious people, I think I've done well enough with sticker shock--I've always looked for bargains and bulk cooked to avoid the "there's nothing in the house to eat/make and eat quickly" as often as possible. I was also taught to figure out what to do with scraps. I'm not always the greatest at this, but every once in a while I'm quite pleased at the silk purse I've fashioned.

Take, as an example, my latest creation, born of the drawn salty-sweet peach juices from the peach chutney I last blogged about. I turned it into a satay-like peanut sauce. Unfortunately, I can't give you exact measurements--in my experience, silk purses rarely get them--but I mixed in some chunky peanut butter, sesame oil, powdered ginger, garlic and onion powder, chilli oil, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and a pinch of brown sugar, put it in a jar and stored it in the fridge

I've used it a couple of times and it tastes great with shrimp or chicken. Of course, you don't have to make your own peanut sauce to make my peanutty shrimp and noodle dish--store bought will work just as well. Again, no quantities--just use as much as you have/want/need/suits your taste.

Peanutty shrimp and noodles
slivered onions
slivered carrots
slivered bell pepper
minced garlic
cleaned and peeled uncooked shrimp
chilli sauce
peanut sauce
soy sauce
cooked rice noodles


Heat oil in a wok and tip in the onions, carrots and peppers and stir fry. When they are about half-way cooked, add in the garlic and stir for a out 30 seconds and then remove to a plate. Add more oil if necessary and add the shrimp. Cook for a few minutes, add the sauces and then the cooked noodles and stir until the shrimp is fully cooked. Return the veg to the wok and just toss everything together before serving.

cheers!
jasmine

Sweet, spicy and just a little tart...y

Gosh...that title could be a bit of a self-descriptor, couldn't it?

Well, maybe not tarty...

How about "cognisant of her gods-given feminine attributes and will occasionally dress the part?"

Hmmm...tarty scans better...especially after some of the bordering-on-lascivious glances I got today. Lascivious in both senses: certain women disapproved of a particular blouse while certain men appreciated today's wardrobe choice.

Every once in a while it's good to do things like that. Stress on "once in a while" -- I'm sure if I dressed like that every day I'd either get a talking to about distracting the boys from their work while making the more body conscious slim-everythinged girls painfully aware that a thin middle isn't part of the universal definition of attractiveness, the lack of "professionalism" or "genuine concern" that I've gone off the deep end and am going through some sort of crisis/depression or have been taken over by the spirit of Cher.

So...why do I do it? I'm not sure I have a good reason--or any reason really. Do I need one?

Maybe part of the reason lies within a search for balance (or rebalance). I think I live a rather quiet life--I don't fly jets, swing from trapeezes or work for CSIS (even though I did consider applying)--so every once in a while I do something that brings out a different side to the usual Jasmine that most people have come to expect: take off (by myself) to a different country where I don't speak the language, be nearly deafened at a rock concert or wear something that's technically within the office dress code but would probably more appropriate at a bar, a concert or in a different country where I don't speak the language.

I guess the same can be said for cooking. Take a sweet, juicy and luscious tree-ripened fruit, and turn up the heat and add spices and a couple of hits of acid until you get a nice balance of sweet, tart, salt and sour. It's still recognisable as derrived from that original fruit, but it's got an injection of attitude that lets it play nicely with meats or a good wodge of cheese.

Yup...it's peach chutney. Thick and chunky, sweet and savoury with a gorgeous golden colour that will lift your spirits even in the dead of winter.

If you've never made chutney before, this is a really easy recipe and one you can do in an afternoon (as opposed to prep the night before). Even though it's okay to eat immediately, let it sit for about a month before spooning it out.



Lascivious peach chutney
makes approximately two litres

1.75 kg peeled, diced fresh peaches
2 tbsp pickling salt
675g sugar
375ml apple cider vinegar
2 dspn minced garlic
175g diced cooking onion
1 dspn powdered ginger
2 minced fresh red chillis (or to taste)
180ml lime juice
175g raisins
50g minced ginger, boiled in a simple syrup for about 15 minutes and then drained
20g plain flour
1 dspn dry mustard
1/4 tsp turmeric

Salt the peaches and let stand for about an hour (or longer, if you wish).

Simmer the sugar, vinegar, garlic, onion, ginger powder, chillis, lime juice and raisins. Drain the peaches (reserve the juice--you'll see why in the next post) and add to the pot. Bring the entire mixture to a good, ploppy boil.

Lower the flame and let simmer for about 30-40 minutes until soft and it begins to thicken, stirring occasionally. Add the boiled ginger and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring often.

Mix together the flour, mustard and turmeric. Take the pot off the hob and add the flour mixture to the chutney in several additions, stirring well between each spoonful. Return to the heat and stir for another five minutes until it reaches the thickness you want.

Ladle into hot, sterilized jars and store in a cool, dark place. I don't return the jars to the canner afterwards--I just wait for the lids to snap. If you get bottles that don't seal properly, then put the bottles into the fridge and finish those first.


Cheers!
j

On My Rickety Shelves: Simply Delicioso

Thanks to the lovely people at Random House Canada for providing this month's selection in my mailbox.

Simply Delicioso: a collection of everyday recipes with a Latin twist
By Ingrid Hoffmann with Raquel Pelzel
Clarkson Potter Publishers/Random House Canada
256 pages; $37.95

One of today’s problems/pleasures is that different and new-to-many cuisines arrive by way of fast fooderies, frozen dinners and homogenised chain restaurants that try too hard to be “authentic.” Take Mexican for example. My first taste was via a mall’s food court: plasticized, salinized and bereft of fresh flavours and varying textures. I was a teenager: I ordered. I paid. I ate. But that first taste provided glimmers of a hope of what could be a vibrant and absolutely delicious cuisine, and it began an on-again, off-again wistful search for good Mexican food and eventually tasty foods from Latin and South America: Yo quiero el buen alimento latinoamericano (thank you, Babelfish).

Ingrid Hoffmann’s Simply Delicioso hopes to tear people away from such corporate-ised Latin foods and convince them that tasty foods from Mexico, Central and South America are easily made in their home kitchens. Hoffman is a television chef, with shows on both Food Network and Galavision/Univision; her book takes its name from her Food Network show.

The book offers 11 chapters of foods and drinks ranging from breakfasts to appetisers to fish and meats, along with two sections on pantry staples. Every chapter is introduced by Hoffman, explaining the role of the following recipes in her family’s or a culture. Beautiful photographs punctuate the book—not every recipe has a photo (nor should they have). The instructions are clear and well-written, with many including “chica tips”—advice and suggestions about some ingredients. Some are helpful such as creating a whirlpool in simmering water to create “perfectly” poached eggs; some are banal such as liberally spraying baking trays with pan spray to avoid heavy duty scrubbing, while others read somewhat bizarrely for a cookery book such as combing mashed avocados through your hair and wrapping your head in cling film for 20 minutes before rinsing out the green goo. The last tip would have been fine if this was a health/beauty book or a treatise on avocadoes, but it’s not.

Now this segues nicely into what bugs me about this book. Most of the expositional writing is good, but it is littered with enough sugary cutsey-isms that turned my stomach. From “appeteasers” the interjections of “que rico” and “fantastico” the voice in my head quickly morphed from warm and friendly to slightly hyper and rather bubbleheaded. I’m sure Hoffman is a lovely and intelligent woman who obviously loves life and food. I can take her food seriously, but I can’t take her seriously. Add to this a niggling thought that if she were not a TV chef she probably would not have been given this book contract. It feels like part of a big marketing machine. She tells readers to go to her web site to get updates to pantry staples). There are unnecessary photographs of Hoffman—not showing a technique, nor her with the completed recipe (or at any stage of the recipe) but odd photos that have nothing to do with what’s on the page. Yes, she’s very pretty but…

Every recipe I tried worked really well (because of the machine behind her, I’d be surprised if they didn’t) and produced delicious foods (as promised in the book’s title).

Dad’s Absolutely Amazing Brandied Shrimp (p 118)
As long as you have thawed shrimp (and the other ingredients) you have an incredibly quick and delicious meal. It was so good I’ve made it twice in the past month…and may make it again tonight. She suggests pairing it with rice or pasta—I prefer it with crusty white bread to sop up the all the lovely saucy bits.

Eggs Benedict with Chipotle Hollandaise (p 32)
I’m an eggs benny fanatic—if I see it or a variant on a menu I’m compelled to order it. So when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to have it. Her hollandaise instructions were easy and produced a nicely spicy sauce which worked well with the oozy eggs. When added to the spicy slabs of bacon and I was a very happy girl.


Peanut-crusted Chicken Breasts (p 131)
As I’m not really a mayonnaisey person I chose to not serve it with the suggested chipotle mayo (besides, I’d made the hollandaise for the eggs benny and an aioli for another dish). As nicely spicy-crunchy as the chicken was, it probably would have benefitted from a squeeze of lime in lieu of the sauce.


Tropical Pineapple Gazpacho (p 91)
Wow: gorgeous colour and sweet-hot-sour tasty goodness. This was incredibly easy—my only wish was that I was more patient and didn’t let it sit long enough—the leftovers which I had the next day—were so incredibly delicious.

Simply Delicioso promises on its delivery of delicious and simply-prepared Latin and Latin-inspired foods.

So how does it rate?
Overall: 3.5/5

The breakdown:
Recipe Selection: 4/5
Writing: 2/5
Ease of use: 4/5
Yum factor: 4/5
Table-top test: Lies flat

Kitchen comfort-level: Novice
Pro: Allows home cooks to easily prepare delicious Latin and Latin-inspired food
Con: Don’t get caught up in the exposition.



cheers!
jasmine

Sniffle

Today's post was supposed to be the latest cookbook review, but the deities think otherwise.

As I sat for lunch, I could feel a little ache. By the two o'clock coffee my throat was a little tingly and by the time I left the office at the end of the day, my tongue was sour.

Meh.

On my way home I stopped off at one of the Chinese restaurants I like and picked up some hot and sour soup, egg rolls and pot stickers. After I took the soup's piccie I doctored it with chilli garlic sauce and black rice vinegar. Hoping to shake this whatever it is sooner rather than later. Probably overworked and underrested.

Meh.

So instead of being a sane person and crawling under covers, I started tidying...sorted out the kitchen, ran the chilli pepper (the vaccuum--it's very red) over the carpet in the TV temple and towered the books on the centre table. I can't be unwell in disarray--even when I was little(r) at the first sign of a cold, I'd break out the furniture spray and glass cleaner.

Meh.

So...instead of writing the review, I've decided to keep with the foodbookish theme and let you know which cookery books were nominated for the 2008 Canadian Culinary Book Awards--winners will be announced on 7 November at the Royal Winter Fair.

Short-listed in the English Cookbook Category:
Dish Entertains: everyday simple to special occasions by Trish Magwood (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., Toronto). Here's my review.

Fresh: seasonal recipes made with local foods by John Bishop and Dennis Green (Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver);

Wild Sweets Chocolate: sweet, savoury, bites, drinks by Dominique and Cindy Duby, (Whitecap Books Ltd., North Vancouver);


Short-listed in the English Special Interest Category, books about food, but not cookbooks:
In Bad Taste? The adventures and science behind food delicacies by Dr. Massimo Marcone (Key Porter Books, Toronto);

The 100-mile Diet: a year of local eating by Alisa Smith and J.R. MacKinnon (Random House Canada, Toronto).

Ultimate Foods for Ultimate Health…and don’t forget the chocolate! by Liz Pearson and Marilyn Smith (Whitecap Books Ltd., North Vancouver);

Short-listed in the Canadian Food Culture Category, books that best illustrate Canada’s rich culinary heritage and food culture:
A Year at Les Fougères by Charles Part and Jennifer Warren-Part (Chelsea Books, Chelsea);

Icewine: extreme winemaking by Donald J.P. Ziraldo and Karl Kaiser (Key Porter Books, Toronto);

Menus from an orchard table: celebrating the food and wine of the Okanagan by Heidi Noble (Whitecap Books Ltd., North Vancouver).


Short-listed in the French Cookbook Category:
Apollo : ceci est un livre de cuisine by Giovanni Apollo (Les Éditions Transcontinental Inc., Montréal);

Serge Bruyère : ses recettes orginales et revisitées by Anne L. Desjardins, Project Coordinator and Author, (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal);

Stefano Faita, entre cuisine et quincaillerie by Stefano Faita (Editions du Trécarré-Group Librex, Montréal).


Short-listed the French Special Interest Category, books about food but not cookbooks:
La chimie des desserts : tout comprendre pour mieux les réussir by Christina Blais and Ricardo (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal) ;

La sélection Chartier 2008 by François Chartier (Les Éditions La Presse, Montréal) ;

Les vins du nouveau monde, Volume 1 by Jacques Orhon (Les Éditions de l’Homme, Montréal).

cheers!
jasmine

Appealing to my primal nature

There are fewer sounds more appealing than the sizzle of a steak as it touches searing metal.

My thoroughly carnivorous being immediately relaxes at that sound. My eyes brighten, I breathe deeply and I begin my euphoric ascent.

A really good meaty fat-ringed offering, unfetteredly prepared and accompanied by simple platemates, is the cure to many over-committed hours, long days, longer nights and pretty much anything else that dares to trod upon my time or psyche.

My past few weeks have been busy doing this and that and that and this. Sitting down and "just being" hasn't happened much...neither visiting (and commenting) on my favourite blogs or replying to most of my email (and yes, Linda, I saw your comment and I'll be visiting you soon!).

When life gets like this, I want easy, tasty and fast food--not necessarily fast food (even though my gullet has been reintroduced to it over the past couple of weeks). So today when I ran into the mediumscarygrocer's to pick up a few things, I perused the quick sale butcher's counter and found a tray of beautiful grilling steaks at half price, I knew what I'd have for dinner tonight: pepper steak.

This is a non-recipe recipe. Steaks dredged in a mixture of crushed black and Sichuan peppercorn and powdered mustard, garlic and onion with a bit of salt seared on my table-top grill. Very satisfying and very yummy.


cheers!
jasmine

The VGT Ominivore's Hundred

If you are a regular foodblog reader you've probably found one of the more than 3000 mentions about the VGT Omnivore's Hundred. The rules are simple...mark which of the 100 listed foods you've partaken in.

I think it's a great idea--by no means is the list supposed to be a be-all and end-all list of foods we must have--but it has a nice cross section of things to nibble on.

The way I've done it is to grey out the ones I've not eaten (can't figure out the strikethrough command), the bits in blue are things I won't have and what's in pink are my comments.

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 (qualification: home grown tomatoes from harvested seeds)

22. Fresh wild berries (qualification: berries that weren’t obtained from a shop, but from friends’ (and strangers’) yards)

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese (nope, won't try this)

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 (separately: yes, together: no)

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (I have a dim memory of this from my uni days)

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 (so close: I’ve had 7.5 per cent ABV)

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin (qualification: in the form of freshly picked fruit/veggies that haven’t been washed)

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (comment:: Hey! What about beaver tails?!)

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini (qualification: not at the same time)

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

It's not a meme, but if you want to participate, here are the rules:

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.

cheers!
jasmine