Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about the unusual dinners served by The Explorers Club in New York City during the past 120 years. Octopus, ants, rooster combs, snake, pickled whale skin and lava worms, anyone? Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
What did you have for dinner last night? Chances are the food you ate was familiar and not terribly exotic. But for 120 years, adventurous members of New York City’s “The Explorers Club” have gathered one night a year to honor exploration and their members, and experience bold dining.
Who are these intrepid diners? “Headquartered in New York City with a community of Chapters around the world, The Explorers Club has been supporting scientific expeditions of all disciplines, and uniting our members in the bonds of good fellowship for over a century.” (1) Their members have included Theodore Roosevelt, Robert Perry, Buzz Aldrin, and Sylvia Earle. Members have explored the highest mountains and the deepest depths of the oceans in an effort to learn more about our world.
Like many organizations, The Explorers Club – founded in 1904 – gets together for events throughout the year that include dinner. Unlike most other groups, this dinner finds its way into the newspapers because of how unusual it is. It’s not like the “rubber chicken” featured at most large dinner events; different proteins including insects and reptiles are served for a night that is especially memorable.
The Explorers Club Dinner at Mid-Century
Historical newspapers provide a glimpse into some of the foods eaten at the Club’s dinner, providing readers with a glimpse of this annual event. The 54th dinner, attended by 600 Explorer Club members and their guests, featured octopus, ants, rooster combs, snake, pickled whale skin and lava worms among other delicacies. This 1958 article gives a few highlights of that year’s dinner.
Not all explorers are keen to eat the unusual. This article reports:
And there were plenty of ants takusan. For some reason, the ants takusan didn’t move very fast.
“They keep me awake nights,” explained one explorer as he passed over the ants.
“It’s all in your mind,” mumbled his companion, who, being an ants takusan man from ’way back, piled several on his plate. As he nibbled on the delicacy, he sounded disturbingly as if he were eating a light bulb.
However, by the 1950s some explorers felt that the annual dinner had become – for the most part – less of a contest of who had the strongest stomach than it had once been, as the more “creative” food had been ditched for standard conservative fare.
This 1955 newspaper article accuses the explorers of becoming “tame” with their menu of “Asparagus tips rolled in ham, with pansies in aspic; scraped raw choice beef, peeled shrimp; raw eggs yolk with capers; ‘passion fruit’ on smoked caribou” instead of the previous year’s alligator eggs and fried termites.
Tame is an apt description for some of the dinners since the 1951 dinner “treated” guests to drinks chilled with glacier ice and supposed “slices of a 250,000-year-old woolly mammoth that had been defrosted from Alaskan glacial ice.” (In 2016, DNA tests on a piece of the meat kept as a souvenir by the Club verified that it was Green Sea Turtle, and not prehistoric Mammoth meat. (2)
Over time, the annual meal has had brief newspaper coverage that focuses more on the food and less on the event itself. This 1963 mention includes the more unusual “Polar sauerbraten, pate of deer and seal livers, jellied calves’ eyes, and ground squirrel stew” and the more tame “bisque of Mississippi crawfish, roast prime ribs of Brahman beef, duchesse of Ireland potatoes, French string beans amandine, and southern cross salad.” Of course, the term “unusual foods” is subjective; for example, squirrel stew isn’t really that unusual depending on where the person is from.
The Explorers Club Dinner 2023
I was honored to attend the 2023 Explorers Club 119th annual dinner as a guest of my son Daniel Ortega, an Explorers Club member. The star-studded event held at the Glass House in New York City capped off days of lectures, awards, and networking opportunities.
So how is the modern-day Explorers Dinner in contrast to its past dinners? Somewhat tame. The club no longer imports exotic foods for the dinner like they did in the past. Concerns over conservation and sustainability are front and center. The dinner itself was fairly standard for a large event – no iguana or foreign meats. The only adventure was in the types of appetizers served. Appetizers featured various insects like crickets and beetles. The crickets were described by my son as tasting like “wood.” Unfortunately, I missed the insect table. I’m hoping to be able to get a taste in the future.
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Note on the header image: fireplace on the first floor of the Explorers Club in New York City. Credit: Rhododendrites; Wikimedia Commons.
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(1) “About,” The Explorers Club (https://www.explorers.org/about/history-including-famous-firsts/: accessed 3 January 2023).
(2) “Study Proves the Explorers Club Didn’t Really Eat Mammoth at 1950s New York Dinner,” Science Alert (https://www.sciencealert.com/study-proves-the-explorers-club-didn-t-really-eat-mammoth-at-1950s-new-york-dinnerL: accessed 3 January 2023).