Space is overrun with tortillas

It’s a myth that Tang was developed for NASA but it is true that the agency did use the foul orange drink for many years on its flights. Food has never been NASA’s strong point but astronaut Sandra Magnus is proving that, while food in space may not be 21st century, it’s not the Stone Age either.

Magnus is finishing up a five-month tour aboard NASA’s Expedition 18 and blogs at length about the food. Surprisingly, she has few complaints. “It turns out that both NASA and Russia have extensive menus that have been developed over the years with a wide variety of foods.”

Some are freeze-dried but fresh fruit is allowed to be brought up. Tang is gone, replaced in importance by the tortilla. Magnus has learned what any enterprising chef already knows: “You can do so much with a tortilla; it becomes the vehicle with which to eat almost anything. I cannot think of anything that cannot be put on a tortilla, or has not been put on a tortilla.”

She’s not joking. “I have put applesauce with peanut butter on a tortilla, beef enchiladas with tomatoes and artichokes (one of our dehydrated vegetable dishes) with salsa on one, tuna with mayo and mustard as another experiment, vanilla pudding with strawberries.” You get the idea.

Her one food fear? Potentially running out of tortillas. “You really want to be swimming in tortillas your whole increment.”

Besides tortillas, Magnus says the crew mixes tastes together with lots of condiments. She was excited when she found a bottle of barbecue sauce but doesn’t say what type it is or what city it’s from. 

Her posts have a wonderful candor about them, including the confession that she had to learn all the cooking recipes and techniques herself. NASA prepares astronauts for everything, it seems, but making dinner. Magnus would be the perfect person to teach “Cooking in Space” once she gets home.