Sombody's List of 100 things to eat.

84/100. A few surprised me. Have I really never eaten hare? Abalone? Poutine? Black Pudding?

A few I wasn't sure. Is rose harissa different from regular harissa? What's Criollo chocolate?

The only two I hesitate to eat are Kaolin, which I think is an edible clay; and roadkill, because even if I killed it myself (and that's the only reason I would consider doing it.) the idea of tires and asphalt rubbing on my dinner makes me queasy. But I'd try both if offered, so, meh.

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

It's Calld Chowdah

"After having said so much about Fishing it will not be improper to say a little about the Fish that they catch & of the Dish they make of it Calld Chowder which I believe is Peculiar to this Country tho here it is the Chief food of the Poorer & when well made a Luxury that the rich Even in England at Least in my opinion might be fond of. It is a Soup made with a small quantity of salt Pork cut into Small Slices a good deal of fish and Biscuit Boyled for about an hour unlikely as this mixture appears to be Palatable. I have scare met with any Body in this County Who is not fond of it whatever it might be in England Here it is certainly the Best method of Dressing the Cod which is not near so firm here as in London whether or not that is owning to the art of the fishmongers I cannot pretend to say."
-Joseph Banks (1743-1820)

Rabbit and Bacon Naruto

Food idea inspired by momufuku: rabbit and bacon naruto. Naruto is that little white fish cake with the pink spiral. Take the rabbit loin, slice it out flat and pound like a paillard. Sprinkle with transglutaminase. Layer with bacon. roll on the back of a sushi mat for texture. Vacuum bag and cook sous-vide, leaving the mat in place. Freeze and slice. Related idea: Wild boar bacon dashi. Like D. Chang's bacon dashi, but I want to actually dry out the bacon like it was Bonito and shave it with a plane. I spread salt and sugar on the bacon and wrap it in a kitchen towel and stick it in the fridge for two weeks. When rock hard, break out the woodworking tools and make razor thin slices that dissolve in hot water with kombu. Add tare, ramen, poached egg, wild mushrooms, scallion, and naruto. eat.

That's the plan. so far I have the wild boar bacon rock hard and it shaves nicely. testing the dashi tonight with fiddlehead ferns. fiddlehead ferns are awesome in asian foods like noodle dishes- pad thai with shrimp, thai sausage and fiddlehead ferns rocked the house the other day. I expect ferns to be awesome in ramen as well.

Nouvelle Cuisine

NOUVELLE CUISINE The ten Commandments
First Commandment Avoid unnecessary complications
Second Commandment Shorter cooking times
Third Commandment Shop regularly at the market
Fourth Commandment A shorter menu
Fifth Commandment Abandon the hanging and lengthy marinating of game
Sixth Commandment Avoid too rich sauces
Seventh Commandment Return to regional cooking
Eighth Commandment Investigate the latest techniques
Ninth Commandment Remember diet and health
Tenth Commandment Constant Invention

according to Paul Bocuse, probably adapted from Henry Gault and Christian Millau's 1974 Michelin guide #54.

I definitely do not cook like this. 1,2,5,6 and 7 I disagree with.
Shop regularly at the market (3) is something you do only if it makes economic and culinary sense. A shorter menu is an economic imperative, driven by common sense and food costs, not philosophy. 8 and 10 are really the same thing, probably because in the original 1973 manifesto, #10 was "Friendship", and even Bocuse knew that was complete BS. Anyhow, 8 contradicts 7. #9 is reasonable, but has been used as an excuse to foist evil, inedible California hippy food on us and that's not right either.

Lab waste reclaimed

Mediocre coconut baozi paste turns out to be perfect for deep-fried coconut mantou. Served with sweetened condensed milk mixed with fresh lemon juice. Spectacular.

mine looked just like this:

Coconut Baozi with Salmon

A couple of food experiments- some parts worked, others, not so much.

Coconut Baozi- substituting coconut milk for both the water and the fat in this recipe.

2.5 cups AP white flour (11.7% protein)
1 cup coconut milk
2 tbs. sugar
1/4 oz. dry yeast (1 pkg.)
1 tbs. baking powder.
1/4 cup 110F water
12 portions salmon 2 - 3 oz. (but all the same!)

optional
1 tbs. white vinegar

mix water, yeast in a small bowl. mix dry ingedients. combine everything. form into ball.
knead and beat until smooth. allow to rise. beat down, divide into 12 portions. wrap around salmon and other fillings. (I just used salmon alone in this test, but salmon + spinach and mushrooms, or with a pat of lemon dill butter, or with watercress and shiitakes would work)
Allow to rise. (opt.) add a bit of white vinegar to steaming liquid. Steam 10-15 minutes depending on size and thickness of fish.

basically this is a reinterpretation of the classic Salmon en Croûte.

What didn't work: in spite of all that coconut milk, coconut flavor was very subtle to absent. It also seemed to yellow the bao. Bottom line, it was kind of pointless in this recipe. I'll try coconut bao again, but next time solid coconut goes into the dough, and I either cut or eliminate the coconut milk and bump up the sugar. I'll stick to entirely sweet flavors and serve it with sweetened condensed milk mixed with fresh lemon juice. Possibly fill it with mango custard to get a fake poached egg effect?

What worked: Fish cooked nicely. Maybe needs juice. A lemon and dill butter with leeks would be awesome. Or maybe serve in a savory broth? Tomatoes, leeks and black cardamon?

Photos from spicy bunny prototyping

Broke down a rabbit for the first time in a while. I'm using all of it, and thinking about building a multicourse meal around rabbit and strong spices.

Cheese course I'm building around Buffalo Rabbit Wings- made from the front legs and shoulder. Forearm is frenched, shoulder is not. One easy, one hard. Planning on four different blue cheeses, celery and carrot. Prototyped w/ just carrot and fourme d' ambert. 4 'wings'/rabbit means 2/person. I think that's enough for a cheese course. Sauce is classic - Frank's RedHot emulsified with butter. Added some powdered fennel seed as an experiment... tastes incredible.
Presentation needs some work.




pics from the amuse bouche didn't turn out- I'm a terrible food photographer.

Anyway, used half a rabbit kidney, roasted, and a hemisphere of green apple from a large melonballer, mated together to form a sphere on a bamboo skewer. Dipped it in a powdered chili mixture like the Cambodian girls at work do with slices of green apple and green mango. I need to figure out what they call that snack.

Also made a clean rabbit stew. I cut the vegetables very carefully in a Japanese style, dredged diced rabbit loin in rice flour, cayenne pepper, and coriander seed and browned it off, added potato, carrot, shiitake, onion, shallot, bay leaf, long pepper and kombu; deglazed with rabbit stock and simmered for an hour and a half. This was excellent, but not terrible spicy, so I'm not sure if it makes the cut.

The other half of the rabbit loin went into a Thai red curry. I'm very good at Thai red curries at this point so this was pretty effortless. I may change this over to a Panang curry and add pineapple and brined green peppercorns. Probably to be served with a ball of sticky rice rolled in a chiffonade of thai basil.

All the meat from the saddle went into the soup and curry, so no classic roasted saddle of rabbit. C'est la vie.

Jerked the thigh of the rabbit very traditionally with my coarse jerk paste. Allspice, black pepper, sea salt, suagr, cane vineager, scallion greens. Marinate meat overnight and braise with rabbit stock. Served with pear chutney. Key chutney spices are kolanji, black cardomum, long pepper, fenugreek, garlic, tumeric root, red bird chili, cider vineager, palm sugar. Garnish with scallion. Probably I will use a less coarse grind on my jerk spice next time, and debone the thigh, and reduce the braising time to be less traditional (i.e. less well-done). Possibly roll the thigh into a gallantine?



Rabbit liver is left-over. I need ideas. It's kind of a hard sell in anything larger than amuse bouche size. Maybe rabbit scrapple? a pate? Maybe part of the gallantine?

Dessert I'm thinking carrot spice cake with fennel ice cream. I need an ice cream maker first, cause shaking it by hand sucks. Also, fresh bulb or just fennel seeds or both?