Fondeaux is a dish that is made as an appetizer at Pappadeux restaurants.  It’s pronounced like fondue, though I don’t really consider it a fondue.  I do, however, consider it delicious!

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I came across a bit of a game for omnivore’s on Very Good Taste that seems to be working its way around the blogosphere, or at least the food blogosphere. It’s called the Omnivore’s Hundred, and it’s simply a list of 100 items that one may or may not have eaten.

The rules are simple:

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 Very Good Taste linking to your results.

So here’s my 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 (all of them)
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

So there’s only one item I wouldn’t want to try (roadkill), and, I think, I’ve got 75 out of 100 of these, which seems to be up there in terms of others doing the same list. Some are due to just not having access to them easily. And the list is British, so I wonder if an American version would look a bit different (i.e. Michelin stars aren’t that common here).If you don’t have you’re own blog, print off the list and mark your own, then let me know how many you’ve had the chance to try!

That’s it, nice and simple… No verbose ramblings on summer, or how this makes me feel…

Just bacon wrapped figs.

So simple that I didn’t even take photos of the ‘process’ or making them. You take bacon, you take figs, and you wrap the figs in the bacon, then grill over medium-high heat until the bacon crisps.

I actually tried this with dried figs, stuffed with gorgonzola cheese, only to find I hate dried figs. Fresh figs, however, are a different story… they’re GREAT!!!

And, once wrapped in bacon and grilled, even greater!

Or what I’d rather just call Beef Burgundy. Yeah, I know it sounds like a bit of a misnomer, but it’s not! I’ve had a bit of extra time to cook in the last week, so I decided to try this. My inspiration was my mom; she was cooking beef burgundy last week, and it sounded good.

My version was simplified a bit, so maybe it’s not a real beouf bourguignon, but it’s still good stuff! With it being so warm lately, I didn’t want to stand over a stove and heat up the house, so I started up the Big Green Egg, which is becoming more and more a part of any time of cooking I decide to do… This thing really is amazing!

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It’s that time of the year here in Ohio… Fresh veggies are starting to be available all over the place.  And Ohio sweet corn is second to none.  There’s just something about corn so fresh it’s almost wet when you get it.  Anything you can get within an hour of when it’s picked is just so much better than buying it at a store!

We’re in the midst of a bunch of good food… a couple that live nearby sell tomatoes every year, and they’ve taken to putting up a scarecrow by the road with a sign counting down the time to tomatoes being ready.  Farmers markets are going nuts with variety and quality of offerings.  We got some baby eggplant, locally grown mushrooms and all kinds of other options when we walked up to a farmers market a couple of weeks ago.  It’s almost too much, but, man, it’s good stuff!

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