Written by adam on Sep 5, 2006

5 Things to Eat Before You Die

Filed Under: Editorial
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I usually don't like participating in Memes. The reasons why are pretty strong and opinionated, but that doesn't belong on this particular weblog. However, when Tyler and Amanda tagged me for this one, I figured it could be a pretty good writing and thinking project. This is called "5 Things to Eat Before You Die." Inspired by a BBC viewers poll, this one is a meme for you or anyone to list the 5 things you think people should eat before they die.

1. Sushi. If you had asked me 10 years ago if I would ever eat sushi, I would have said hell no. I would have jumped into a vat of stinging scorpions than subject myself to raw fish and all associated with it. Then in 2000, my boss at the time asked me to join him for lunch at a sushi joint. Not wanting to say no to the boss, I obliged. Also not wanting to look like a total jerk, I actually tried the sushi. And it was good. I couldn't believe how good it was. It was so good, I couldn't get enough and I started to try all varieties of sushi. I think that you need to eat sushi in your life. It is a food mountain that you need to climb, at least just to say that you did it.

2. Central Texas Barbeque. Forget all the hype about Memphis, St. Louis, and the Carolinas. They don't serve beef over there in the BBQ joints. It's all pig and chicken. You need to come to Texas and eat real beef brisket cooked in real barbeque pits by the legends. The areas around Austin and Central Texas are the best places to get brisket. It's cheap, since all the beef is grown here, and legends like Southside Market in Elgin, and Louie Mueller is Taylor have been pefecting their crafts for decades.

3. Crepes on the streets of Paris. I have a love/hate affair with Paris. I've been to the city a few times, and each time I find something new to be in awe of and something new to complain about ... usually the people. The first time I went to Paris, we ate Crepes 3 meals a day. Depending on where you walk in old city Paris, you can sometimes find Crepe stands on every corner. Kind of like Starbucks in Seattle. Each crepe stand is equipped with a crepe stone, batter, and an assortment of fillings. My favorite was banana and Nutella filling for dessert. But there was also a wonderful Jambon et Oeuf Crepe (ham and egg). Great anytime of day.

4. Boiled crawfish from a crawfish boil. This is another one of those things that must be experienced. I've been to at least 5 crawfish boils in my lifetime, none of which were located within the borders of Louisiana. That's too bad, but they were all good. You need to experience a crawfish boil because of the unique way it is served ... strained and thrown out onto a long table for community eating. Then you need to experience the manner of peeling and eating the crawfish. The crawfish tail is about a teaspoonful of meat. But you can also eat the bit of fat and juice that resides in the front cavity of the beast. This is called "sucking the head."

5. Any food right off the plant or out of the ground. We have grown so accustomed to getting our food from faceless organizations like the grocery stores, restaurant chains, and Quick-E-Marts, we sometimes forget that much of our food comes from the ground, planted and harvested by real farmers, who depend on us (or the government) to get by. OK, this is not really about farmers, but about eating something directly from the ground to your mouth. Eat something before the wax gets painted on or before it's packed away in boxes to be frozen in liquid nitrogen. Eat an orange or apple from a tree. Munch on some freshly picked berries. Or bite into a vine-ripened tomato. The difference in tastes can be astounding, and the act of doing so can be enlightening and give you an awareness of how precious these things are to us.