“It is a real dirt-farmer’s soup; full-bodied and satisfying.”

§ January 12th, 2011 § Filed under star trek, the shat § 9 Comments

So anyway, we got one of these in the shop the other day…a really nice copy of the Official Star Trek Cooking Manual paperback from 1978:


Written by Mary Ann Piccard (yes, that’s sorta like “Jean-Luc Picard” I know) in the voice of Dr. McCoy’s nurse, Christine Chapel, who is logging and describing all of the favorite dishes of the Enterprise crew, the Klingons, the Federation, the Vulcans, and the Romulans (along with an appendix listing the favorites of the actual actors and creators of the show).

The recipes all include brief introductions from “Chapel,” like so:

“GEORGIA CHICKEN PIE
Dr. McCoy is a most hardheaded, skeptical and scientific space medicine specialist. He is also a gentleman from Georgia where many families have loyally maintained traditions from the 19th century and earlier. It should not surprise us that his favorite dish is is a chicken pie made just as they were in the days when the kitchen was in a separate building behind the main house. This [recipe] serves 4 generously.”

“BORZOI BORSCHT
(Beet Soup)
Chekov jokingly calls his borscht recipe Borzoi Borscht, after the swift wolfhounds, because it takes him so little time to prepare. This recipe serves from 4 to 6 people.”

“BARKAYA MARAK
(Cream of Spinach Soup)
Though this is sometimes confused with Plomeek Soup, it is actually a much more plebeian dish. It is a real dirt-farmer’s soup; full-bodied and satisfying. The spoonful of sour cream with which the Vulcan country women of long ago graced their plain fare was liken to a morning star shining through the first pale green streamers of the Vulcan dawn.”

Now, as one might expect, Captain Kirk is a special case. He, like everyone else in the book, has his wide variety of interestingly-named foodstuffs (“Deviled Potatoes,” “The Tribble’s Banquet,” “Oskaloosa Log,” “Schwarzwalder Torte”). But there, in the middle of the list, is a recipe simply named “Steak.”

“STEAK.”

Kirk has no need of fancypants names for his slabs of meat:

“Captain Kirk is a great steak fan. First choice with him is a steak grilled over a charcoal fire or an open wood fire. But a close second is a steak with a brush-on sauce that takes equally well to frying. With steak he likes baked potatoes, corn pudding, and coleslaw. This [recipe] will provide 8 servings.”

Unless of course Kirk himself is at the meal…his manly appetite requires all the servings.

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