Just How Gross Is Freeze-Dried Space Food?
The glorified gift shop souvenir of the National Air and Space Museum is fun to buy, but tasty? Today, astronauts can choose among 180 food and beverage items, including beef fajitas, cranapple cobbler, and “Mexican” eggs with beans—quite a step up from the squeeze tubes during the Project Mercury days. And more complex than the gift shop's ice cream sandwich.
Food scientists, not chefs or critics, are in charge of NASA’s space meals. Is tastiness prioritized? On some level, it doesn't matter because aromas don’t waft up in space. Chicago Tribune food and wine writer Bill Daley tried a bunch and critiqued them for Discovery magazine. While he was wild about the shrimp cocktail (an astronaut favorite), he wasn't too hot for the Asian-themed entree.
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 flavor juiced up the orange’s sweetness, and the mango aroma was pronounced. It was delicious.
The precut chicken pieces were a strange pinky-beige color, sort of an avian version of Malibu Barbie.
Yum.
Related: In Videos: Space Food Sticks TV Commercial
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5 Comments:
If I was an astronaut I would live solely on freeze dried ice cream. That stuff is the bomb.
simon at 10:46AM on 08/26/08
A few years ago eGullet had a Q and A with Vicki Kloeris, a food scientist who makes her career organizing food for astronauts. It was a really interesting thing and answers alot of questions that many folks might have.
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showforum=140
Brooks at 12:15PM on 08/26/08
Freeze dried ice cream is awesome. I buy some whenever I am near the NASA gift shop.
So Good at 12:53PM on 08/26/08
The stuff you find in the gift shops (that photo pictured) is what NASA (Houston) has been selling since the early 90s, not any of the new things I believe.. unless their desserts (strawberries, ice cream, ice cream sandwiches) haven't changed in 15 years. I know this because when I was in 3rd grade (I'm 25), we had a kid come to class and give out sample of the SAME Neapolitan ice cream that's there today, (I bought some last month)...
Tahitinova at 2:27PM on 08/26/08
When I say desserts, I mean the desserts they have in space now.
Tahitinova at 2:28PM on 08/26/08