sophisticated point of view

I was out of bed before nine, which seems to be part of a dismal, growing trend rather than a fluke. I finally (if 'finally' can be used for 'three days later') finished Chalice, the new Robin McKinley book. Overall, I loved it; again, her language is amazing, even if the story was a little simpler than some of her other work. The weird thing was that the story's climax involved bees (unsurprising, since the main character is a beekeeper, and her honey figures strongly into the plot) -- and then, as I closed the book, I heard a buzzing and discovered that there was a bee or wasp in my apartment. Considering I'm on the fourteenth floor and my windows have been closed for several days, and I've only seen one other bug in the seven weeks that I've been here, this was a somewhat creepy coincidence.

I spent the afternoon with Adit at a cafe; he was working on his real work, while I started doing line edits on a hard copy of my manuscript, making frequent reference to my comprehensive Chicago Manual of Style to ensure that my punctuation, verb tenses, etc. are all used correctly. I have pretty decent grammar, but I'm self-taught from a ton of reading as a child, and so I sometimes find myself doubting my usage (even though I usually discovered that I was okay when I referenced the style guide about something). We may get together to work again tomorrow, which is nice, since it gets me out of the house and also encourages me to dress in a non-slovenly manner, given Adit's general style.

I went down to Palo Alto tonight for dinner with Terry, Lisa, and Kim; Lisa flew into town to surprise Terry, since Terry's birthday was last weekend, and it was great to see all of them. We ate at Zibibbo, which has apparently won all sorts of rewards -- and don't get me wrong, my wild mushroom pizza was delicious, but there are so many amazing restaurants in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area that it's difficult to understand why Zibibbo has topped some of them in the ratings. Maybe I'm just too much of a country rube to get the whole culinary thing.

Speaking of culinary, though...I was reading an editor's blog, and they linked to this post that gave a list of 100 things that a good omnivore should eat in their lifetime. I've colored/annotated it with what I've managed to eat so far...what about you?

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 [note: apparently this is a super-stinky cheese, and if stinkiness is the only reason this is on the list, then I think tete du moine should count]
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 [apparently this is some sort of dip, like fondue, popular in the Piedmont of Italy]
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float [although I prefer Coke floats]
36. Cognac with a fat cigar [I haven't had these together, but I've had them separately]
37. Clotted cream tea [favorite thing!!!]
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O [waaaay too many of these]
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat [ugh, hate this]
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu [Japanese pufferfish, poisonous -- don't know if I'll ever feel suicidal enough to risk this]
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 [I consider Winners Cup gin to be 'dirty', but I didn't have it in a martini, and I know dirty martinis are dirty because of the olive juice, not because they have gin from a $5 plastic jug]
58. Beer above 8% ABV [ugh, I'd rather drink ten cosmopolitans]
59. Poutine [this sounds yummy -- like Canadian Midwestern food -- french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy]
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin [Wikipedia says it's a clay mineral, in which case I probably had it in radioactive form in those awful clay pots in Ukraine, but I won't count that]

64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake [all except elephant ears]
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill [I've been responsible for this, but unless the school cook was supplementing our chicken fried steak with possum, I haven't had this]
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie [LOVE that this is on the list!]
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong [I think this tea is overrated]
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 [too much of this in Ukraine]
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

That puts me at 64 of the things on the list. Clearly I have some progress to make before I become a true omnivore. 6 of the things I'm missing are alcohols, though, and I'm more likely to want to eat snake or crocodile than to drink a beer with 8+% alcohol content. And also, this list leaves out all feet, tripe, tongues, and casseroles, so it doesn't capture the true picture of the things I've personally tried -- but look at how my tastes have expanded, considering that I had my first bagel at fourteen and never would have dreamed that things like eel, paneer, calamari, oysters, baklava, and pork buns would be among my favorite foods. Mmm.

Now I should go to bed before I get any hungrier -- and before I start considering how a move to Singapore would help me to cross off many of the remaining items on this list...