Remember when you were a kid and you wanted to go to the moon? Or don a silver space suit and go searching for green aliens? Yeah, I’m a space nerd, always have been. I remember watching space launches and landings in school and pouring obsessively over an issue of National Geographic that featured the first photos from the Hubble Telescope. It actually makes me sad that our space program is in such a terrible state at the moment.
Of course the closest I have ever been to space is not being tall enough to go on Space Mountain, a mock-up of the Apollo 17 Lunar Module at the Museum of Flight and playing Pigs In Space in the park with my siblings which consisted of a lot of oinking and me getting chomped on by a duck. I am pretty sure this yen is why I harbor a shameful and mildly disgusting love of Tang.
I have always wanted to try astronaut ice cream, but have just never had the chance, a fact that Phil is fully aware of. So, the other day when we were putzing around REI in Santa Rosa outfitting Phil for his annual motorcycle journey, I was off coveting tops with thumbholes when he hunted me down holding none-other than a package of mint chocolate chip Astronaut Ice Cream. It was the real deal complete with brave new frontier photo and everything. I was so excited I was hopping around all evening in anticipation of this freeze dried wonder, thinking that I may never go to the moon, but tonight, tonight I dine like an astronaut.
It did not disappoint and if anything was better than I expected. It is no Molly Moon’s or Humphrey Slocumbe to be sure, but if earth shatteringly delicious ice cream was the dream I was chasing I wouldn’t have sought to fulfill it with Astronaut Ice Cream. The texture was similar to seafoam candy or (I think some of you call it honeycomb or hokey pokey), but lighter still and melted away on your tongue like a cloud. The flavor was so startlingly similar to actual ice cream it played with my mind a bit. I couldn’t help but thinking that this was the O.G. of molecular gastronomy, who knows maybe years ago a young Ferran Adria had a packet of Astronaut ice cream and an epiphany.
Do you have any childhood dreams yet to be fulfilled? Did you fulfill them?
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I am intrigued. My childhood dreams were pretty crazy, like wanting to acquire a sports car with a trunk filled with Snickers bars. I guess some dreams are better kept as such.
Denise, I think we could make that one happen.
Nope. But then I was very skinny and wanted to be Sir Gawaine… then Sir Lancelot… then D’Artagnan… then Edmond Dantes. Some time after wanting to be Titus Groan, I realised that I was going to have to put up with being me for the rest of my life.
I have wanted to be a Siberian Tiger or just a humble pussycat… sigh!
Griffin, I never wanted to be a knight or a princess for that matter. I did however dream of the presidency at one point in time, but then I realised I would have to be a politician in order to do so and decided an astronaut or dog would suffice.
Growing up my best friend’s dad worked at REI, and whenever I’d stay over at her house we chow down on freeze dried ice cream! Your post seriously brought back memories for me!
Did you venture into other freeze dried foods? I never got past ice cream…
Jen, Was it the original one by Marlene’s in Federal Way?
I haven’t gone too far past freeze dried ice cream. I’ve only tried strawberries that way and I love them. The texture combined with an explosion of flavor is completely awesome.
I could have used a few of those tops with thumbholes over the past few weeks.
We used to eat space food sticks as kids and imagine we were adventurers heading into space. They came in chocolate or caramel flavour and were basically plasticky sticks that left your mouth dry and had a weird taste that bore no resemblance to the advertised flavour. I can remember us begging Mum to buy them….. I had a nostalgia trip a few years back when I saw them in a shop and bought a pack. Big, big mistake. As an adult I wonder that we didn’t grow extra limbs or glow in the dark with the chemicals and yuck in them. The flavour was revolting. How did we eat them?
Glad your astronaut food was a better experience. I must try this ice cream. The strawberries are amazing aren’t they. Don’t look very good, but taste great.
Debbie, I am sure you could have, lucky lady! I can’t wait to hear all about it.
I really didn’t expect it to taste so spectacularly like actual ice cream. It was quite a nice surprise.