Tekka Market

D and I were at Tekka Market last Saturday to buy veggies and food for a guest we were having that night. Despite having lived in Singapore for most of our lives, we have never been there. We discovered Chia's Veggies which is possibly the most comprehensive collection of fresh vegetables I have ever seen.

Further into the market complex was a hawker center with street vendor type food. Most had generically ethnic names so this one stood out. The food is awesome. Go check it out.

We were in a rush or we would have asked the owners about their stall name. I did however find an interesting reference on the nasa website regarding the evolution of astronaut cuisine.

The task of eating in space got a big boost in Skylab. Unlike previous space vehicles for astronauts, Skylab featured a large interior area where space was available for a dining room and table. Eating for Skylab's three-member teams was a fairly normal operation: footholds allowed them to situate themselves around the table and "sit" to eat. Added to the conventional knife, fork, and spoon was a pair of scissors for cutting open plastic seals. Because Skylab was relatively large and had ample storage area, it could feature an extensive menu: 72 different food items. It also had a freezer and refrigerator, a convenience no other vehicle offered.

What do astronauts do for carbohydrates?

Flour tortillas are a favorite bread item of the Shuttle astronauts. Tortillas provide an easy and acceptable solution to the bread crumb and microgravity handling problem, and have been used on most Shuttle missions since 1985.

Perhaps they should consider some pakora and vadai from skylab cooked food. If you want to go to a restaurant started by a real astronaut, go to Lovell's of Lake Forest a short distance outside Chicago, IL. James Lovell Jr. was the commander who together with his crew MacGyvered Apollo 13 back from near-disaster. Grumman Aerospace apparently issued a prank invoice for $312,421.24 to North American Rockwell, builder of the command module for 'towing' the crippled ship pretty much to the moon and back. Ironically, Lovell did actually join the towing business straight after leaving the space program, eventually becoming the CEO of the Bay-Houston Towing company. My comments on the shady business of towing are best saved for another tangential post.