An astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA) films herself making healthy and delicious taco meals while aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The videos she made feature recipes involving chicken, rice, mackerel and quinoa salad.
Food is highly essential in any space mission. More than providing the astronauts with adequate nutrition and physical health, food may also be a tool to sustain sufficient psychological balance. With this, ESA allows their astronauts to choose and bring with them a particular amount of "bonus food," so that they could have something to remind them of home once in a while.
The ESA astronaut and Italian Air Force captain named Samantha Cristoforetti chose two taco recipes as her bonus food. She uses pre-packed food items and spreads them in a warm tortilla. The entire preparation process involves things and ingredients floating in mid-air while Samantha finishes one cooking step at a time. With her quick hands and probably frequent practice, she makes everything look easy.
The first recipe she presented was a soft-taco meal with quinoa salad, mackerel, dried tomatoes and leek cream as stuffing. Samantha starts off by unwrapping a pack of pre-warmed tortilla and leaving it afloat while she reaches for the pre-packed ingredients. She spreads them evenly with a spoon, making sure she does it fast enough so that the food does not fly too high.
Here is the video for the mackerel, quinoa salad recipe:
The second meal she made is a chicken turmeric soft-taco with brown rice, champignon mushroom and peas. The meal sounds and looks a real gourmet dish, which surprisingly can be made in space.
Here is the video presentation:
In the next clip, Samantha, together with chef Stefano Palato, who formulated the former's pre-packed space meals, demonstrate how to cook the delicious recipes in a normal kitchen on Earth.
Here is the clip:
In times when the space crew cannot catch the floating materials, like how the piece of mackerel drifted away in one of Samantha's videos, ESA explains that the materials will pass through a ventilation grid, which undergoes routine cleaning every Saturday morning. 'Alternatively, it could make for a tasty snack for someone as it floats past.'
