My Personal Vegetarian 100 List

When I was a naïve undergraduate studying English Literature, the first essay I wrote was on Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. When I asked for feedback, my tutor, who had already happily admitted to us he was ‘galloping towards retirement’, told me I was duped by Woolf. But her concerns about literature being merely about great dead men proved to be a fair warning.

It was liberating to challenge the literary canon of great books by great men. I loved the freedom of expatriate 1920s and 1930s Paris. I discovered little-known writers such as Jean Rhys, HD, and Zelda Fitzgerald, as well as publishers such as Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company. I also grew to love some of the more recent writers such as Marilynne Robinson, Marge Piercy, Dorothy Hewett, Margaret Drabble, Drusilla Modjeska. Then there is the fascination of how the canon evolves with writers such as Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath taking their place after lurking in the shadows.

I was reminded of the literary canon when I saw the Omnivores 100 List from Very Good Taste circulating the blogosphere recently. I became vegetarian as a young adult and never had the desire to explore the weird and wonderful fleshy dishes out there. But I have eaten foods I never would have encountered if not for being vegetarian. The Ominvore’s 100 List includes about 40 foods that I wouldn’t touch because they are meat or fish. I liked the idea of the list but it wasn’t for me. Not only do I not want to eat roadkill or foie gras but I just don’t see the point of saying I never had a root beer float when I have my fair share of lime spiders (for the uninitiated, they are very similar but the latter is Australian). And the only remotely Australian food on the list is crocodile!

Then I started to see some bloggers reflecting thoughtfully on the list or creating their own. It seemed more fun to me to write up my own list of foods that comfort, fascinate and inspire me. I tried to include food from my Australian culture, my travels, other blogs, and some vegetarian or vegan staples. I make no claims to being an omnivore but I do believe that being a vegetarian has made my diet richer and more interesting.

I have linked most items to recipes or explanations - most with photos. The one item that I couldn’t find a link to was minimum chips – this is the smallest amount of chips you can buy in many Australian fish and chips shops. One day I will write about it. (Update - I have finally written a fish and chips post and pasted the link in for minimum chips.) All items are intended to be the vegetarian versions, if I haven’t been explicit.

I have bolded the foods that I have eaten (although I didn't bold a few where my memory was vague). I don’t claim to be the most adventurous foodie but I do know that there is a lot of food out there that I am curious to try out and it shows there are still foods I would like to blog about.

Some interesting alternative lists:

The Vegetarian 100 – at Feeding Maybelle
The Vegan 100 – at Bittersweet
The British 100 – at Food Stories
The Sweet 100 – at Cakespy
The Dessert 100 – at Retorte
The Indian Vegetarian 100 - at One Hot Stove

1. Chocolate crackles
2. Green smoothie
3. Tofu scramble
4. Haggis
5. Miso soup
6. Chilli with mole
7. Fondue
8. Marmite/Vegemite/Promite
9. Borscht
10. Tofurkey
11. Nachos
12. Paneer
13. Tunnocks caramel wafer biscuits
14. Twisties
15. Stollen
16. Liquorice tea
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Gyoza
20. Tempeh Reuben
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Quince jelly
23. Spaetzle
24. Irn Bru
25. Romanesco Broccoli
26. Jam Roly Poly
27. Caramelised condensed milk (Dulce de leche)
28. Rainbow chard
29. Sesame halva
30. Paté
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Tablet
34. Sauerkraut
35. Lime spider
36. Mulled wine
37. Pumpkin scones
38. Mead
39. Bee sting cake
40. Minimum chips from a fish and chip shop
41. Bombe Alaska
42. Purple sprouting broccoli
43. Dahl
44. Homemade tofu
45. Red velvet cake
46. Stroopwafle
47. Lavender
48. Vegetable sushi
49. Damper hot from BBQ
50. Seaweed
51. Matcha muffins
52. Umeboshi
53. Nutroast
54. Apricots fresh from the tree
55. Tim tams
56. Nettle soup
57. Heather Cream liqueur
58. Pho
59. Scrapple
60. Falafel from street cart in Israel
61. Chipotle in adobe sauce
62. Mango lassi
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Masala dosa
65. Durian
66. Homemade vegetarian sausages
67. Churros e chocolat
68. Smoked tofu
69. Fried plantain
70. ANZAC biscuits
71. Gazpacho
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Red corn on the cob
75. Quinoa
76. Pomegranate
77. Eggless quiche
78. Tempeh
79. Jerky
80. Gozleme
81. French onion soup
82. Purple potatoes
83. Pierogi
84. Laksa
85. Moussaka
86. Home made sprouts
87. Vegan ‘cheese’ sauce
88. Stuffed zucchini flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. Pavlova
91. Seitan salami
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips
94. Annatto seeds
95. Panch Phoran
96. Deep fried mars bars
97. Wattleseed
98. Polenta
99. Dragonfruit
100. Rock samphire