The art of eating well in Antarctica (2022) | Hacker News Reader

The art of eating well in Antarctica (2022)

atlasobscura.com

62 pointstosh21 comments

One time on Erebus helicopters couldn't get in for several weeks so we started to get a little low on food. We found a giant piece of meat buried in the ice near the hut decades ago. Our brilliant chef Drea was like awesome we are having lamb tonight, but then when we got the ice off it and got a better look she was like uhhh I meant brisket. It was delicious.

Usually plenty of selection of frozen food up there-- I ate a LOT of delicious scallops. "Freshies," however, were a hugely anticipated, rare treat.

Sometimes we DID order pizza from mcmurdo, informally, via helicopter (when there was one coming up anyway).

If you’re one of the few foolish enough to climb Denali in the winter, you can find some comfort in the countless stashes from the summer.

Some frozen mammoths were found in Siberia at end of 19th century. Locals fed it to dogs, and it was served as delicatessen in Paris restaurants.

An anecdote from someone who grew up in Newfoundland: the rich kids ate peanut butter sandwiches; poor kids had nothing but lobster.

This story went somewhere very different than what I expected. When you described a giant piece of meat, I assumed it was going to be a person.

Why not an alien creature?

It's never aliens.

I was surprised by the number of research settlements in Antartica. 82 total bases across 30 countries. Population sways from ~5,000 in the summer to 1,000 in the winter [1].

Looks like most of them are grouped pretty close around the peninsula. Explains how the volunteers were able to share food between the different international research bases.

[1] https://www.antarcticglaciers.org/antarctica-2/people-in-ant...

In particular the King George island (or 25 de Mayo) is really crowded, which is a nice feature, as it is possible to visit other bases just on a short trip, either by boat or snow mobile. Or between the Chinese/Russian/Chilean/Uruguayan bases, just by walking :).

Long-distance trips between some of the bases pictured on the link you added are usually not feasible/practical, particularly in winter. We (i.e. Argentinian base) had some longer-distance Twin Otter trips to other national bases, but not that often.

Were you at Belgrano? I flew over there a few times on depot-laying flights from Halley. The first couple of times people even came out and waved.

Unfortunately that (and occasional radio darts with SANAE and Showa) was the closest I got to visiting another country's base in my two years.

I was at Halley 5, the remains of which are probably part of a new iceberg: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34578468

No, I was at Jubany/Carlini. Belgrano doesn't get any tourism! I was lucky enough to visit Marambio (by Twin Otter) and Fildes (by boat). But we got visits from all the rest (Polish, Brasilians, Uruguayans, South-Koreans, Chinese, Chileans, Russians, and I am not sure if someone else), and others in my crew also visited other stations.

Wow, I didn't know a station was on the shelf that broke! Was it ubhabited since long? We also have a couple of stations lost to the elements, Belgrano I and III (the one you overflew surely was II).

Halley 5 was demolished in 2012, everything down to the snow surface was removed. So that iceberg has about 23 years of the steel legs that held the buildings up, various subsurface service tunnels and 23 years of frozen sewage.

Yes, it would have been Belgrano II we flew over. The only other stations I got to visit were some of the other British ones (on the ship in and out) and some of the French subantarctic ones on a later trip.

Now I really have to recommend an excellent japanese movie about a cook on the japanese antarctic base.

https://letterboxd.com/film/the-chef-of-south-polar/

It reminds my of a movie ("Les Saveurs du palais") about a former French president's cook who was also cook on Crozet island (not Antarctica, but somewhat similar conditions).

To be honest I didn't watch it because I don't like the actress so I can't really tell if it's realistic but it had a good reception apparently.

Similar to this:

"What Do You Eat in Antarctica? | Antarctic Extremes" by PBS Terra

https://youtu.be/pzlA9HDNwBs

The rest of that PBS series is also pretty cool and worth a watch

Lots of good lessons here. Also, if you're an introverted, geeky type like many of us here are, NEVER underestimate your ability to meet people by the simple dint of being a decent cook. It comes up in a lot of situations. :)

Related: Gluten Free Antarctica – https://idlewords.com/2018/12/gluten_free_antarctica.htm

From the author of Argentina On Two Steaks a Day? Yes please!

https://idlewords.com/2006/04/argentina_on_two_steaks_a_day....

Really interesting article! I shared it with a couple of my friends who are fascinated with Antarctica.

thanks for forward A! It's crazy we are on the same planet :D

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