shave ice & gelato

I am a preschool teacher. I grew up in Massachusetts and am a passionate passionate Red Sox fan. I moved to Hawaii the day Kilauea started to erupt, back in 1983. I love the beach, the people, the beauty of Hawaii, and the warm weather.

My time on the North Shore with Katia and Guido was heavenly! We had so many laughs together. The weather was great. We saw dolphins swimming by, a seal on the beach, and the turtles at their regular spot. I will post pictures and write more soon when I have a little more time.

After dropping off Katia & Guido at the airport, I started catching up on my email and some of my favorite blogs. As usual, I became easily sidetracked. After reading Leslie and Kim's blogs, I started to make my own "Where have I been map" when I should have been doing laundry.

Here is my map:

Red shows where I have lived - Massachusetts, Colorado, Washington, and Hawaii. Blue shows where I have visited. Green shows where I would like to go (if I can every find enough time to visit both Italy and another place when I have time off and the money to travel).

To clarify, I have only been to the southern part of China on a daytrip from Hong Kong. I guess that China could be both blue and green as a place I have been and also a place I would like to go to. Also, I have only been to a tiny portion of Mexico - Tijuana and so again a big place gets marked but I have only seen a tiny portion of the country. At this point, I don't have a big desire to spend more time in Mexico and so it would not be a "green" place. I have never been to New York City but have been to upper state New York, to Lake Placid when I was little where I won a free round of miniature golf for hitting the ball into the mouth of some animal (I think it was an alligator). I still have that free ticket coupon. I also did not count Rhode Island where I have departed from but have not spent time in (except the airport) and places where I have stayed over night at an airport hotel except for New Jersey since I Kim gave me a little tour of the area we did have dinner outside of the airport hotel.

Oh, and why Madagascar? I always wanted to have control of that country when playing Risk. I liked saying the name. A few years ago, I found out that a friend of mine lived there and found her stories so interesting about growing up there. Perhaps one day?

Well, back to laundry and other fun things!

I turned a year older on Tuesday. I won't say just how old I am, but 50 is not too far away. The funny thing is that I feel like 30.

I do spend most of my day with 3- & 4-year olds, which I am sure helps keep me feeling young. There aren't many my age out there that sing songs like "The Wheels on the Bus" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" at work every day. Although this year, I do have to admit that I have felt more tired than in the past at the end of each day.

When I first started out in the teaching profession, I was one of the young ones in my school. I used to think that the older teachers were "so old". Well I AM one of those "older teachers" now and I don't feel anything like the perception I had of the "older teachers". I am sure the young teachers at my school now think of me as one of the "old teachers". My mind wants to scream out, I am only 30! I am not old!

Am I the only one that feels this way? I wonder how I will feel when I reach 60, 70?

I was leaving for Italy in two weeks with tons still to do when I was first asked to start this blog to document my travels. I had no time to think up a "catchy" name. I chose a title that would describe my trip. Once I returned from Italy and started adding posts about Hawaii, I decided it was finally time to change the name of my blog. I wanted something that represented both Hawaii and Italy and so I came up with the idea of "shave ice & gelato" because it represents two unique treats - one relating to Hawaii and one relating to Italy. I hope you like it.

Just about everyone knows about gelato, but I am not sure if everyone knows about shave ice.

So, what is shave ice?

I have heard people trying to compare it to a slush cup or a snow cone. It is neither a slush cup nor a snow cone. It is soooo much better.

Snow cones and slush cups are usually made from ground ice. What makes shave ice unique is the way the ice is cut. You start with a block of ice. As the block of ice spins around, the razor-sharp blade "shaves" the ice making a soft fluffy texture. The "shaved" ice is then packed into a paper cone.

I found this video on YouTube which demonstrates how shave ice is made:

Once the ice is packed into the cone, various flavors of syrup are then poured on top. Because the shave ice is so fine, the flavors absorb into the ice rather than settling to the bottom of the cone.

When ordering a shave ice, you are faced with many choices. First, you must decide if you want a small or a large shave ice.

Next, you need to decide if you want just shave ice, a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the bottom of your cone, azuki beans at the bottom of your cone, or a combo of both ice cream and azuki beans. When I first heard of beans with shave ice, I could not imagine why anyone would want to have beans with shave ice. Once I tried it, I understood. The beans are not like regular beans. They are sweet and so ONO when mixed with ice cream and shave ice.

Finally, you must decide on the flavors. You can usually have three flavors poured on top of the ice. Two of the most famous shave ice places, both located in Haleiwa, on the North Shore are Matsumoto's and Aoki's. You will always find a long line at both of these shave ice stores. Below are the flavors each offer.

Matsumoto's offers:
Strawberry, Pineapple, Lemon, Coconut, Banana, Vanilla, Root Beer, Grape, Lime, Lilikoi (passion fruit), Orange, Honeydew, Melon, Mango, Raspberry, Coffee, Watermelon, Bubblegum, Cotton Candy, Pinacolada, Banana Cream, Lihing Mui, Lychee, and Cherry.

Aoki's offers:
Strawberry, Banana, Pineapple, Lemon, Lilikoi, Coconut, Rootbeer, Vanilla, Melona, Chocolate, Blue Hawaii, Coffee, Bubble Gum, Cherry, Lime, Orange, Watermelon, Guava, Mango, Rasberry, Cotton Candy, Li Hing Mui, Grape, Strawberry Cream, Lychee, and Pina Colada. As well as the following Sugar free flavors: Strawberry, Banana, & Watermelon.

And here are my dear friends Katia & Guido enjoying a shave ice from Aoki's:

I figured it was about time to tell everyone a little bit more about myself. I thought that thinking up 100 things about me would be a tough task but it ended up being pretty easy. I even had a few more leftover which I will save for another time.

So here goes...

1. I grew up in a very small town in Massachusetts (there were only 2 stop lights in the town).
2. I am the oldest of five children. I have two younger sisters and two younger brothers.
3. I am a huge Red Sox fan. Did I say huge? Make that obsessive! I even wanted a job at Fenway being one of those bat or ball girls when I was little.
4. I was a cheerleader in high school.
5. I also held the javelin record in high school, even though I lost to everyone on the track team in arm wrestling.
6. I graduated from Worcester State College with a bachelor’s degree in Communication Disorders (speech/language therapy).
7. I was briefly engaged while in college. That didn’t end well (I will leave it at that).
8. In 1981, I flew for the first time to Colorado to attend graduate school.
9. I graduated from Colorado State University (GO RAMS) with a master’s degree in Communication Disorders.
10. I worked as a bartender and a coat check girl while living in Colorado.
11. I spent as much time as I could visiting my aunt and uncle in Steamboat, Colorado with wonderful memories while I attended graduate school.
12. I love downhill skiing although I am not a great black diamond skier.
13. I am not as much of a fan of cross country skiing.
14. I love snow. I just don't like cold weather.
15. I bought a one-way ticket and moved to Hawaii the day Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island started to erupt in January, 1983, to do my internship during my last semester of graduate school.
16. I have wanted to live in Hawaii since I was a little girl.
17. When I was little, I used to watch "Let’s Make a Deal" with my grandma and always told her that if I won the trip to Hawaii, I would take her with me. My grandma did visit Hawaii once before she died.

My second trip to Italy, in the summer of 2000, included a visit to the Campania region. This is the region where Montefalcione and Lapio are located. My great-grandfather was born in Montefalcione and my great-grandmother was born in Lapio. My hope was to visit at least one of these two towns while staying in this region.

I met a friend who would be joining me on my Sorrento leg of my trip in Florence the day before we were to travel to Sorrento. We traveled by train the following day. After a day or two, we stopped at the tourist information booth where I inquired about directions and transportation options to get to Montefalcione. The man at the desk offered to take us if he would be going that way during the week while we were in Sorrento, and if not, he would try to find someone else to take us there. I was thrilled as I thought the only way to get to Montefalcione would be spending most of the day on trains and buses. That evening, he called me and said that his brother, Luigi, would be able take us the following day.

Luigi arrived at our hotel at 8am the following morning. After years and years of genealogy research, Wednesday, July 5th, 2000, would be the day I would finally step foot on the land of my great-grandfather's birthplace! I was a little nervous at first not knowing this man, but he turned out to be a very kind person. It took us about two hours to get to Montefalcione because part of the Salerno to Avellino autostrada was closed for construction. We had to take a long detour up and down a mountainside, stopping for directions a few times along the way. I know I would have never found it on my own. Montefalcione is located up high on a mountainside (monte=mountain). It seemed to me to be a pretty modern little town. We drove thru part of the town and then parked the car.

Luigi took the picture of my great-grandfather along with my genealogy list with of all my relatives' names from Montefalcione (Catalano, Martignetti, Musto, Noviello, Del Sasso, D'Amore) and started to ask some of the people if they knew if any of my relatives were still living in the town. Because Montefalcione is not a town where many tourists visit, we seemed to be quite a curiosity to many of the residents of the town. They seemed quite amazed that I came all this way looking for relatives. We did find a woman whose mother's name was Catalano but her mother was very old now and would not be able to help us.

We then went to the main piazza. This is a picture of Luigi and the main street in the town. Pictures in this post were scanned into my computer. Unfortunately I did not have a digital camera at the time and did not take that many pictures of the town.

When I think of my hometown, I think of North Reading, Massachusetts. This is where I grew up. But, if asked where my home is, I would say that Hawaii is my home. I have decided to do two posts. Today I will talk about my hometown and tomorrow I will do a post on my home.

My family moved to North Reading when I was three years old. I lived there until I started college. I returned in the summers and during the holidays while in undergraduate school. I moved away to Colorado for graduate school and then to Hawaii, only going back to North Reading for visits. My mom and dad sold the house about 10 years or so when they also moved to Hawaii.

North Reading has changed a lot since I grew up there. When I lived there, we only had 2 stoplights in the town. There were about 200 in my graduation class. I can't say what the current population is or how many stoplights there are now but I do remember being quite amazed with the town the last time I was there for a visit.

This is "a picture of a picture" of the house where I grew up. My mom sent me this picture one winter after I moved to Hawaii.

I guess you could call Ewa Beach my new hometown. I can't believe it will be 15 years this June that I have lived here in Ewa Beach.

There once were two distinct towns; Ewa and Ewa Beach.

Ewa's history includes the sugar cane plantation, a sugar cane mill, and the Ewa Railway. My friend's mom grew up on this plantation.

Ewa Beach was a little town with houses all built near or along the beach. I don't know much of the history of Ewa Beach

When I first moved to Hawaii, I lived in Honolulu. I worked out in Ewa Beach for one school year, 1984-1985, as a Speech Pathologist, while living in Honolulu. I can remember driving by all the sugar cane fields down Fort Weaver Road to reach Ewa Beach. I even drove through a couple of controlled sugar cane burnings, which were a little scary. The sugar cane fields are now all gone.

After living in Honolulu for a few years, I grew tired of all the traffic and buildings and decided to move out to the "suburbs". At first, I rented in Waipio Gentry and Mililani. After a few years, I finally decided to buy. I purchased my little studio out in Ewa Beach. I have been very happy living in my quiet townhouse community (except for the traffic which I will get to) and have been very fortunate to have wonderful neighbors.

When we all first moved into this new townhouse development, we were warned that Ewa was to be part of the "New Second City". It was something none of us really could imagine. It was such a quiet peaceful area. There were only a few new developments built in the area. The traffic was wonderful, at least until we reached the freeway. It only took about 10 minutes to get to the freeway, 15 when the traffic was really bad. Since then, more and more developments have been built. It now takes me 10 minutes just to get through one stoplight!

Right now there are about 25,000 homes built in the Ewa/Ewa Beach area. There really is no distinction anymore between Ewa and Ewa Beach. There are now houses the entire stretch of Fort Weaver Road where there used to be sugar cane fields.

There are two beaches in Ewa Beach, with one more talked about "being built", whatever that means, and at least four golf courses. I am not a golfer, but I am very thankful for the golf courses, as that means no houses on those sections of land.

Two new schools have opened up since I have moved to Ewa Beach. There are now six elementary schools, one intermediate school, and one high school in Ewa Beach. We also have three shopping centers, one of which is within walking distance from my house. The shopping center by my house has both a Starbuck's and a Coffee Bean, which are located about 20 feet away from each other.

You would think that the roads would have been built as the developments were built. Don't even get me started on this subject. It now takes me 20-25 minutes minimum and sometimes up to 45-50 minutes just to drive 3 miles down Fort Weaver Road, never mind all the extra traffic on the freeway. They are working on widening the road by one lane and building one more road out of Ewa Beach, but the math is just not adding up, not with 35,000 more homes in the works to be built!

I really would love living here forever if I only had a "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" car, but the traffic is definitely getting to me. The problem is the cost of housing everywhere, especially where I would want to live. But someday I will be moving out of Ewa Beach, unless those roads come with those houses.

Here are a couple of photos (taken a few years ago) from one of the beaches in Ewa Beach. It's difficult to see but Diamond Head is in the background of the photo with the little girl.

If I had to pick just five favorite foods to wind up with me when I was stranded on a deserted island, I wonder what they would be...

1. Strawberries

~ my absolute favorite food. I love fruit in general but my absolute favorite fruit and food in the world is strawberries. I love, love, love strawberries. I could eat them morning, noon, and night. I don't like anything on them, just plain strawberries. I remember going strawberry picking with my mom when I was little. My mom would have 3 or 4 bowls overflowing with strawberries and I would still be on my first bowl with only about a quarter of it filled because I was too busy eating all the strawberries.

2. Ravioli

~ cheese, ricotta & spinach, pumpkin, any filling except for meat, served with burro & salvia (butter & sage), tomatoes, or pesto.

3. Gelato

~ none of this American gelato crap, only authentic Italian gelato for me. Coffee, pistachio, hazlenut, passion fruit, peach to name a few of my favorite flavors.

4. Pizza

~ there are a few pizza places in Boston which I would say make a good pizza pie, and I am sure there are some good pizza places in New York City (have never been), but the pizza in Italy is what I drool over!! My favorite types are pizza margherita and pizza con pepperoni (the vegetable peppers…not the meat kind).

5. Seafood



~ Maine lobster, steamed clams, lobster roll, fried clams & fried scallops. I sure do miss New England seafood!

What five foods would you choose?

This post was inspired by Krista's In and Out of the Garden blog entry...
who was inspired by Ed Levine's New York Eats blog entry...

(today was my 100th blog post!!)

My mom passed away eight years ago today. It seems like just yesterday but it also seems like forever. I was going through my box of old photos the other day and found a few a few pictures that I loved. I only have a film scanner, so I took photos of each.

This post is dedicated to my mom, we all miss you very much! xoxo

St. Patrick's Day always gets me thinking about my Irish heritage. The funny thing is that I was brought up thinking that my father's side of the family was all Irish, making me half Irish. Once I started doing genealogy research on my family, I discovered that my father's side of the family was Irish, English, and Scottish. I guess no one really talked about where their families came from back then. If they did, my research would have been much easier.

I have had the most luck tracing the Kelley line. I won't bore you with every detail, only a few of the highlights. If you want, just scroll down for the photos.

Dunkin Kelley (also spelled as Dunken/Duncan) Kelley was my great great great (8 greats) grandfather. He was born in 1664 in Rhode Island and lived in Barrington Rhode Island. I have not been able to determine where his parents were born. I have read accounts that he was possibly Scottish and not Irish, mostly because of his name, Dunkin. I believe his wife, Patience, was English but have no further information on her. I wonder if I could be a relative to those on the Mayflower? Dunkin's big claim to fame was when he took over the Toogood Ferry in 1713 (I assume John Toogood who ran the ferry either died or retired - did people actually retire way back then?). The ferry's name was changed to the Kelley Ferry. It ran from Swansey to New Meadowneck. Dunkin's son, John, and then his grandson, Duncan continued to run the ferry until February 1794 when the Kelley Bridge was built.

Dunkin's other son Captain Duncan Kelley (also spelled as Dunken/Donken and Killy), my great great great (7 greats) grandfather. He was a master mariner and moved to Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard. His son, Captain Lemuel Kelley was also a master mariner. Lemuel married Bathsheba Harper. Bathsheba's father ran a tavern in Edgartown. When Bathsheba's father died, Lemuel took over the tavern and called it the Kelley House (our other big claim to fame). The next few generations of Kelleys continued to live in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard. My great great great great grandfather, Joseph Vincent Kelley was a block and pump maker. I am very distantly related to Grover Cleveland (the president) through Joseph Vincent Kelley's wife, Eliza Norton.

Joseph Vincent Kelley's grandson, Joseph Vincent Kelley was my great grandfather. He was a sta. engineer?/sailor on a packet boat, transporting cotton from Savannah, Georgia to Boston, Massachusetts. He was the Kelley that left Martha's Vineyard after the my family lived on the island for almost 200 years. If only we still had some property there. This is also where our direct line of the family stopped running the Kelley House. My brother has stayed at the Kelley House in Edgartown a few times now and the people that run it could care less that we are direct relatives.

Joseph Vincent Kelley (my great grandfather) married Sadie Norie (my great grandmother). I don't know much about Sadie's family except that Sadie's father, William Norie, was born in England and her mother, Mary Sullivan, was born in Ireland. Sadie was a devout Catholic and raised her children as Catholics. She was said to have converted her husband (my great grandfather) on his deathbed. I don't have a photo of my great grandfather, Joseph Vincent Kelley.

My great grandmother - Sadie Norie:

I have written about my Italian heritage, my Irish, English, Scottish heritage, and now I will write about my Jewish heritage.

Again, if you are not interested in the details, you will find 3 more photos when you click on the "Continue reading "my Jewish heritage" » link at the bottom of this post.

My great grandmother, Rosie Kaplen came from Russia probably in the late 1800’s but no later than 1902. She was a very strict Orthodox Jew.

My great grandmother, Rosie Kaplen when she was young (I love this photo):

My great grandfather, Jacob Sperber came from Austria in 1988 (which at the time was the Austrian-Hungarian nation). He was a merchant, selling vegetables from a cart. He later became a butcher and owned a meat market.

Both of my great grandparents were previously married. My great grandfather’s first wife died at the age of 33. They had three children together. I never knew any of these children.

No one knows the story of what happened to my great grandmother’s first husband, Isaac Kaplan. His name was never spoken of for some unknown reason. My great grandmother had one child with Isaac Kaplan, my Aunt Edith.

I don't know the story of how my great grandparents met. My great grandmother was living in New York when my great aunt was born. My great grandfather was living in Massachusetts when his first wife died.

After my great grandparents married, they had one child together, my grandmother.

girasoli ~ I originally chose this name when setting up a yahoo email account many moons ago (or at least it seems that way now). My real name is such a common name that it was always taken. Even my last name is a pretty common name except for the extra “e”. But, I decided right away against using my last name because too many people call me by my last name and that really irritates me.

Still I needed to think of a user name. I decided on coming up with a unique Italian name. During my first couple of visits to Italy, I fell in love with the fields of sunflowers. And so I found my user name, the Italian word for sunflower ~ girasole. Unfortunately it was taken. Now I know that I am a singular person and "girasoli" means sunflowers (a plural word), but the only way I could use sunflower in Italian to create this new email account was to combine the Italian word for "two" with “girasole” and because I was now making the word plural, I changed girasole to girasoli (to be grammatically correct).

Since then, I have used girasoli in various combinations as well as by itself. To stay grammatically correct, I tried to use girasole when alone but it just got too confusing for both me and for my family and friends to remember when to end the word in an "i" or an "e"....and that is how I became to be known as ~ girasoli.

Now, hoping not to confuse anyone further, I am adding a photo of a sunflower (singular) ~ il girasole. I took this photo while on the island of Burano two years ago.

Three months ago, I wrote about "my visit to Montefalcione", where my great grandfather was born. After writing that post, four people with ties to Montefalcione left comments on my blog. I have also noticed quite a few hits on my Irish, Scottish, English side of the family post and hope one day to find a connection there.

So, today, I decided to write about the town of Lapio where my great-grandmother, Giovanna Romano, was born, with the hope that this post may help me to find connections to Lapio and possible relatives from there. I have not yet visited Lapio but hope to go there someday.

Here is one of the few photos I have found of Lapio:

Like Montefalcione, Lapio is also located in the Campania region of Italy. It is
22 kilometers from from Avellino and is very close to Montefalcione. I can't believe I was so close to Lapio but did not visit!

(I can't seem to find the source of this map anymore.)

According to this Lapio website, there were 1,750 inhabitants living in Lapio during the 2001 national census. The inhabitants were distributed in 590 families with an average of 2.97 people per family.

I found this interesting bit of information on the ten most common surnames in town of Lapio.

Key to the chart: The left hand column displays the estimated number of individuals with the given surname displayed in the right hand column. For example, 106.10 estimates there are at least 106 people in the town with that name.

My great-grandmother, Giovanna Romano, was born in Lapio on November 20th, 1878. Her parents' names were Gennaro Romano and MariaTeresa Zarella. Besides Romano and Zarella, direct descendant family names further back include Carbone and more Romano names on the Zarella side. Hey, maybe Ray Romano and I are related somehow :)

Here again are my great-grandfather, Angelo Raffaele Catalano and my great-grandmother, Giovanna Romano on their wedding day. They were married at Sacred Heart Church, in Boston's North End, on April 6, 1902.

I saw this meme on Valerie’s blog, 2 Baci in a Pinon Tree. Valerie was tagged by Rob. Check out his blog Wind Rose Hotel when you get the chance. Instead of tagging anyone, Valerie opened it up for all to play along. Here goes…

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?
I have not been to the movies in ages but plan to go see Sex & the City as soon as work gets out (3 1/2 more days!!).

2. What book are you reading?
I just finished reading Playing for Pizza. This book is about American football in Parma, Italy. I enjoyed the book up to until the last couple of chapters, when it seemed to me that the author, John Grisham, decided he had enough of the book and just sort of ended everything abruptly. I enjoyed his other book, The Broker, which was set in Bologna, Italy a lot more.

3. Favorite board game?
I love board games...a few of my favorites are: Yahtzee, Risk, Scattegories, Clue, and if I am in the mood - Monopoly.

4. Favorite magazine?
I’m not really much of a magazine reader, although I do enjoy catching up on all the gossip at my dentist office twice a year while waiting to be called.

5. Favorite smells?
Coffee, fruit smells, rain.

6. Favorite sounds?
The sounds of baseball…the sounds of the crowd, the cheers and boos and the singing, the people selling food and drinks - "hot dogs, get your hot dogs" and "beer here", the sound of the ball hitting the bat, and I loved hearing Sherm Feller's voice at Fenway, as he announced each new batter.

7. Worst feeling in the world?
When someone you love is ill.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
On a workday – "just give me 10 more minutes before I have to get up", which can turn into 20 minutes, 30 minutes...
On a weekend (waking up much later) – "I have the whole day ahead of me".

Stolen from Kim and Jerry who both got it from Krista who got it from Last Night's Dinner who got it from Andrew over at Very Good Taste.

Directions:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

I added one extra step - a * next to those I would never try again.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (not sure if I would try this or not)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht (not a beet person)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho (would have it again if it was a chicken version)
13. PB&J sandwich* I had PB&J once as a child. That was the day I realized that I can't stand peanut butter.
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart* do not think I could eat one today now that I know more about the water the dogs sit in...eeeew
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 (might have??)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans* not a bean lover
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* not a sauerkraut fan
35. Root beer float* nor a root beer fan
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (YUCK)
37. Clotted cream tea (sounds yummy)
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (not if I was starving)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (might have?)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (would take a sip but am not a whiskey person)
46. Fugu (don't think I would take the chance on the chef being knowledgeable enough to not poison me)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel* had eels in Hong Kong, couldn't get past the idea I was eating eels!!
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (just never had the chance)
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal* loved them as a child but do not eat red meat anymore
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (would take a sip but am not a martini person)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (I don't like beer)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads EDITING this one - I originally bolded this one thinking that sweetbreads meant the Portuguese sweetbread popular here in Hawaii, but after seeing Marta's list and that she crossed this one out, I googled sweetbreads and found out it means the thymus glands of lamb, beef, or pork...eeeeewwwww!!
63. Kaolin (what is this??)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs* eeeew again! tried a taste once but could not get past the thought of it being 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 (seriously? would anyone eat roadkill?)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie* there are too many other desserts I would rather eat
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong (might have?)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe Beef
86. Hare - EDITING this one - I originally bolded this one thinking that rabbit and hare were the same, but found out they are not and so although I originally thought that I had eaten hare, now I am not sure.
87. Goulash (might have?)
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam* now that I know what is in spam, not a fan
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
100. Snake (too similar to eels for me)