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A Professional Food Critic Samples Space Food
Posted by Mark Wilson at 5:20 AM on August 26, 2008
Bill Daley is the food critic for the Chicago Tribune, accustomed to differentiating the finer points of the expensive, aged steaks of Rush Street, not the freeze dried packets of astronaut cuisine. So when NASA sent him a few packets to test out (most of them cooked through injection with hot water) we were pretty keen on hearing just how well our men and women of the cosmos were eating (with no access to real Cosmos, of course). His verdict? Sometimes the food was quite good, other times, not so much.
Lunch went well...
I could easily have downed two packages of the shrimp cocktail, long an astronaut favourite. The six medium-size orange shrimp were just a touch chewy after their slapdash, 10-minute water bath, but they looked and smelled like what you get at the supermarket. NASA's cocktail sauce is spiked with plenty of horseradish and salt. If anything can revive tired taste buds in space, this dish is it. I chased it with a pouch of powdered mango-orange drink. The lush but tangy mango flavour juiced up the orange's sweetness, and the mango aroma was pronounced. It was delicious.
Breakfast, on the other hand...
The food scientists had also sent two breakfast items, freeze-dried "Mexican" eggs and a sausage patty. The eggs, coloured a bright buttercup yellow, were bouncy and broke down into small, dry curds. Flavourwise they were like a reluctant suitor, vaguely sweet but unwilling to make the full taste commitment. Hot sauce, ketchup even, would work wonders here. Nothing, however, could have saved the sausage patty.
There's lots more foodie space fun where this came from, so hit the link for the complete article. It's a fun, quick and educational read. [Discover]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
thexile
Posted 5:47 AM 26/8/08
@LocoMotive: Thank you!
thexile
CTJoyce
Posted 5:45 AM 26/8/08
@LJN: Hey now, Mr. Es are not that bad. Chilli-Mac, Beef Stew w/ veggies, Clam chowder, and many others are good eats. And the pound cake that you can sometimes be lucky enough to get is to DIE for.
CTJoyce
ltethe
Posted 5:44 AM 26/8/08
MREs are edible.
Barely.
They do however, give the impression of being able to survive an apocalypse or two, so they're useful for something.
ltethe
rexplex
Posted 5:44 AM 26/8/08
Never mix Astronaut ice cream, soda & 40 boy scouts.
And if you were at the Chesapeake house (I-95 in MD) that awful day, I apologize.
rexplex
The Lab
Posted 5:44 AM 26/8/08
"Flavorwise they were like a reluctant suitor" and that's why he is a professional food critic folks, hilarious.
The Lab
LJN
Posted 5:38 AM 26/8/08
@bjacobel: I'm too lazy to check on google but I know you can get this food, or least stuff close to it. I've had astronaut ice cream and a couple other things before way back in the day.
And if you can't get that, you should look for MREs. Any military people reading this will probably shudder at the thought of paying for these things but if you're really just camping for a couple days they are so convenient and a couple of the dishes aren't that bad.
LJN
LocoMotive
Posted 5:35 AM 26/8/08
I think this is it ...
[discovermagazine.com]
LocoMotive
Carmen: Lean Mean A Mans Dream Sex Machine
Posted 5:34 AM 26/8/08
@bjacobel: Just bring McDonalds! That shit, no matter HOW LONG you leave it out, never rots!
Carmen: Lean Mean A Mans Dream Sex Machine
thexile
Posted 5:33 AM 26/8/08
LINK PLEASE!!!
thexile
bjacobel
Posted 5:32 AM 26/8/08
If they sold this at REI, maybe I would enjoy backpacking trips a little bit more... Camping food is FTL.
bjacobel
guiscard
Posted 5:29 AM 26/8/08
link plz
guiscard
Tyranicus
Posted 5:25 AM 26/8/08
Hit what link?
Tyranicus
wiggatron
Posted 5:24 AM 26/8/08
Where's the link?
wiggatron
MyPetFly
Posted 6:19 AM 26/8/08
"What happened to Tang!!"
@TideGuy:
Politically incorrect...?
;)
MyPetFly
TideGuy
Posted 6:17 AM 26/8/08
"a pouch of powdered mango-orange drink"
What happened to Tang!!
TideGuy
Chromeo
Posted 6:17 AM 26/8/08
I've always been a fan of the Astronaut Ice Cream myself...
Melts in your mouth, and nowhere else. Beautiful.
Chromeo
USAF22
Posted 6:14 AM 26/8/08
This story is ancient. I saw it like a year ago in the local paper.
USAF22
MagnoliaBoy
Posted 6:13 AM 26/8/08
Might have been all that institutionalization, but I love me some powdered eggs.
MagnoliaBoy
NightElfMohawk
Posted 6:11 AM 26/8/08
@bjacobel: I've seen it for sale at my local REI. Same packaging and everything. And at Fry's too. 2 stores where I always spend far too much money...
NightElfMohawk
LJN
Posted 6:08 AM 26/8/08
@CTJoyce: Oh I tend to agree. There are some good ones out there - usually anyone with peanut butter or even the vegetarians ones because they tend to have a little candy. However, I was never in the military and those that I have talked to about it can't stand the idea because they were forced to live off of them for a while.
Anything with laxative gum will always be cool in my book.
LJN
MyPetFly
Posted 6:05 AM 26/8/08
@Carmen: Lean Mean A Mans Dream Sex Machine:
I worked with someone once who thumbtacked a Twinkie (in the plastic wrapper) to her cubical wall. It didn't have any mold or any other apparent problems (probably stiff as a board, though) after at least a couple of years.
MyPetFly
Darragh
Posted 6:28 AM 26/8/08
In a massive bout of co-incidence, my sister was in the Science Museum in London last week and brought back one of these very same products.
They were strawberries.
They tasted like my shoes.
Darragh
DisposableInterloper
Posted 6:58 AM 26/8/08
Professional food critics are mere plebeians compared to professional chefs, particularly those with more than one Michelin Star. I take this review with a grain of salt.
DisposableInterloper
Parapraxis
Posted 6:57 AM 26/8/08
@Darragh: now all they have to do is make shoes taste like strawberries, and then the CERN Large Hadron Collider will be ready to make the universe implode.
Parapraxis
Wegmans
Posted 7:26 AM 26/8/08
shallow and pedantic, shallow and pedantic
Wegmans
HeyBeav
Posted 8:02 AM 26/8/08
Anyone who complains about MRE's never had to eat C-rations.
The main problem is that people get tired of the sameness and long for fresh food. You snag beef stew in a retort four days in a row and it tastes grim. Five years designing food for wilderness programs taught me that a little food knowledge and a spice kit make a huge difference in the final product.
Also, it never failed that groups who had a guide who didn't like something always hated it too.
HeyBeav
Enochrewt
Posted 8:43 AM 26/8/08
I really like astronaught ice cream. A lot.
And the Chicken a la king MREs are supremely good, I have yet to find and instant or near instant version in the supermarket that even comes close. nomnomnom....
Enochrewt
xyzface
Posted 11:41 AM 26/8/08
i bought astronaut ice cream at sanford airport in florida for a friend..we ate it but had no idea any water was meant to be added...obviously we were not to impressed!
xyzface
Barry99705
Posted 1:19 AM 27/8/08
MREs are actually pretty good. The arctic ones are better though, more calories.
Barry99705
Enochrewt
Posted 7:31 AM 27/8/08
Wow, I can't believe I spelled "Astronaut" like that. eww.
Enochrewt
rack88
Posted 5:41 AM 26/8/08
Yeah, I think that LocoMotive has the right article, but it is more than 6 months old, which is a bit of a bummer. Good read though.
And to LJN, space food is similar to prepackaged camping food + the components needed to make it work in low gravity. That stuff can be good though.
rack88