Gastronomic Musings : Jeffrey Steingarten and my food phobias

I took two years of latin. I will never go to Vatican (as far as I know) so I can't use it there. It does help me with some science taxonomies but not much more. But it does help for certain words and derivations.

"Phobia" means "fear". One student in a class recently, after I told her that the word "spelunking" means " caving or one who does caving and goes underground as " speleo" means "underground ". Still she thought it was funny but phobias are anything but that for many. There are many people who have phobios like black cats, breaking a mirror and many others. Also there are food photobias.

Frequent judge on Food Channel’s Iron chef, JEFFREY STEINGARTEN, wrote “ My Food Phobias” at

http://www.times.com/books/first/s/steingarten-everything.html

Unlike Mr. Steingarten, I like anchovy greek food, manu chutneys, kimchi, swordfish, cranberries, okra , refried beans and coffee ice cream (my wife doesn’t like anything coffee) and yogurt.
So I thought I would write about some of mine and if any of you want, you can chime in about yours.

My Food Phobias - Eric Flescher
**
(1) Foods I wouldn't touch even if I were starving on a desert island

There is not much as I can at least try something. I can’t try oysters.. In my first married life, I was given a raw oyster in Michigan someplace. Well I guess it either hit me wrong or something but I will sick the whole weekend.
***
(2) Foods I wouldn't touch even if I were starving on a desert island until absolutely everything else runs out:

Ham. We don’t eat this in our house but I won’t even touch it when we go no matter what. If its on a buffet too, I don’t touch it. Jumping Catfish (in Kansas City area) has little flecks of it in their beans. I don't pork either but I have to sample it it Barbecue cookoffs (like the ribs). In Austria, I tried blood sausage and it was really gross. Just the sound of that word still makes me cringe.
***
(3) Foods I might eat if I were starving on a desert island

Maybe you are “ in this boat with me”. I don’t eat pralines. I like the nut and pralines don’t sound good. I just don’t eat them if they are in ice cream or anything else. I have tried them in ice cream and elsewhere. I like them but for some reason I don’t want to eat them.

If you have yours post them. I have tried to make this site more user friendly to post yours so if you have trouble, contact me.

If you could jump on a jet, to eat someplace, all expenses paid, where would you go and why?

This is a Culinary Exploration for your mind : If you could jump on a jet, to eat someplace, all expenses paid, where would you go and why? Good question, difficult answer. Where would you go? (send me a note about your place and why you chose it). But before you go read mine.

For me, this place comes to my mind. I would like be to go back to South Africa. to visit this restaurant and possibly later go back to Victoria Falls and its majesty. In 2001, in Cape Town it was the night before we about to leave to go through the wine country and eventually heating north to see Victoria Falls and later a total solar eclipse in Zambia. However before I left , while wondering through the mall for the last , I discovered the amazing South African buffet called Musclecrackers. I immediately started sampling an interesting melange of entrees, appetizers and interesting South African cuisines. There were all sorts of different foods and flavors with curries, fish dishes and much more. It was a totally amazing experience. All I wish is that I had more time to eat more and savour the tastes of this buffet.

Meanwhile here is what Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef and cookbook author, Bobby Flay and a few others think. http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/day-dreaming-again-2/