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Kimchi in Space
rtknox00 writes "For astronauts spending months in space, the smallest touch of home can make a big difference. So when South Korea's first astronaut Ko San boards the International Space Station this April he'll be bringing along a hefty supply of kimchi, the national dish of his native country. While bringing a cherished food on a long journey might seem like a simple act, taking kimchi into space required millions of dollars in research and years of work." Science may never get Thorramatur in orbit.
Yes, it's nice that they are allowing this, however, I suspect that the smell will permeate everything in the station. Just saying.
...there goes my haggis.
So thats where our tax money went... researching the fluid mechanics of kimchi in 0 g..
They tried this awhile ago. You can't have carbonated beverages in a near-weightless environment because belching would result in vomiting up your food. As a result, the Coke had to be flat. Basically, it tasted really nasty and they've not tried it since that I know of.
Not always. I've had several kinds of Kimchi with no cabbage in them whatsoever.
End of line..
The spice! It's in my eyes! AUUUGHH! It burns!! The goggles... they do nothing!
in space no one can hear you fart.
it's not durian.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
I can't wait until we see kimchi commercialized in this new form. Maybe it will be something like instant ramen noodle is to us now?
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
The space stations is a small enclosed space with air recirculating. The other astronaunts will thank South Korea for spending the millons of dollars ensuring that Kimchi is safe for space. Without the addition of alpha-galactosidase things could potentially get really nasty the day after eating Kimchi. The thought of the astronauts moving around the cabin being "jet propelled", leaves a silly grin on my face.
Research is what I doing when I don't know what I am doing - Werner von Braun
Where do scientists earn $300k/year?
In the U.S., you have to be a tenured department chair, with a Howard Hughes fellowship or the likes of it... in order to make $300k/year as a scientist. I figure about 0.001% of all scientists fit that bill.
Graduate Students: $0 - $25k/year ($40-60k/year in the industry, as a technician)
Post Docs: $25k-35k/year ($40-100k/year in the industry, as a junior scientist, i.e. technician)
Fellows: $35-50k/year
Assistant/Associate professors: $50-60k/year
Full Professors w/o fellowships, etc: $60-150k/year
The vast majority of all scientists in the U.S. have trouble making ends meet... not earning $300k/year... and I am talking about the BIOMEDICAL scientists, who are the HIGHEST PAID.
Dak-Ho, would you suit up and go check that out, please?
Taking kimchi up in space - man, the smell of that stuff is brutal - and in space, you can't exactly crack the windows when he starts farting now, can you? Seriously, just because you _can_ take a smelly, nasty food up in space because people of your ethnicity eat it doesn't mean you _should_ take it up. There's the "bringing home with you so you don't get so lonely" deal but there's also the "having to live in a confined space with several other people that have nothing in common with you" deal. And bringing food that has a >0 chance of really bugging your fellow astronauts isn't the greatest idea. What's next, having an Icelandic astronaut bring some håkarl up, too?
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Yes, and World War II was essentially a frank exchange of opinion.
Might actually be useful in space.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
where the ever diligent Frank Burns saw some Koreans burying mines or bombs in a field near their base. He went out with metal detectors and a few helpers to find and remove these nefarious devices. Hawkeye and B.J. tagged along to see how things went.
Needless to say, Frank finds one of these bombs and uncovers it. As he's standing there practically gloating to Hawkeye about being right, Hawkeye promptly opens the top, to Frank's evident distress, at which point a pungent odor wafts into the air. Hawkeye then lets Frank in on what's been happening and explains these are kim-chi pots the villagers are burying.
Funny what one can learn from watching t.v.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Hey -- how did you find out about both my diet and my sexual habits? See -- this is why we need protection of our personal data....
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
Yes, if you are looking for a "Western Food" analog that would get everybody to understand quickly.
There's one HUGE difference though, kimchee is not typically cooked when it's made, whereas sauerkraut is cooked. Both are fermented I think it's the same micro-biology that does it though. And kimchee has at least garlic, usually hot spices, ginger and FISH SAUCE (fermented juice from preserved fish) in it. I use the purified form of the latter, along with usually one or two cans of drained and crushed anchovies for flavor.
The cool part is that the vitamins in the kimchee stay intact, so you get the vitamin C that was in there along with what is created during fermentation. So if you are in an agrarian society and need a supply of vitamins for the winter, kimchee works well. If you have gut problems it will overwhelm whatever bugs are ailing you, and it gets a slow moving gut running like a well-oiled shotgun if you need that.
For the uninitiated, kimchee is rather offensive stuff. But properly made home-made kimchee is a comfort food that does wonders. I go from cranky and anxious to happy and relaxed with a few mouth fulls of the stuff. I need to make another batch, am on my last jar come to think of it.
In my own experience, if you live in a place long enough you adapt to the food such that you feel just as weird going "back in the other direction". I remember walking around a western supermarket for the first time in years and thinking "Ok, what the hell am I supposed to eat here".
Time to adapt for me personally; 2-3 years, and 3 years tops. After that, no craving for food that you were previously used to eating. You get totally localized.
I guess my point is, instead of packaging food that is obviously unsuitable for the purpose (because it fucking stinks for one), why not train to live on food that is especially suitable for space flight.
> There's one HUGE difference though, kimchee is not typically cooked when it's made, whereas sauerkraut is cooked.
Sauerkraut is not cooked, when it is made, for exactly the reasons you cited in kimchi.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
Ahh, that's the problem. You're getting the canned stuff. Avoid canned kraut and get the stuff in bags. Much much higher quality.
My wife is Korean, and she can't stand to be away from Korean food. We live in the U.S., but have a couple of Korean marts around and so she generally eats Korean food about 80% of the time at home. When we go camping, she takes Korean food. When we go on vacation, she can maybe go 4 days without, but by the 5th day, we have to find a Korean restaurant. Paris wasn't so bad, as there were a few Korean restaurants to choose from. There was only one on Kauai, though.
I used to like most kinds of Korean food, but after having so much of it for so many years, I've gotten burned out on it, and now the only things I like are the pul-go-gi and the gal-bi. Imagine the l as sounding more like a single syllable lr, and the g sounding both like a g and a k, and that should give you an idea how it sounds.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Some non-cabbage based kimchi is okay but we should never let the Swedes send up Surströmming. That stuff is like a biological weapon.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Add Jack Daniels, that way you render two drinks of questionable palate into a passable embrocation. It's off topic, I know, but hey this is slashdot and they are brands on par with Microsoft.
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I wonder why no-one is talking about the wonderful thorramatur mentioned in the summary (some examples on the wiki page). Sour lumps of fat, ram's balls, urinated sharks, the list is lovely. Fortunately we only have to eat this once a year, with large amounts of brennivín, which is not drinkable unless consumed with the otherwise unedible food specimens spoken of before.
I guess every country has its own favourite unedible food.
Err... Read the title of his post. He's not talking about Kimchi. I'm guessing that he's talking about Thorramtur since the word he used shared a lot of the same letters, only the first character didn't show up because it's a thorn and not a "th".
And if you'll read the Wikipedia article about it, you'll see what he's talking about. I think I just about lost my appetite for lunch after reading that. Good Lord, what people used to eat when they were poor and had to make use of the whole animal! I mean, it's like reading something out of a Jack Vance book -- and not the gourmet scenes, but the ones where Cudgel has to "make do" with what he can get.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
and Jafiwam for injecting some sense into the thread.
I eat gimchi, and I like it, a LOT. I used to like the sweetened version, but after being unable to find it in restaurants in SF/Bay Area (outside of Ran Du, in Stockton, CA, run by a Chinese woman who grew up in Korea), I had to accept the more sour/pungent variety. Now, when I eat my Shin Ramyun, I sometimes put in several spoonsful of gimchi and the spicy tofu or spicy soybean and an egg.
I don't often burp or fart from eating gimchi. If the astronauts eat enough of it prior to blastoff (no pun intended) their systems might acclimate to mitigate expulsion of gas. Probably some antacid, or Mountain Tea (Greek OR Chinese varieties) might soothe the acidic effects and affects.
I suspect many of the "funny" comments here come from those who hardly eat or never tried gimchi. In a pinch, or on a regular diet, gimchi is a massive helluva lot better and more nutritious than most of the chemically treated garbage in our US diet. I'll stake my health on that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi
I wonder if natto has been to space yet, but:
http://www.japanfile.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=462
"The natto bean is a nutritional dynamo. For every 100 grams consumed, you are filling your body with 16.5 g of protein, 10.0 g of fats, 9.8 g of sugar, 2.3 g of fiber, and 1.9 g of ash for a total of 2,000 kilocalories. To say nothing of the host of vitamins and minerals you are getting: 0.07 milligrams of B1, 0.56 mg of B2, 1.1 mg of niacin, 90 mg of calcium, 190 mg of phosphorous, 3.3 mg of iron, 2 mg of sodium, 660 mg of potassium, and absolutely no cholesterol. There is more. Natto contains all eight of the necessary amino acids not produced by the human body as well as essential fatty acids like linoleic acid and enzymes that aid digestion. All of this has earned natto the respectful moniker of hatake no niku (field meat)."
More at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natto
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/natto
A Japanese friend introduced me to natto, and he sorta smugly (or I mistook his voice or facial expression) suggested that I won't be able to eat it. I asked if it were meat or some vegetable. He again stated he thought I would not be able to eat it. So, he nuked it, and I ate it with the mustard and soy sauce, and he went "Hmmph", smiled, and was pleased.
However, I would not recommend fry-heating natto on a domed/covered skillet -- unless you don't mind the "aroma" nearly-instantly permeating EVERY garment or cloth in your home or apartment. Well, if you want to offend or seek revenge, then steam/fry or steam-nuke a few small servings. You'll wake up your neighbors in the building...
Gimchi AND natto should should be fast-tracked not only for spacefarer consumption, but also for consumption in more restaurants.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I find that Kimchi actually improves my digestion. It's just fermented cabbage with some seasoning. It's not much different from Sauerkraut or lactic pickles. All of these fermented items have pretty pungent aroma, but a pretty big fan base. :)
Now things like natto and stinky tofu, those are way over the top. Kimchi, if thought as a typical condiment fits in with the traditions of westerns. To consume a salt and sour "side" with a meal. like pickles or olives.
I find that a little bit of kimchi on the side when having something heavy like baby back ribs tends to only enhance the flavor of the pork and helps cut through the richness.
and the active fermentation of kimchi (especially homemade) is likely to give people gas way worse than a bean burrito, but so will yogurt.
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