Freshies

The following story took place approximately 1 month ago. I was a participant in coming to Antarctica during what they call "Winfly", which is about 3-4 weeks before the main body of people come down. So, when I arrived here, there was about 350 of us on the station and then we didn't see another plane for a month. One of the planeloads that came down with me though had a shipment of fresh produce so we had that to live on when I first got here. But, after about a week or so, it all disappeared and so we went without freshies for about 3 weeks. It was supposed to be a week earlier but do to bad weather, the planes were turned away multiple times. So, we were left with dehydrated and frozen stuff for that whole time. Then, one day after I had eaten dinner, I was sitting across the galley from the food and I spotted someone with an orange and looked around and saw more fresh stuff. So, like a civil human being, I pushed everyone out of my way and rushed to have a fresh salad, banana, and orange despite the fact that I had already eaten! The first bite of the banana was something to be remembered and tasted amazing! We now get a shipment of freshies about once per week and we don't run out of it completely usually, although the lettuce is gone after a few days, along with bananas. I now bite my thumb at the few people though who hoard the fresh produce, only to through it away because they don't hold it correctly or eat it in time. Those were the people who weren't here when it was dark at night and didn't go weeks without colorful textured fruit. So I leave you with the hope that you do not waste your beautiful fresh produce and enjoy it, because I have seen the day where there is no crisp bell pepper to bite into, only a bunch of mush that is not enjoyable to bite into.

1988

In 1988, a company by the name of Cajun Magic made a few packages of Jambalaya mix and these packages were sent to Antarctica and some point afterward. Then, something amazing happend in October of 2008! That pre-mixed package was finally cooked off and consumed by hundreds of people. Now don't get me wrong, if you are one of the people that ate this meal, you are not in danger, it was merely a dry mix, with nothing that could really go bad, just lose a little flavor, maybe. This is just one example of the food that you will find in Antarctica. Most of the dry goods have an expiration date that occurred anywhere from 2 years ago, to something that might only be a few months ago. Another example is our liquid eggs. Most of them have an expiration date that ends with the year 2007. Fortunately, we have many freezers down here, so the eggs were probably frozen as soon as they arrived here, preserving them and then thawed a few days before we use them. In my first few weeks here, I would see concerned people showing the expiration date to a supervisor, in which many times the response was the ever popular "Welcome to Antarctica!". Most fresh things are discarded by the time they expire, with the exception being the beer. This is quite unfortunate, it isn't too expired, but we only have canned or bottled beer and most everyone longs for a nice fresh draught beer from tap! You may ask yourself, "Self, why does this happen, why do they apparantly have so much food?" That is an excellent question and I have a rough answer/idea. For everything besides fresh produce, we recieve a shipment from a vessel from the USA once a year and this shipment has to last for a year. So, if you think that you would be a better expert on estimating how much food a range of 100 to 1200 people will consume one year, Raytheon may have a job for you! I have also heard that they have been worried in the past that the vessel would not make it down here and so they would stockpile a little more in preparation that this may happen. With all of this playing a factor, we usually don't run out of things, although it does happen occasionally, but we always make-do without it and so far, I haven't had any real problems! Most everyone loves the food and it's just a few months for most people until we will be back in Christchurch drinking fresh beer and eating fresh Sushi!!!

Vegetarian Nightmare

40 cows were consumed today in the friendly town of McMurdo Station! That is the approximate quantity it takes to feed around 1000 for one meal when those people can take as many steaks as they want. Myself and one other production cook spent about 2 1/2 hours today grilling 700 pounds, or approximately 1400 steaks. It wasn't the funnest job I have had, but I was able to catch up on some reading my book in between flipping steaks and filling up the grill. By the end of the task, I took off my gloves and noticed that it looked like I had a tanline from where the gloves were. This was not true though as I was grilling indoors and the only light I was getting was from standard lightbulbs much like the one that may be above your head at present moment and I'm sure you are not wearign sunscreen from worries that you may get burnt from these bulbs. No sir, this was a line from where the grease was not able to cover me from the hundreds of spattering steaks. It felt good to wash off my arms and face that night after work, tasting the salty grease as it washed off my face. I love being a meat cook!

I'm in Antarctica

Well, I am in Antarctica! That is enough to say, more than most people you know can or may say, not to brag! I have been here for almost 2 months now and some of the following posts should show some of the experiences that I have had, since I am catching up now, deciding just now to blog about my new lifestyle. I found out that it cost approximately $250,000 to fly 1 plain-load down here, which I am the 3rd of many plainloads, but lucky enough to get here a month before most! I first arrived here and made the population almost 350 people. It was awesome to meet the people who had been here for the whole winter, being i think around 120 people and getting their perspective on what it's like here in Antarctica with a very small community. I will be cooking for around 1000 people, give or take 150 people throughout the season. It's much different coming from a kitchen where 300 people is "cooking the hard way" and making us earn our pay x 10, to where it's now a small amount to cook for. This year is differnet though and we don't have as much "freshies", or fresh produce, to cook with and so we have it pretty easy, cooking with a lot of frozen/ canned produce for everyone, only gettting some fresh produce in for everyone, where we have to show off the fresh produce, so as for people to appreciate it more! I will be down here for about 4 more months where the temperature should eventually get up to 30's, being that it was average of -25 when I got here and about 5 degrees now. I hope that the next few blogs explain what it is like to be at the bottom of the world more!