Fascinating stories of remarkable resourcefulness in Antarctic cuisine throughout the history of the continent's exploration. It's unlikely these dishes will appeal to anyone outside of the most desperately hungry. ( )

I was excited to learn about this book! It combines 2 of my fascinations: Antarctica, and food/cooking, so I eagerly anticipated it, and it did not disappoint.

The author points out that of all the books written about Antarctica, almost all are written either by people there for a brief stay, or researchers and scientists... and something like 80% of the people who live and work on the Ice are neither, but are support staff, with a very different perspective. This is one of those books, as is "Cold, Dead Place" (also recommended).

Most of the book is historical, though, and I learned much about the daily life of people in the Antarctic over the last century or so, and how it's changed. I have often found food and cooking to be revelatory about such matters, and it's a fascination of mine- not the big events as much as what people actually did daily, and how they did it, and this book was full of that kind of detail.

The writing is engaging, and makes all the details come alive.

I came away with great admiration both for the early explorers and scientists who heroically mostly kept up morale even when eating the same boring and/or disgusting food daily... and for the cooks who now work hard to improve morale by providing delicious and nutritious meals under very challenging circumstances. Were I younger, I would love to be among them!

This is highly recommended for Antarctica fans, especially if you are interested in the details of daily life (albeit focusing on food). It's probably not as much for pure foodies, though the recipes for keeping biscuits, and for seal and penguin and more, might be of interest.
Comment ( )

Hoosh gets its name from the dish that for many years was the primary food for Antarctic explorers, a soup/stew made from pemmican. The book is a history of Antarctic exploration through the food that sustained the earliest explorers to today's scientists and support crew at the numerous Antarctic research stations. The author writes from a decade of experience as a contract worker. Anthony isn't a chef, but he did spend one 100-day stretch as the designated cook for a 2-man assignment to build an emergency runway on a glacier.

The first several chapters cover the heroic era of Antarctic exploration and legendary figures like Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen, as well as lesser-known explorers from the era. Anthony looks at how food rations or the lack thereof contributed to the success or failure of expeditions of the era. The last few chapters covering the mid-20th century to the present were more interesting to me. Anthony is able to describe most of the research stations from personal experience, and he incorporates stories he's heard from colleagues or read on their blogs.

I learned a lot about Antarctica from this book. The extreme cold, the high altitude and the atmospheric pressure cause its visitors to expend thousands of calories per day, so each person needs to consume thousands of calories per day to maintain body weight. Most explorers lost a lot of weight during their expeditions. I thought of Antarctic research in terms of a few dozen people. The largest station, McMurdo, hosts more than 1,000 individuals during the summer. Only about 20% are scientists; the rest are construction workers, chefs, dishwashers, etc. McMurdo has an ATM and a store that sells snacks like candy and chips. I've always thought of scurvy as a disease of the past, but it's still a lurking danger for Antarctic workers. The larger stations have greenhouses to grow small amounts of vegetables, fruit, and herbs, and fresh foods are periodically flown into McMurdo from Christchurch, New Zealand. Tourists occasionally visit Antarctica, but the NSF provides little hospitality for them since it's something they don't want to encourage. (If tourists get into trouble, they would either have to be rescued at great expense or left to their fate. Either way, the NSF loses.) Greenpeace protesters have even showed up in Antarctica.

When I reached the end matter, I learned that the book began as several essays. That would explain its occasional repetitiveness. After reading about the research stations, I really wanted to see more than the few pictures provided in the book. I found quite a few videos on YouTube that satisfied my curiosity to see the research facilities and the landscape described in this book.

This book will appeal to readers interested in exploration or adventure travel, Antarctic research, and food writing. ( )

Excellent book. Great overview of old Antarctic exploration, focusing on what, let's face it, was most important -- the food. The modern stuff was interesting, too; quite liked the chapter on Vostok. ( )