We have been particularly interested in this season since it takes place in DC. And last night we were even more particularly interested because the episode took place at NASA!
It was fun watching with Patrick since he knew or had met most of the NASA people on the show. The challenge, of course, was to prepare a gourmet dish for space. The winner's dish would be freeze-dried and sent to the International Space Station. In the end, I think the judgment was based more on flavor and execution rather than practicality as a space meal (Lamb chops in space? Come on now...) but it was still interesting to see what kinds of dishes they came up with.
Random sidenote: Before the episode even started, I was curious to hear how many times they would incorporate the phrase "Out of this world" but I believe it was only once or twice.
Patrick already knew a little bit about space food as he has toured the space food labs at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX for work and even attended a luncheon there where he was served a full-course meal of freeze-dried astronaut food. Apparently food tastes better in space when it's spicy, and so many of the foods are prepared that way. Even the green beans he ate were "spicy green beans." And I'm told one of the favorites among the astronauts is the spicy shrimp cocktail.
I think when most of us consider space food, we immediately think about the freeze-dried strawberries and ice cream that you can buy at the gift shops (which, if I recall correctly from my childhood, are not overwhelmingly tasty). It's interesting to hear how advanced the food being sent into space is becoming these days. Also, since the International Space Station is, in fact, international, there is the cultural variety of food to consider. The Korean astronauts have, of course, invented space kimchi (actually check out this article about it) and the Russian astronauts have some form of space Borscht.
In case you haven't seen the episode, I won't reveal which chef/dish won, but I will say I was a little surprised at the outcome.
oo,
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