Taikonaut cuisine

Okay, last year I made mention of the Chinese space program's preoccupation with food, and somebody thought I was stereotyping. At least they're actually doing something with manned spaceflight.

Well, they're at it again:

China gives its astronauts a taste of home...

October 12 2005 at 11:43AM

Beijing - Talk about a Chinese take-away.

Astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisjeng blasted into outer space on Wednesday with a full larder of Chinese specialities including cuttlefish and meat balls, and beef with orange peel, the state Xinhua news agency said.

But the pair of orbiting diners will have to do without chopsticks, which were considered too difficult to manoeuvre in the weightlessness of space. They'll use forks and spoons instead.

The menu for China's second manned space flight is much more extensive than that of the first manned mission in October 2003, offering 50 varieties of food instead of the previous 20, Xinhua said.

Two years ago, the first Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei declared that his space food, such as chicken cooked with dates, was "great". But he ate only cold meals because the last spacecraft did not have a food heater.

Fei and Nie will dine on heated food including rice, dehydrated vegetables and a wide assortment of fruit - strawberries, bananas and the very sweet Chinese "Hami" melon.