The deadline approaches. Josh is breathing down my neck like a mother hamster about to eat her three legged young. I am stuck for the right word.
This is the problem:
Gourmet = person who likes fine food
Epicure = person who likes fine food
BUT
Can Epicure also mean someone who likes unusual food? Or is that a Foodie?
Or is there another word for someone who likes unusual food?
Help me Lit Reactor peeps! Josh is getting closer. He is mewling and smirking!! HELP ME. HELP MEEEEE!!
gourmand
n. Synonyms Epicure, Gourmet, and Gormand agree in representing one who cares a great deal for the pleasures of the table. The epicure selects with a fastidious taste, but is luxurious in the supply of that which he likes. The gourmet is a connoisseur in food and drink, and a dainty feeder. The gormand differs from a glutton only in having a more discriminating taste.
gastronome, gourmet, epicurean, voluptuary, sensualist, gourmand.
Definition: epicure
Synonyms: bon vivant, connoisseur, gastronomist, glutton, gourmet
Notes: the gourmand rates quantity higher than quality and the gourmet adopts the opposite approach; a gourmand is one whose chief pleasure is eating and a gourmet is a connoisseur of food and wines
“In Good Food from Mexico, Ruth Watt Mulvey and Luisa Maria Alvarez tell us "legend has it that the supreme epicure Moctezuma sent runners to the heights of the volcano to bring back blocks of snow over which thick chocolate was poured, whipped, and served as a chilled froth.”
adephagous, autophagous, crapulent, cropsick, edacious, epithymetic, farctate, feedy, gluttonous, gormandizing, greedy, gulous, holus-bolus, ingluvious, lickerish, lust-dieted, omnivorous, overfed, overgorged, pampered, pantophagous, pleonectic, ravening, slobber-chops, swinish, trenching, ventripotent, voracious, voraginous
“Joe was an epicure: a hedonist with a drink in one hand, a cigarette in the other and, usually a forgotten cigar smoldering nearby.”
I'd suggest the word, "exoticist". It means "one who specializes in the exotic". Also, it has the advantage over the other words in that most people will be able to tell what it means.
You don't think Josh might just want it done and not care if all your words use a food theme?
I care.
Not sure we have a word for an enjoyer of unusual food. I was also going to suggest gourmand, but mostly because it's an unusual word, not becacuse of it's denotation.
But there is a word for the condition of someone who eats unusual things like dirt, wood, paint, or sand: Pica.
You could also make up a word out of latin or greek roots. That's usually what the academics do.
“Joe was an eclectic gourmand: a drink in one hand, a chocolate covered slug in the other and, usually a forgotten sherry soaked ostrich meatball decomposing nearby. It gave new meaning to pica chew”