Monthly Archives: September 2008

John James posted a list of what food on the "Omnivore’s 100" list he have eaten. So I decided to post my version of the list. The list if, as John explians it, from Very Good Taste blog who came up with a list of foods that they feel every omnivore should eat in their life time.
Bold means I have eaten/tried it, crossed out means I wouldn´t touch it in a million years. So here is the list, along with my results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea – Had nettle soup, though. Great with hard boiled eggs
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (alligator counts?)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich – not my thing, but should probably try it.
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 (survival training in the army)
43. Phaal
44. Goat´s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth 0/$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 – I don’t eat chocolate
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 – I don’t drink cofee
100. Snake

52 out of 100. And there are still things on there I would like to try.

I just wrote my reflections on September 11. I then saw that System i Addict (David) wrote about Remembering 9/11 & forgetting the terrorist. I just want to point out a few things, which are not talked about that often here in the US.

* 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, also the home country of Osama Bin-Ladin. {link}

* Saudi Arabia got the name from the family Saud, who "unified" (annected) several regions into one kingdom in 1932. The country is an absolute monarchy, which in this case is an autocracy (pretty much the same as a dictatorship). The king is the supreme ruler.

* Saudi Arabia is using sharia law (same as the Talibans promoted), with public flogging, amputation of hands and feet as well as beheading as punishments. Recently a 19 year old woman was sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in prison for being gang-raped by 7 men. Her crime? Being in the company of a man not her husband or brother…

* Human rights organisations are very critical of Saudi Arabia. Not only are women not allowed to drive cars, but recently the political police forced teenage girls back into a burning dorm building, using whips, because the girls were not wearing veils and thus were not properly dressed… An unknown number of young girls died from that.

* In 2002, the United Nations Committee against Torture criticized Saudi Arabia over the amputations and floggings it carries out under the Shari’a. The Saudi delegation responded defending its legal traditions held since the inception of Islam in the region 1300 years ago and rejected "interference" in its legal system. {link}

* Talking about schools:

The study of Islam remains at the core of the Saudi educational system. The Islamic aspect of the Saudi national curriculum is examined in a recent report by Freedom House. The report found that in religious education classes (in any religious school), children are taught to deprecate other religions, in addition to other branches of Islam. {link}

and

Education in Saudi Arabia has never fully separated from its Islamic roots. All curricula must conform to the Islamic Sharia laws and the Qur’an, and traditional gender roles continue to shape educational opportunities available to females. The education of females has increased dramatically in recent years, from 25 percent of all students in 1970 to 47.5 percent in 2001. However, education is largely segregated by gender. There are six Universities which have both male and female sections out of the nation´s eight universities. Certain subjects are not available for women yet.{link}

* There are reports that up to 90% of the money funneled to muslim fundamentalists around the world comes from saudi princes/royalty. The principle is similar to in the old catholic church, that you can buy yourself salvation in the after life by doing "good deeds for God", e.g. building a church if you are a christian or a islamic school if you are muslim. You can also support holy warriors (Crusaders in the 12th century, mujahedin in the 21st century). Much of Saudi Arabia’s aid has gone to poorer Islamic countries or Islamic communities in non-Islamic countries. This ‘aid’ has contributed to the spreading of a uniform and puritanical form of Islam, disregarding the needs and traditions of the different ethnic groups. {link} (Note: puritanical = fundamentalist) 

* Saudi Arabia is the biggest foreign buyer of US military hardware. Their Air Force has the third largest number of F-15 fighters after the USAF and the Japanese Air Force. Wikipedia again: "In 2005, Saudi Arabia was the foremost purchaser of US armaments in the world, with over $1.1 billion in purchases."

* On October, 2001, The Wall Street Journal reported that Crown Prince Abdullah sent a critical letter to George W. Bush on August 29. He warned that Saudi Arabia was being put in an untenable position and reportedly wrote: "A time comes when peoples and nations part. We are at a crossroads. It is time for the United States and Saudi Arabia to look at their separate interests. Those governments that don’t feel the pulse of their people and respond to it will suffer the fate of the Shah of Iran." {link}

It is interesting to hear comments like this: "Well, Saddam Hussein did not have any weapons of mass destruction, but he was an evil tyrant, oppressing his people. It was the right thing to invade to restore democracy and liberate the people of Iraq."

Using the same arguments, I think Saudi Arabia should been invaded long time ago and restored to democracy.

I was sitting in the office in downtown Boston as usual when Angie, my then-wife, called me. On August 31 she had surgery, and on September 7 she got some chest pains that they diagnosed as a suspectedpulmonary embolism, so they were keeping her in the hospital for about a week. She was watching TV in her room atBrigham and Women’s hospital, a fairly tall building. She called me to tell me that there had been some accident in New York, that a plane hit World Trade Center (where we had been just over a year earlier, in May 2000 while she was pregnant with our son.

As several others, I haveposted a proposalfor a LS2009 session at IdeaJam.

Warning, this blog entry have a potential political content.

Four weeks ago I stopped drinking soda. It has been almost six years since I stopped drinking regular soda (mainly Coca-Cola) and switched to diet drinks, but about a month ago I decided I would try to cut them out altogether. I still needed my caffeine, so I started drinking more (hot) tea, as well as found someCrystal Lightand similar powder with caffeine that I could put in my water bottles.

Anyone who is tired of ordinary hotels will be able to get an unusual experience at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. In December the first ever hostel in a jumbo jet will open.
…
The interior renovation of the jumbo jet will begin today, and when finished there will 25 rooms and a wedding suite in the cockpit. Quite a few changes will be made to distinguish this plane from the ones still flying. For example, guests will be able to stroll on the wing and they will not have to use cramped toilets with push doors.