The Culture Trip – to Antarctica

by ABCCmain on January 28, 2014

Daily Life in Antarctica According to ‘The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning’

featured in The Culture Trip UK

“A one-stop website for travellers interested in the best local art and culture.We recommend books and films for any country of interest and publish articles and information about its art and culture.”

The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning is a new food and cultural history book based on a Russian-Canadian environmental clean-up expedition the authors led to a research station 120km off the Antarctic Peninsula. It portrays everyday life at the bottom of the world, offering readers an unparalleled insight into surviving – and having fun – on the world’s most desolate continent.

Russian map Wendy brought home from Bellingshausen, photo Sandy Nicholson

The Culture Trip showcases the best of art, culture and travel for every country in the world. ” Visitors are real or armchair travellers but we attract just as many people enjoying the wealth of information and recommendations on display simply for the pursuit of cultural knowledge. We were very excited to be one of the finalists for the Good Web Guide’s UK Website of the Year 2013 award and to be named one of 25 tech companies to watch by Growth Business UK.”

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de antarctische boek van koken en schoonmaken

by ABCCmain on January 12, 2014

Salmon skin and Reindeer Edible Sleds

Thank you to our reader in Rotterdam Maira van Helvoirt for finding us, translating and sharing this Vrig Netherlands article that includes The Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning where she discovered us:

“The article was printed in the December 15, 2012 issue of a weekly magazine called Vrij Nederland. The author, Marente de Moor, writes about “historic meals” every week. The article is called “An edible sledge”. Referring to all people who go on skiing holidays during the winter (“who risk body and limbs at high altitude”, as she puts it), she provides some lessons for “food in harsh conditions”. She reflects on several historic expeditions (Sir Edmund Hillary and his sherpa Tenzing, Robert F. Scott, Amundsen, the arctic Indians and the Inuit, Sir John Ross, the Tibetans) and their eating habits. Apparently, Sir John Ross got an edible sledge from the Inuit: made of salmon skins and reindeer bones, so he would be able to eat it in cases of emergency. Hence the title of the article. The article contains a recipe for rikikul, the “survival snack of the sherpas”.

Image Robert E Peary, North Pole pursuit, 1909ish

The bottom right hand side of the article reads:
“Further trekking:
Food stylist Wendy Trusler, who worked in 1995 as a voluntary cook for a Russian-Canadian cleaning expedition on Bellingshausen (Antarctica), wrote together with environmental activist Carol Devine the beautiful Antarctic Book of Cooking and Cleaning. It contains both tips from present day scientists (Dr. Moskalevsky’s Caipirinha is easy – plenty of ice) as well as narrated recipes from the old pioneers like Shackleton. The book, which will also be available as an e-book, can be reserved through the website of Trusler and Devine: www.theantarcticbookofcookingandcleaning.com… (etc)”

Vrig Netherlands, December 2012

What a clever innovation – an edible sledge.

Maira also shared she’s an engineer who worked on a ship in and spent time in the Arctic and collects polar books. We love that our book is now in the Netherlands thanks to Maira and Marente de Moor. Bye for now, afscheid.

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