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Taikonaut's Takeout: Chinese Space Food

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

By TED ANTHONY

BEIJING (AP) -- Now THAT'S Chinese takeout.

Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, China's first human being in space, spent some of his time in orbit miles above the Earth on Wednesday eating from his choice of 20 Chinese dishes -- including one-bite nuggets of spicy shredded pork, diced chicken and fried rice cooked with "nuts, dates and other delicacies."

"The astronaut will enjoy himself over a rich variety of Chinese food," the government's Xinhua News Agency reported after Yang was safely launched. The agency's rather emphatic headline: "Chinese food for Chinese astronauts."

"We planned the recipes in a scientific way, in such a way as to ensure that the food will be nutritious enough for space missions while tasting good," Su Shuangning, head of China's astronaut program, was quoted as saying.

Yang - who was referred to as a "taikonaut" based on the Chinese word for space - also had medicinal herbs and tonics to drink after his meal to assist digestion.

Even more than most cultures, Chinese take their food seriously. So the repeated mentions of it in reports about Yang's trip are not unexpected, especially from a public-relations perspective: It's what the public can identify with.

Xinhua said any Chinese food engineered for space should "be limited in quantity and size but highly nutritious."

Soviet and American space pioneers ate some of their meals as liquid or semi-solid food that came from tubes.

Today, such novelties as "space ice cream" - dry and crispy, in a foil envelope -- are sold in places such as the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

That's changed, China says. "Astronauts now can eat roughly the same way as when they are on Earth," Xinhua said.

The Web site China.com was more competitive earlier this week. "It will be more tasty than Western food," it said.

The one-bite nuggets of Chinese food, consisting of meat, fish or dessert, are coated with what Xinhua called "an edible protective covering" to keep things from getting messy in zero gravity.

That, it said, is "for the convenience of the astronaut who can eat one piece at each bite in order not to produce residue that may keep sputtering in the capsule."

No word on whether Yang brought chopsticks along, though his $12 million space suit did appear to have an assortment of pockets and pouches.

The government did have this to say, however: After finishing lunch, Yang got out his sleeping bag and took a three-hour nap.

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