All you can eat

During a standard pre-kip trawl through the channels last night I stumbled across an old episode of QI that had somehow passed me by until now. (I think there's some sort of law that ensures there's always an episode on somewhere if you look hard enough.) Usual silly banter with some funny inventions and a suspicious amount of pirate knowledge from Vic Reeves. All very entertaining and everything, but it was mostly passing me by as I tried to finish the crossword.

Suddenly, though, my ears pricked up during an item about Charles Darwin. Something to do with what he might have eaten during his botanical voyages. Anyway, the point is that a tradition has been established among some enterprising biologists to mark Darwin's birthday with a Phylum Feast, a celebratory meal involving as many different obscure species as possible. What a fantastic idea!

The link above includes a sample menu, and I love the fact they've picked whalemeat for the mammal rather than something a little more pedestrian. But turkey? Shrimp? I think we can do a bit better than that...

The search is on for the ultimate Phylum Feast, perhaps to mark Dawin's 200th birthday on 12 February 2009. With enough planning we might even make it happen.

Comments

[Silverbrow]

Given that the meal is to commemorate the relatedness of all organisms I reckon the meal should start at the bottom of the food chain and work its way up - it sounds like an average meal at Fat Duck.

[Ben Bush]

I like your style, Anthony, although I'm slightly worried about the cannibalistic course your suggestion implies somewhere near the end of the menu...

Will give it some more thought at lunchtime (when else?).

[Su-Lin]

commercial escargot? commercial shrimp?

I would have thought have the fun was in the challenge of procuring said ingredients!

[Ben Bush]

Which comes first out of dolphin or chimp?

And what comes first of all? Cheese? Primordial Soup?

[Alastair]

Surf and turf...