Eating in Antarctica

How Rachel treats her grad students

As you probably know, I think food is an excellent motivator.  Although I've touched on it briefly, I think it's only fair that I have an entire blog post dedicated to eating in Antarctica.  Plus, even if you don't work outside all day, there's no reason you shouldn't be taking in your 6,000 calories a day (I think we all gain weight down here).  Before getting into the details, I should first mention that I've eaten real well and have surprisingly enjoyed the food here immensely.  Since it would be kind of creepy if I went around taking photos in the galley (cafeteria),  for this post I will just use random, completely unrelated photos from today's visit to our field sites.  Thus, for all of you who only look at my photos and don't read the text, you will be very confused by the title of this post.  Though there was some taste sampling of snow today....

We caught snow!

Breakfast: I think I mentioned before it only runs until 7:30.  When I first arrived, I used to ensure I woke up just in time to make it by 7:25.  However, I then came to the incredible discovery that cereal and granola are available anytime of the day.  As that is my general go-to breakfast anyways, I have gladly taken the extra hour or so of sleep, and let our helicopter time dictate when I get up in the morning. 

Lunch: For every meal, there are several stations.  For lunch there is always a sandwich station with a daily meat and veggie selection.  For both lunch and dinner, you always have the choice of two soups.  The hot dishes rotate with a lot of overlap between dinner selections.  If you happen to be in the field during lunch, you can request a bag lunch, consisting of 1 veggie/meat sandwich, 1 PB&J sandwich, 1 bag chips, 1 snack, 1 juicebox, and a dessert (you will not go hungry).  The one speciality lunch each week is "Wednesday Mexican Cookie Day."  The title is kind of misleading because there are no Mexican cookies.  However, someone once decided Mexican food and cookies should go together and it just stuck.  Mexican food is self-explanatory.  Cookies in McMurdo though are not.  Before the big crowds arrived this week, one of my friends had helped baking one day.  He told me they baked about 2,000 cookies for Wednesday lunch.  Amazingly, each one is absolutely incredible and there is a selection of a dozen different varieties (chocolate chip, double chocolate, butterscotch chip, mint chocolate, sugar, butter, oatmeal, pecan, etc.). Since the population here has now surpassed 850, I believe the cookie count is now over 3,000.  In addition, work crews can request cookies on Wed for their job sites.  The odds would seem to be in your favor.   Yet, if you show up towards the end of lunch on Wed, you are just left with the crumbs of the oatmeal or pecan cookies.  Although frowned upon, quite a few people take a plate full and stockpile them in their rooms.  The cookies are that good.

Measuring snow depths

Dinner: Whenever a C-17 plane arrives, you can sense the excitement in the dining hall the next day: fresh veggies, fruit that is not frozen (maybe even a banana), etc.  The longest line these days is for the salad bar, which is a bit of stretch to call a "bar."  A typically salad bar might be lettuce, celery, and tomatoes or lettuce, mushrooms, and croutons.  Recently though, we have had bell peppers and twice have had cucumbers thanks to some good weather.  Nevertheless, I was expecting conditions like Barrow, and am amazed to have any salad bar at all.  There is quite the selection of hot dishes (and always a veggie choice) and sides, nearly all of which I enjoy (except after a stretch of bad weather when the best choice becomes tuna casserole).  I think my only disappointment is in the hot sauce selection, particularly considering the type of people here.  It is either Sriracha (which I'm not a huge fan of for most dishes) or a Louisiana Hot Sauce (that is mediocre at best).  One day, there was 1 bottle of Frank, but he disappeared quickly.  Oh well.  Frank will be waiting for me when I get home.

Fuel stop at Marble Point

Dessert: I was never a big dessert person and used to rarely eat dessert with dinner.  McMurdo has definitely changed that.  Lunch and dinner each have a selection of 2 incredible choices.  In addition, there is (usually) always Frosty Boy.  The station though is in near panic mode though this week because something happened to the refrigeration unit of Frosty Boy and he has now been out of commission for 4 consecutive days.  It is actually quite humorous to sit next to Frosty Boy and watch newbies try to make him work.  If you sit down at a random table, there is a 50% chance that the loss of Frosty Boy is the topic of conversation.  I know the mechanics are working on it, but if you hear about any riots down here, you will know why.     

Sweet caves in an iceberg

Special Meals: There are a few secrets that the galley offers each week which are not advertised and are only known to season veterans.  Thankfully I've now been clued in.  Thursdays at 10am there are the most incredible buttermilk biscuits served with a tub of butter.  I'm not a biscuit person, but these melt in your mouth and are worth putting work on hold for.  Just yesterday though, I found out about Saturday 3pm pizza break, but I've yet to make it to one.  Saturday dinners are special since you are allowed to bring beer/wine (of course the Kiwis at Scott Base have BYOB every night).  Holidays are also supposedly quite special here, but we will be home by then.    

Where to Sit: It's a bit like middle school.  You get your tray full of food and then look out to the abyss desperately seeking friends.  Generally, people sit with the same people on their work crews.  It differs from middle school though in that everyone is friendly and it is socially acceptable to sit with anyone, despite their ranking on station.  When we first arrived, it was quite easy since most of the tables were empty.  However, it is slowly getting to the point where it is hard to find an empty seat (nevertheless table) if you arrive during popular times.

Everyone agrees you will not lose any weight eating in McMurdo!  If you are self-conscious though, you have the built-in excuse of BigRed (the ridiculous large Red Parka) to explain any extra weight when you step on a scale, which we do daily for flying on the helos.  Personally, I've now gotten used to my flight weight of 212 lbs....WOW (although it does include all of my ECW, equipment I have tucked away in pockets, etc.).