Over 100 dishes for Chinese astronauts
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E-mail China Daily, November 15, 2016
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Screenshot of a video that shows astronaut Jing Haipeng drinks tea in Tiangong II space lab. [Xinhua] |
One hundred types of food. Seven dishes in breakfast and eight each in lunch and dinner. Is it a king's feast? No. Here is a hint: It's literally out of this world.
When for most of us the food served on planes is just eatable, you might be tempted to think that astronauts eat same bland stuff. Well, not the two Chinese astronauts onboard Tiangong II space lab. For their 33 days' space mission, more than 100 types of food has been packed.
And they are not just everyday dishes. Jing Haipeng, who is on his third space mission, enjoyed a bite of cheese cake on his 50th birthday on Oct 24.
As both Jing and his crewmate Chen Dong love tea, they have taken not only green tea, but also black tea with them to the space.
"We drink tea almost every day," said Jing in his space journal. The tea, which is stored in special bags, can be drunk after water is poured into the bag and both are heated together.
Small bags of vinegar from Shanxi province, his birthplace and home of vinegar, are also part of the goods. It is the first time that he is having vinegar from his hometown in space. For Chen, who comes from Henan province where cooked wheat food is the staple dish, some local popular food has been prepared according to his taste.
“In the morning, we eat seven types of food, including porridge, coconut bread, quail eggs and pickles. We have eight choices at lunch, including mixed fried rice, fried noodles with meat, stewed beef with potato and nori and egg soup. And eight dishes at dinner, including fried noodles with beans, rice noodles with beef, fried shrimp with egg as well as canned fruits. Besides, there are five kinds of snacks, such as spicy pork, fried beans and dried bean curd,” said Jing on his 17th day in space.
The two astronauts entered Tiangong II on Oct 19 from Shenzhou XI spacecraft after leaving the Earth on Oct 17.
In fact, today's Chinese space food has become much more diversified and tastier than that in 2003 when first astronaut Yang Liwei went to space. There were around 30 dishes in the cuisine for his one-day mission.
And when Jing's and Chen's predecessors went on Shenzhou X, more than 80 dishes were provided, including traditional festival food such as mooncakes and zongzi.
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