PHILADELPHIA, October 5, 2012

The nation’s oldest natural history museum is throwing a cocktail party featuring a menu of exotic and everyday foods inspired by its famous plant and animal collections. Farm-raised python, anyone?

Cuisine From the Collections will take place from 7–10 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. Adventurous grazers will be treated to an eclectic variety of food options such as venison, seaweed and dishes prepared with ingredients not found in most kitchens, including healthful crickets and worms. The cocktail party is open to adults, and proceeds benefit the Academy’s mission of encouraging and cultivating the sciences.

For Cuisine From the Collections

• Wear: Halloween or cocktail attire
• Pay: $75 for Academy members, $100 for nonmembers
• Buy tickets: academycuisine.eventbrite.com

While many of the living plants and animals represented by the Academy’s 18 million research specimens already are food for some species or other, there are many creatures that aren’t so commonly eaten by your average citizen. Python, buffalo, seaweed and rabbit are a few. Academy scientists will be on hand to inform diners of the scientific fields of study and Academy collections in which menu items are categorized, such as rambutan (botany), salts (mineralogy), sushi (ichthyology), snails (malacology), and crickets (entomology).

The food is by the Academy’s caterer, 12th St. Catering, and chefs and students from the Drexel University Goodwin College of Professional Studies. For more information, visit ansp.org/Visit/Events/Details/?eid=2013&iid=6915.

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