Astronaut Sunita Williams was making sushi aboard the International Space Station when she squirted wasabi out of a tube—it started floating around everywhere and hitting the walls. Oops! The wasabi was part of her bonus container, a personalized package of favorite foods given to astronauts to help make the months they spend in zero gravity with mostly MRE-type food more bearable:
Williams, whose father was born in India, has several Indian dishes in her bonus container, including Punjabi kadhi with pakora — vegetable fritters topped with yogurt and curry — and mutter paneer, a curry dish. The dishes are packaged to have a long shelf life in space.
Her U.S. crew mate, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, is an even bigger "foodie." Lopez-Alegria, who was born in Madrid but grew up in California, had Spanish muffins known as magdalenas, chorizo pork sausage and latte in his bonus container.
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