Rebecca from Cucina Rebeca and Ed from Tomato just tagged me with the ‘Five Things to Eat Before You Die’ meme from Melissa at the Traveler’s Lunchbox. This is, like, the biggest thing to hit the food blogosphere. Almost ever.

The idea is that food bloggers around the world choose five foods that they think everyone should try befre they die.

I gave this a lot of thought (which may not be reflected in the list). There are some things on my list of five foods I’m glad I’ve eaten before I die (creamy mashed potatoes I’m looking at you) but I recognise that they’re not an essential eating experience for everybody else.

Also, I debated if the list was meant to reflect platonic ideal (or idyll) foods. Five perfect things that everyone, no matter their background or economic status, should try before they die. I decided that list is just too hard. How do you go past fresh drinking water or allow for different dietary needs or predilections?

Next I tried to come up with a list that included my five most unique or hard to come-by food experiences (i.e. the 17 course meal in a small restaurant buried in a French forest, or the amazing curry with string hoppers in Sri Lanka which was served out of a communal bucket). But as much as these meals were fun, I don’t think that their uniqueness alone is enough for me to recommend that they should be one of the few things that everyone in the whole world should try once.

Further complicating matters, some of my favourite things like fresh figs and cheese were already taken and like Rebecca I didn’t want to be a copy cat.

At this point I realised this list was causing me blogger’s block so I decided to go with my five favourite vegetarian foods / experiences.

1) Fresh mangosteen - a perfect food deserving of its mythology. Pull away the skin to reveal pristeen white flesh, a sweet smell, and an exquisite creamy taste.

2) Salt and pepper tofu - what’s not to love about silken tofu cooked in a light salt and pepper batter that literally melts in your mouth.

3) Camp fire stew and damper - head to the Australian outback, make a fire under the stars, and let your vegetable stew bubble away in a hot iron pot nestled in the coals. For dessert, cook some damper on a stick or in tin foil, then fill the centre with some jam and butter, and wash it down with billy tea.

4) Palak paneer - Everyone should eat Indian curry before they die. I love palak paneer: creamy spinach curry cooked in spices with white cubes of soft paneer cheese that soak up the flavour.

5) Nasi Liwet and fried tempeh at Bu Wir’s night stall, Solo, Indonesia - At sundown a city of tarpaulin tents appear on the streets, each one has a few low tables and pots of delicious, fresh home-cooked food. Nasi Liwet is the local speciality, but my heart was stolen by the delicious, thin slices of fried tempeh.

I tag: Chocolate Suze, Vegetable Adventures, Vegan Sydney, Beets and Potatoes and Vegan Friendly NY.

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