I’ve fallen a bit off the blogging wagon, so I came across this Omnivore’s Hundred list and thought I’d take the easy way out. I’ve eaten all the bold stuff. I linked to food I had to look up. Strikethrough means, no thanks.

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 (though not together, and I don’t smoke)
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 (I have had snails a few times.)
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (Lisa has made it.)
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 (I have had tripe.)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (Guinea hen. It was tough from the adrenaline.)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (I prefer Tastycakes!)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong (Must have, but not sure.)
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 (Most memorably, food-poisoning on my honeymoon.)
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I think 63 is very respectable. I’ll try anything once. Jellyfish could have been on the list. Tasted just like rubberbands.

I suppose we’ll be running that load again … the mouse must have been a cat offering left in our work clothing outside the front door.

I may be the only person on the planet that doesn’t think WALL-E is the “best reviewed film of the year.” (Actually, Lisa’s review would even be more harsh.) Perhaps we’ve all been a bit brainwashed by the perfectly admirable environmental message. Don’t get me wrong, the first third(?) of the film is very daring with little dialogue, and in many ways I wish that had never ended. WALL-E to me, was pretty much a mechanical ET with an equally limited vocabulary. (And for Brad Bird, I’ll take the Iron Giant.) Yes the images were great. Yes there were some humorous bits, particularly the depiction of humans that no longer have to walk. But what happened to the story? The message was very clear, but some how the story got lost in all of it. Everything Pixar does is good, but contrary to popular opinion, this was not their best film.

The last time we were in Florence, we had fried courgette flowers for the first time, and for lunch the other day, Gabe fried up a few of our own. Absolutely delicious. The courgettes themselves aren’t too bad either, but there are so many I may have to challenge Gabe to make a courgette cookie. Who knows …

Lisa and I have on most of our anniversaries acquired some object together to celebrate. We certainly haven’t followed the traditional anniversary gift guide, but perhaps we could do one of our own. Rocking chair. Table. Tibetan singing bowl. We always gaze lovingly out the window at the urn. How we ever got it to Ireland in one piece is a minor miracle, but it must have traveled pretty far to get to us in the first place. What to find for this fourteenth year?