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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.
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.
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."
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"
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.
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.