Don't Call it Milk if it's Soy?

Some Kind of Milk is in There

When one has a minority viewpoint, or is otherwise a rare fish in the mainstream, one will often hear certain musings again and again.  Sometimes these thoughts have been simmering for years in the mind of the average-joe-fish, and now she or he finally has a chance to ask.  Other times it is a maudlin attempt at original wit, often heard many times by the recipient.

For vegans, one of these topics concerns nomenclature.   Often arising as said vegan invites an omnivore to a veg-friendly restaurant.

"Why does it say 'chicken' if it is made from soybeans?"

"Why do they call it a burger if it doesn't taste like a burger?"

"Where are the udders on a soy bean?"

And so forth.  As I possess tendencies towards lingustic descriptivism, I have shrugged off these neologisms and borrowed words as natural expansion and adaptation of definitions.  Typically, I reply to questions like the above by stating the similarities in use and preparation of the vegan and meat versions.  For burgers, you take a patty of something and put it on a bun with ketchup, onions, and what-have-you.  If you're at the grill and I hand you a veggie burger and call it a veggie burger, you will have some idea what to do with it.  If I call it a grain and vegetable patty, you will have no clue.  And as far as taste, I'm sure the fast food burgers taste like garbage compared to fancier kinds, yet no one thinks the fast food kind shouldn't be allowed to be called a burger.

Flag of Hamburg

Plus a 'burger' or even the longer 'hamburger' does not specifically relate to meat, but to a town in Germany.  So it's truly not a very restrictive term.  Using 'milk' for soy goes back as far as the liquid in Japan (though in it's native china it was called more of a drink/beverage), and atleast 100 years in the west.  In the middle ages in Europe, almond milk was much easier obtain and store than bovine milk, and they had no qualms about calling it milk nor turning it into a butter (or "botere") substitute.  Though I guess the animal butter was actually the substitute.

Chicken in the Woods?

Omnivores should look at those four fingers pointing back at them as they blame veg*ns.  I doubt whoever came up with hen-of-the-woods (Grifola frondosa), chicken-of-the-woods (Laetiporus spp.), and fried-chicken-of-the-woods (Lyophyllum decastes) was vegetarian or anything like that.  Especially since none of them taste or look like chicken.  The first two I know from personal experience, and the last I rely on others.  Also why I call Grifola frondosa, maitake (舞茸) and Laetiporus, sulphur shelf (in addition to being too confusing).

Dryococelus australis

I know the folks who came up with "walking sausage" for the world's rarest insect, Dryococelus australis, were not vegan as the dinner plate contributed to their decline.  However that's an animal named for an animal...ish.

Birgus latro

Yet if naming plant- or fungus-based things after animals is bad, shouldn't naming animals after plants/fungi be just as bad?  I mean, a lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) is no lemon (Citrus × limon), and the coconut crab (Birgus latro) doesn't taste like coconut.

The Chicken Lizard

Although animals are named for plants that they eat or look like, I cannot find an example of an animal named for a plant it tastes like.  Though if you ask me, fish taste a lot like the seaweed they eat (protists and not plants, I know, but that designation may change).  Though I think if animals were named for what they tasted like, many animals would be called 'chicken.'

If I were to pick something to complain about in naming of things, I would want some accountability for evolutionary precedence.  For example, the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) evolved 50 mya, and the eponymous tiger (Panthera tigris) appeared only 3.2 mya.  Clearly the latecomer should be named after the original.  Perhaps 'land tiger shark?'

A Cutie Cuy

I think people who name things should take more than five seconds to come up with a name, and people also should not become so uptight about what words they use.  Yet perhaps both groups should think a little more.  Sure, a name like 'Guinea pig' for Cavia porcellus makes little sense on any level, but few will know what you mean when you use 'cuy' or 'cavy' until a critical mass is built.  Like many things, a little patience and intelligence goes a long way.

A Partial List of Edible Carnivorous Plants and Fungi

*UPDATE* Added Laccaria bicolor thanks to Puget Sound Mycological Society.

Recently I realized my earlier post on edible carnivorous fungi and plants needs some further bulking up.  Combined with the removal of the appropriate categories on Wikipedia, I figured I'd revisit, expound, and preserve the information here.  The lists are by no means complete, so feel free to let me know what else is out there.

Also I'm including some vegan recipes.  Well, vegan if you ignore what the plant ate.  Some vegans think it's ok to eat them as it's 'natural.'  Some think it's ok as they do not see a transitive property apply.  Some eat them out of ignorance.  Some do not eat them.  There is no vegan rulebook.

Note that the definitions of 'edible' and 'carnivorous' are somewhat vague in some cases.  'Edible' could range from something that will not kill you if you eat it, to something palatable, to something commercially farmed for food.  The applicable aphorism is that all plants and fungi are edible, sometimes more than once.  In all cases it is anthropocentric, meaning edible to humans.  Palatability has a wide range as well, but usually there is a balance to be found.  Personally, as a fan of foraging, I don't think something has to be currently cultivated to count as edible, but it should be palatable.  The cultivation angle is further fuzzy for these plants, as many are cultivated as ornamental plants and not for food.  I also do not think that preparative steps that make a toxic plant edible (such as with cassava or acorns) should remove it from this list.  Note that I am not including herbal medicines or any of that hooey.  If it's good enough to truly heal, it's a medicine and not food.

'Carnivorous' typically fall short of Audrey II, but can range from active trapping of animals to a more passive external digestion.  The prey animals range from vertebrates like mice and frogs to microscopic worms like nematodes.  A few of the plants generally accepted as full carnivores do not have proteolytic enzymes, but let bacteria do that work for them.  Others produce digestive enzymes but are considered merely protocarnivorous.  Some plants have trapping mechanisms solely for defense but not to gain nutrients. To be considered a full carnivore, they need some kind of trap, and they need to absorb nutrients.  In any event, there's probably something here that fits your specific definitions, and I'll try to specify where each plant or fungus is.

First, a partial list edible carnivorous plants:

• Capsella bursa-pastoris (shepherd's purse) -- I've eaten this wild from my yard and cultivated in frozen bao.  Though it is at best protocarnivorous, seeming more to defend it's seeds with sticky mucilage and digestive enzymes than to feed itself.  You can try it in an early spring salad or in a mung bean porridge.
• 
  Dipsacus japonicus (Japanese teasel, Chinese teasel) and Dipsacus mitis (no common name) -- The teasel family are alleged protocarnivores.  Leaves of D. mitis can be cooked and eaten.  The same applies for D. japonicus, but only when nothing else is available to eat.
• Drosera capensis (Cape sundew), Drosera rotundifolia (common sundew, round-leaved sundew), and Drosera spatulata (spoon-leaved sundew) -- These three insectivorous species are used to make the German libation Sonnentau Likör.  D. rotundifolia is used in Italy in the traditional recipe for rosolio.  They are all full carnivores, and D. capensis even moves to surround prey in stickiness.
• Drosera peltata subsp. auriculata (Climbing sundew) --This and the tubers of other sundews of Australia can be eaten and are foraged by the Aborigines.  According to the Chinese government, D. peltata is "slightly toxic."
• Geranium viscosissimum (sticky purple geranium) -- The foraged leaves and flowers of this protocarnivore are used as a garnish or in salad.
  
• Nepenthes mirabilis (common swamp pitcher-plant) and likely other Nepenthes species --  The pitcher plants trap insects, mice, frogs, et cetera in the pitchers and digest them.  In Malaysia the pitchers are cleaned and stuffed with sticky rice and coconut milk to make 猪笼草饭.  Nepenthes are sold in public markets there for apparent culinary purposes.
• Passiflora foetida (wild maracuja, santo papa, marya-marya) -- Another protocarnivore with stickiness and enzymes.  Eat raw like any other passion fruit species, or make into jam or jelly.
• Pinguicula vulgaris (common butterwort) -- As you may expect from the common name, this has a dairy connection.   The leaves are not ingested directly, but cow's milk is poured over the leaves to curdle it to make tjukkmjølk.  This is just begging for someone to make a soy/almond/coconut version!  Though the name is allegedly a PGI and cannot be used if it's made out of Roros, Norway, so you'll have to think up a generic name for the vegan version.  Maybe leave out a K or something.  Once you do that you can use one of these easily veganizable recipes.  A similar product from Sweden called tätmjölk/filtäte/täte/långmjölk is prepared similarly and also fermented.  You can try veganizing Linnaeus' original recipe.
• Plumbago auriculata (blue plumbago, Cape plumbago, Cape leadwort) --Another protocarnivorous genus, but only this species is edible as far as I found.  Try a plumbago and beetroot salad or vegetarianize/degelatinize this recipe for plumbago fruit jelly.
• Proboscidea spp. (devil's claws, unicorn plants) -- a protocarnivorous (or perhaps merely murderous) genus of multiple (half-dozen or so) edible species.  Mostly foraged.  Some basic recipes and other culinary uses.
• 
  Stylidium vitiense (a kind of triggerplant) -- The fruit is edible.  All plants in this genus are either a full carnivore or a protocarnivore, depending on your point of view.  And speaking of views, I could not find a single image of this plant.  If you find one, let me know.
• Utricularia vulgaris (common bladderwort) -- an aquatic carnivorous plant, so you can check off three boxes with this guy.  The leaves and root are eaten.  The juice can be drunk, but I wonder if that means the digestive fluid in the bladders or what.

Now a partial list of edible carnivorous fungi:

• Coprinus comatus (shaggy mane, shaggy inky cap, lawyer's wig) -- A nematophagous fungus that traps, poisons, and kills its prey.  It is cultivated in China and foraged in the West.  Try it in a shaggy mane berbere or casserole.
• Hohenbuehelia petaloides (no common name) -- Another musher that gets all BTK on the nematodes.  Not a choice edible (described as mealy), and may be hyperallergenic, but you can eat it if you want to.  Do you want to?  If so, tell me some recipes.
• Laccaria bicolor (deceiver, xocoyule) -- Unlike the other fungi here, the awesomely named deceiver mushroom kills insects like springtails.  They are a traditional food of the Nahua (Aztec) people of Mexico.
• Pleurotus spp. (oyster mushrooms, abalone mushrooms, tree mushrooms) -- I hate when one organism is named for another, but I imagine at least the mushroom was named after the mollusc chronologically as well.  Anyway, all Pleuroti are nematophagous, having little loops that slowly tighten around the wee worms.  Most of the 31 or so species are edible, and many are cultivated.  I personally have eaten, bought, foraged, and grown a number of species.  Try oysters Newburgh.
• 
  Stropharia rugosoannulata (wine cap stropharia, garden giant, burgundy mushroom, king stropharia, Godzilla mushroom) --  Like the others, this big guy takes out nematodes. If it doesn't grow near you, you can plant it, and it will give help your other plants like maize and Super Marios as well as giving your yard that Alice-in-Wonderland look. Eat them spiced, in wine, or both, as you'll probably have plenty.

 Now the Tungsten Chef Challenge (so called as tungsten is etymologically a carnivorous 'wolf spittle' and 'the devourer of tin'):  Make a dish using as many of these edible carnivores as possible.  I want recipes people!