So many foods, so little time.

It's a challenge I face every week, deciding where and what to eat.

Recently, British food writer Anna Longmore compiled a list in Arena Magazine of the 50 foods you should try before you die.

Guess that narrows it down.

But Longmore didn't eat any of the items on her list. Not the elk heart, duck embryo or crispy pig's ear.

Deliciousness must be vouched for. Here's my list, shorter but fully endorsed.

These are must-eats: foods that will please your palate, expand your mind and gratify your soul. They are not chancy mouthfuls to gross out your friends. (Although I've eaten my share of those, from insects to fish sperm to snake.) Most are readily found in our restaurants and food shops.

So dig in, the clock is ticking.

Kobe beef sashimi

If you've only had Kobe beef as a burger, then you're missing the point. The point is fat. The richly marbled flesh is more white than red – in Japan, the grading goes from 1 to 12; our top-grade Prime would rate a 5 – and cooking melts the fat away. Try it raw, shaved into paper-thin slices, and surrender to the texture.

Scallop roe

Oyster bars sometimes serve scallops on the half-shell. Pounce. When raw, their briny sweetness is intensified. The fat, orange comma of coral attached – as hermaphrodites, both sexes contain roe – is even better, like caviar but more delicate.

Langós

This Hungarian snack of deep-fried dough could've resulted from a one-night stand between a beavertail and a pizza crust. At its best, it is a pebbled golden disc, both crunchy and puffed, brushed with crushed garlic and consumed with icy beer. Sadly, good langós is hard to find out of its native land; if you come across one, please let me know.

Pick-your-own produce

Consider yourself lucky if you've eaten a sun-warm tomato straight from the vine. Cherries, apricots or blueberries you've plucked taste a hundred times better than their supermarket cousins.

Le Riopelle de l'Isle

A triple-crème Quebec cheese with a blooming white rind like brie and a creamy paste of gentle funkiness. Like butter gone wild.

Horse

Sweeter, leaner and redder than beef. Eating horse is traditional in other countries and legal in ours. Don't be squeamish. Try it at La Palette, Coca and other omnivorous restaurants.

Street food

Throw caution, and hygiene, to the wind.

Truffles

Trained pigs and dogs root out these astoundingly fragrant tubers in European forests. Fresh black truffle shavings elevate any dish to heaven. White truffle oil does in a pinch.

Salsify

A rare root vegetable with mild flavour and an elegant, tapering form. The late Café Brussel glazed tender salsify batons with cream and lemon. Worth seeking out.

Bone marrow

Wobbly, greasy and incomparably rich. A bistro staple. Scoop out the centre of boiled or roasted beef bones yield and spread the marrow on toast; sprinkle with fleur de sel. Osso bucco also yields delicious marrow.

Bitter greens

Wake the taste buds with a dandelion salad or steamed rapini. Or do like the Greeks and tuck into a plate of cold horta, wilted bitter greens tricked out with lemon and garlic. Most refreshing.

Anything cooked over a wood fire.

Real balsamic vinegar

Forget the $5 supermarket kind. That's just wine vinegar coloured with caramel. Real balsamic is made only in Modena and Reggio Emilia, where it is aged at least three years in wooden barrels for complexity. Treat yourself to a bottle marked "tradizionale," which pours out like dark, tangy syrup and can be eaten with a spoon.

Real whipped cream

I'll always have a soft spot for Reddi-Whip, especially when squirted directly into the mouth while standing in front of the open fridge door. But real whipped cream, the soft peaks lightly sweetened and kissed by vanilla? No contest.

Sweetened condensed milk

Eat a spoonful straight from the can. Betcha can't stop at one.

Afternoon tea

There's something enormously civilizing about a pot of loose-leaf Darjeeling, a plate of cucumber sandwiches (crustless, of course) and a pair of warm currant scones slathered with Devon cream. Wide-brimmed hat and gloves optional.

Foie gras

Mired in ethical controversy – Chicago banned it from restaurants last year owing to concerns about animal cruelty – the fattened livers of force-fed duck and geese are singularly delicious; they make an unbelievably silky terrine. Eat it here while it's still legal.