Cup musings...

[jay]

As befits a bunch of space cadets, our universal everyday beverage is Tang. It exists by the case, while the coffee and cocoa are gone.

Here on Devon Island we have a fine alkaline dust... probably similar to the playa dust at Burning Man, in some respects.

This dust combines with Tang to leave an orangey-brown sediment on the side of my cup. Three layers now. It is time to change to harder stuff...

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

OK, that's it. Next time, I help you space cadets pack, and come and cook for y'all. This is more than one foodie can stand. < Patrick Stewart > The line must be drawn! Here! now! < /Patrick Stewart >

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Sounds like they definitely need some help ... that shopping trip gave me the quivers :-)

And what is `Tang', anyhow? (I could look it up, but I'm most interested in what it means to brian1789 :-)

Re:

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

It's an powdered instant orange beverage. Something associated with the space program. I believe astronauts were given Tang to drink during the Apollo missions. I'm not sure, though.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Urk. With added Vitamin C, no doubt, as none will have survived from any initial contact with any actual oranges? :-)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Tang derives from filtered, freeze-dried orange juice... with added sugar, orange coloring and Vitamin C to backfill some of what was lost in processing. Flat-tasting and sugary, not even close to the quality of "real" juice, but it lasts a long time in storage. And was developed as astronaut food, a fact with was used in its advertisements throughout the 1960s and 70s (grin)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Pack? Amen to that. Plus, Pascal has to be convinced that quality matters... for example, he buys a couple of cases of Power Bars to take on traverses, plus ten cases of icky fruit-jelly bars that are one-third the price. Which no one likes, so they pile up... the white 150gal cooler that I'm sitting on (webcam) is literally filled with these bars, 2 years past their "best if eaten by" date in mildewed boxes.

Condiments are few and in short supply, too... people bring their own and share. To use up a huge supply of powdered milk before it expires, we have to add Nestle Quik to powdered milk for cocoa. Likewise if we want coffee.

But while condiments, beverages and trail fare are fair-to-poor, the cooked meals have been quite good -- our camp cook Ginger is a schoolteacher in Resolute during the rest of the year, and she is used to these conditions and equipment. We have a camp oven... we had light and fluffy parmesan biscuits with our beef stew just now at lunch. She made apple pie for last night's dinner. Tonight we're having curried chicken for dinner. Much better than the ramen noodles and Spam we used to endure in 1998 and 1999.

Re:

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

OK. At least let me help you pack and purchase food supplies, then.