And they don't involve killing an innocent animal!

Feh, what is it with Westerners and mango lassi? There's a wide world of lassi out there, but all you ever hear about in these lists is sodding mango lassi...

Yeah, neither author really seems to have much more than 30 things that might plausibly qualify as things you must try. The rest is just filler. Neither are challenging lists, either, I've already had most of those things, and could bang out the rest in a week. How about a challenge before I die?

I have had sea urchin. Please spare others the experience.

I remember once that a woman from a quite different culture and I were going through the things we had eaten (and we'd had about everything between us) and the one thing we both agreed on wishing we'd never tried was sea urching.

I love sea urchin when it's very fresh. When it's not, it's a bit nasty.

I think I counted 5 items on the (mostly) vegetarian list that I haven't eaten. Much of it, as mentioned previously, is neither obscure nor the type of food that inspires passion. I guess there must be people who are passionate about wheat gluten, but I can't say why. It seems like one of those things you eat because you need to eat something.

Eh. I'm not surprised the veggie list is more appetizing, as the omnivore list has far more stunt items - even setting aside the likes of sea urchin, nothing I've ever read has lead me to believe that crocodile flesh, for example, is a gustatory pleasure, as opposed to an experience to be collected. Whereas the veggie list, coming from a different approach, features a lot of raw ingredients and very simple/elemental preparations.

" the one thing we both agreed on wishing we'd never tried was sea urching."

That's the kind of great little typo that makes me really want to come up with a definition for it. What would "sea urching" - a verb, one imagines - consist of? ' I was walking along, just sea urching . . . '

Add my vote to what appears to be a consensus:
- good idea
- GREAT way to drive blog traffic
- poor execution on both lists

Do Orthodox Jews make a point of claiming kosher foods are "more enticing" than full cuisines? Do lactose-intolerant people make a point of claiming their diets are aesthetically superior?

Volitional dietary restriction is about sacrifice. Stop insinuating that vegetarian cuisines are superior to their non-vegetarian counterparts. They're not as good, and ultimately that's the point.

Sorry, poorly written: obviously lactose-intolerance is not volitional. What I meant is in either case, dietary restriction is aesthetic restriction; and if you choose it, you are choosing to sacrifice aesthetics for a non-aesthetic goal -- e.g., perceived improvement in health, protesting animal cruelty or exploitation. That sacrifice should be acknowledged and respected, rather than undermined by sentimental and spurious claims of aesthetic equality.

I agree with JPP. How can vegetarian cuisine be "superior" to omnivorous cuisine when the former is merely a subset of the latter. There is nothing in vegetarian cuisine that omnivores are not allowed to eat with just as much gusto. Even all the horrible fake meat stuff, the very existence of which speaks for itself. That being said I respect anyone's decision to tailor their diets or lifestyles in accordance with their beliefs.
FTR, Omni Score: 56, Veg Score: 78 but I agree that neither is a great list.

How can vegetarian cuisine be "superior" to omnivorous cuisine when the former is merely a subset of the latter.

Precisely. On average, it can't be "superior" or as good.

I could be wrong, but I believe Ezra was saying that the foods on this particular vegetarian list looked more enticing than the foods on the omnivorous list, not that the vegetarian diet on the whole is superior.