SF Food Adventure Club: Ten Risks You Simply Must Take (PHOTOS)

This article comes to us courtesy of The Bold Italic.

By Beth Pickens

What constitutes food adventure depends on your own culture, religion, location and family norms.

My own 82-year-old grandmother, who has lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, nearly her entire life, recently ate her first bagel and was amazed to eat something – in her words – “so different.” Lucky for us, our City by the Bay’s history is steeped in outlaws and explorers, and that sensibility is alive in our willingness to eat anything, in every possible combination (hangtown fry, anyone?). San Francisco’s history, geography, and numerous diasporas honoring every diet and allergy, along with our obsession for “the good life,” result in a city of never-ending exploration in eating.

I founded the SF Food Adventure Club after dinner with a group of food-obsessed friends during which we constructed a three-page list of foods we want to eat before we die. In August 2009, I organized our first adventure and issued badges to the friends and strangers who showed up to eat durian fruit. Fifteen adventures later, we’ve made headway: ostrich eggs, human placenta, pulled pork made from jackfruit, and accusations of being “a bunch of hipster cannibals.” Check. Live octopus, roasted guinea pig, and putrefied shark meat. Not yet, but 2012 has just begun.

Here are 10 of my favorite food adventures:

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