Howdy folks! I did some digging, and it doesn't seem like we've had a review like this before. Here's hoping it goes ok for a first go at it
- Contents of the meal (Russian sides)
- Contents again (English sides where applicable)
I put the meal together out of the following:
- Pork with Vegetables
- Cottage Cheese with Blackcurrant Puree
- Cherry and Apple Juice
- Earl Gray Tea with Sugar
- Marmalade Candies
- Contents of the meal, plated
A few of these items are actual Russian space program items, and a few are civilian products meant to provide an authentic outer space ration experience. I've seen some actual entrees available, but the price tag has always been too high. In this review, the pork and the cottage cheese are both commercially available products that can be found in vending machines in Russia. The juice, tea, and candy are made for the space program - although they may have been overproduction, factory seconds, etc.
The commercial items have some interesting heating instructions. Heat in hot water, on a radiator, or on the heater vent in a car. Made by
SpaceFoodLaboratory
- SpaceFoodLaboratory Packaging
The main course was
Pork with Vegetables. I heated this up in a pot of boiling water for about five minutes and it was piping hot. I could taste carrots and potatoes with the pork - at least that's my best guess. I'm going to translate the ingredients list and include it here:
Pork, broth, potatoes, onion bulb, sweet pepper, tomato paste, oil, wheat flour, salt, parsley greens, garlic, ground black pepper, citric acid
- Pork With Vegetables by SpaceFoodLaboratory
Overall I loved it. It reminded my of a Dinty Moore style stew, but a bit finer texture throughout. It was not quite pate, more the emulsified contents of an entire bowl of stew.
- Close Up - Pork With Vegetables
Next up was the
Cottage Cheese With Blackcurrant Puree. I'll admit, I started off very apprehensive about this one. Any tubed cheese product only has so much life in it, and this particular tubed cheese product had traveled halfway around the world in all sorts of unknown conditions. Imagine heavier cottage cheese, with fruit jelly mixed in very thoroughly. The only big difference would be the moisture content, and perhaps the smell. The smell worried me at first, it being a little sour and pungeant. The taste was excellent - sweet and fruity, but definitely cottage cheese. The ingredients for this translated as:
Cottage cheese solids, mashed blackcurrant, refined granulated sugar, butter, water, semolina groats
- Cottage Cheese with Blackcurrant Puree by SpaceFoodLaboratory
- Close Up - Cottage Cheese
With the meal I had two drinks. The first was a tube of ready-to-drink
Cherry and Apple Juice. I had to unscrew the top and pierce the tube, then screw the cap back on. I poured some into a clear tumbler for the review pictures, but I drank the remainder from the tube directly. Just like a boxed apple/cherry juice - real fruit juice as far as I could tell. The second drink was the ISS
Earl Gray Tea. I opened the end of the pound and unwound the filling tube. This would attach to a hot water dispenser on the space station in order to have the water piped directly to the tea and sugar. It called for 200ml of hot water and made a nice smooth tasting drink.
- Earl Gray Tea with Sugar in packaging made for use on the International Space Station
The
citrus slice candies were the best I've ever had. Grapefruit, Orange, and Lemon - very soft, still very fresh tasting. The sugar granules were huge and they each tasted very much like their respective fruits.
This was such an interesting meal that I had to share it properly with the rest of you folks. I hope you enjoyed it!
