Happy Birthday Mr. Darwin
I'm sitting here wondering what we're going to do to celebrate Charles Darwin's birthday. What are your plans?
A few years ago I placed a portrait of Darwin, the one shown here, in the middle of the dining room table and surrounded him with sea shells, pine cones, and skulls. I then served a dinner that had a reasonable level of species diversity on the plates. Dim the lamps, light the candles, and the overall effect was enchanting. My family thought I was being weird... again.
"Just wait until Theodor Geisel's birthday," I thought.
In the process of gearing up for another run at this I discovered that the five kingdoms of my high school biology class (animals, plants, fungi, protists, and monera) had been expanded. I vaguely knew this, but I discovered additions that had escaped me, and I feel like biologists need to know they have complicated my celebration planning. My initial idea was to map out a multi-course dinner with one course celebrating each kingdom. I learned that these were last defined in 2015. The now seven kingdoms are:
1. Animalia
2. Plantae
3. Fungi
4. Bacteria
5. Protozoa
6. Chromista
7. Archaea
The first four are a slam dunk. Chromista includes the algae, and can be most easily be represented with nori - check. Archaea was slightly more difficult. It turns out that there is only one readily available food that contains these strange organisms, and it is fish sauce. One more down. That leaves us with protozoa. Here I came up empty, unless I was interested in dosing my family with a parasite, so completing my goal was going to have a significant down side. I briefly considered covering the protista course by frying an egg, making it look kind of like an amoeba, and calling it good. But I have a better idea... let's do it all in one bite.
Seven Kingdoms Roll
1. Get some sushi rice started (plantae).
2. Saute some mushrooms (fungi); shitake would be good.
3. Cut some strips of animalia - sushi grade fish, barbecued pork, etc.
4. Plants are represented by the rice, but let's cut some thin strips of carrot, scallion, and/or avocado.
5. Make a dipping sauce with miso (bacteria), fish sauce (archaea), soy sauce, and mirin. Add a dash of anything else that seems interesting - minced ginger, sriracha, sesame oil.
6. Make a sushi roll by placing a thin layer of rice and lines of 2, 3 and 4 on a sheet of nori (chromista). Roll, cut and serve with dipping sauce.
So you'll notice that there are still only six kingdoms represented. The trick is to make a toast to the protista right before you pop it in your mouth.
A few years ago I placed a portrait of Darwin, the one shown here, in the middle of the dining room table and surrounded him with sea shells, pine cones, and skulls. I then served a dinner that had a reasonable level of species diversity on the plates. Dim the lamps, light the candles, and the overall effect was enchanting. My family thought I was being weird... again.
"Just wait until Theodor Geisel's birthday," I thought.
In the process of gearing up for another run at this I discovered that the five kingdoms of my high school biology class (animals, plants, fungi, protists, and monera) had been expanded. I vaguely knew this, but I discovered additions that had escaped me, and I feel like biologists need to know they have complicated my celebration planning. My initial idea was to map out a multi-course dinner with one course celebrating each kingdom. I learned that these were last defined in 2015. The now seven kingdoms are:
1. Animalia
2. Plantae
3. Fungi
4. Bacteria
5. Protozoa
6. Chromista
7. Archaea
The first four are a slam dunk. Chromista includes the algae, and can be most easily be represented with nori - check. Archaea was slightly more difficult. It turns out that there is only one readily available food that contains these strange organisms, and it is fish sauce. One more down. That leaves us with protozoa. Here I came up empty, unless I was interested in dosing my family with a parasite, so completing my goal was going to have a significant down side. I briefly considered covering the protista course by frying an egg, making it look kind of like an amoeba, and calling it good. But I have a better idea... let's do it all in one bite.
Seven Kingdoms Roll
1. Get some sushi rice started (plantae).
2. Saute some mushrooms (fungi); shitake would be good.
3. Cut some strips of animalia - sushi grade fish, barbecued pork, etc.
4. Plants are represented by the rice, but let's cut some thin strips of carrot, scallion, and/or avocado.
5. Make a dipping sauce with miso (bacteria), fish sauce (archaea), soy sauce, and mirin. Add a dash of anything else that seems interesting - minced ginger, sriracha, sesame oil.
6. Make a sushi roll by placing a thin layer of rice and lines of 2, 3 and 4 on a sheet of nori (chromista). Roll, cut and serve with dipping sauce.
So you'll notice that there are still only six kingdoms represented. The trick is to make a toast to the protista right before you pop it in your mouth.
There is no person
alive or dead
with the possible exception of my parents
who has done more
to help me answer the question
"Why am I here?"
Happy Birthday Mr. Darwin.
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