Fair Game in New York City

Last Thursday New York City's Explorers Club served guests a menu of turtle bisque, Argentinean ostrich, pemmican pudding, South American prairie hare, and pheasant breast pâté.  The evening, hosted by Redwood Creek Wines of California, honored Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, with food inspired by meals the explorers’ consumed on the famous voyage. Redwood Creek chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet sauvignon accompanied the exotic food, and the smooth taste of the wine went extraordinarily well with the unique flavors of the menu (plus, the wine helped to decrease any anxiety associated with eating turtle meat for the first time).

Gene Rurka, Exotic Foods Expert, organized and prepared the dishes for the event. He explained that Pemmican Pudding—dried buffalo meat, dried currants, honey, and bacon—was basically the first energy bar.  Diet played an extremely important part on expeditions like Shackleton’s, and most food was chosen based on accessibility, as the Antarctic doesn’t offer up the largest menu on the planet.  Pemmican has been used for cooking by a number of cultures, including Native Americans, because it didn’t turn rancid quickly, and one small piece could last an individual quite some time.  To the taste, it’s a salty little mass of meat, and although I can’t see myself reaching for the bag of pemmican pudding during a blockbuster movie night, I can imagine the draw during a serious hike.

After the reception, polar historian Dr. T.H. Baughman delivered a captivating account of Shackleton’s voyage, from stories of emperor penguins singing to the adventurers when their ship was trapped in the ice, to tales of Shackleton’s loyalty to his men, allowing them to bring their journals and a banjo along when they had to abandon their ship and travel by foot over the treacherous landscape of Antarctica.

The combined food, wine, and talk made for an unforgettable evening; however, as the astute young woman sitting next to me put it, nothing could beat the moment when the event attendees ate the decorative rabbit meal on display in the reception area. I guess a bit of the adventurer’s spirit was in the air and anything edible became fair game.

Get recipes from the food served at this dinner.

-Erika Hunter Lloyd

Comments

[ryan davis]

erika lloyd,

heather hogle has three kids. she just had twins. now she wants your turtle soup.

love
ryan

[Erika Lloyd]

Hello,

I wrote the blog referred to in the previous comment and I would like to make a clarification. The turtle bisque, along with all the other exotic food served at the Shackleton dinner, was created with only sustainable, non-eco-threatening ingredients.

I spoke with Gene Rurka, who organized and prepared the dinner, and he was incredibly clear about his concern for being environmentally and ecologically responsible when buying the meat of exotic animals. He goes so far as to check up regularly on the farms that grow the food he uses. The turtle in the turtle bisque was only from farm raised turtles, not sea turtles.

Hope this helps to clarify some of your concerns.

Thank you for writing,
Erika Lloyd

[Joseph Grab]

I just read your article on extinct animals and the devastation humans have on the environment only to read an article on "turtle bisque" and eating other wildlife.

I stopped subscribing to Outside many years ago, AGAIN, I know why. Your articles are crap.