A few years ago, students at the Obama Fisheries High School in Fukui Prefecture developed a method of processing the monstrous jellyfish into an edible powder, which has been used to make cookies. But lately, raw caramel has been all the rage in Japan, prompting the students to try their hands at sea creature-based caramels. Adding sugar and starch syrup to the jellyfish powder, they have produced a sweet and salty candy.

It was a NASA-designed food safety management system that kicked off this jellyfish cuisine in the first place, and the high school is looking to give something back to the space program. The students have a meeting this week with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to make their caramels an official part of the menu aboard the International Space Station.

Space caramel made from giant jellyfish [Pink Tentacle]

Gourmet Magazine has a fantastic look at the state of space food today, as well as a look back at space cuisine's humblest beginnings. Starting with the stereotypical tinfoil-wrapped meal simulators (TM) and individually shrink-wrapped portions of freeze-dried pot roast, you can see the progression through the "meat salad" of the 1970s (don't ask) up to vegetables grown in special hydroponic chambers, using LEDs.

Turns out LEDs don't just make your skin as smooth as Luther Vandross' voice — they also make potatoes grow like gangbusters. And apparently you can increase crop yields to crazy levels, using high-intensity lighting, hydroponic cultures and optimal CO2 levels. (But how long before these super-plants turn sentient and want to eat us?) Also, apparently tomatoes grown in microgravity get freakishly large and have no seeds. Freakish!

But it's not easy, and astronauts are going to need green thumbs on their space gloves:

Growing plants in space presents unique problems: The absence of wind and insects means some crops need to be pollinated by hand; natural light isn't available inside space bases; crops can't be too labor- or energy-intensive, as bases have limited manpower and natural resources; and of course there is no naturally available water source, so water efficiency is extremely important.

Hand-pollinating plants in space sounds like a nightmare. It'll be worth it, though, once astronauts can savor the Everclear they've made with their own two hands. [Gourmet]

When John Glenn first when into space, the sustanance astronauts were expected to eat could hardly be considered food: pastes, cubes, and powders provided the necessary protein and vitamins, but were found universally unpalatable. Although the food options more closely resemble what you’d find on Earth, foods sent into space still need to be pre-cooked, preserved, and rendered bacteria free. And the relationship between NASA’s Thanksgiving dinner and the traditional feast are largely superficial:

For the Thanksgiving dinner, the smoked turkey was irradiated and the green beans and dressing were freeze-dried, a form of dehydration. The candied yams and dessert were heated.

A week before Thanksgiving, NASA gave reporters a taste-test of the astronauts' holiday dinner. The smoked turkey was slightly stiffer than deli meat, like after it has been left in the refrigerator a week past its expiration date. The candied yams had a syrupy sweetness outside that dissolved into blandness in the middle. The green beans with mushrooms tasted like they have been frozen and then microwaved to an inch of their life.

The saving grace was a sublime cranapple dessert. There was a tartness to the apples and sweetness to the cranberries mixed with pecans and syrup in a dish that resembles cobbler filling.

The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour, which is currently docked at the Space Station brought the meal with them along with them the station’s first-ever food refrigerator, so the occupants might enjoy another Thanksgiving tradition: leftovers.

[Discovery News]

Alas, unlike other whined-for foods in our household (Pop Tarts, Cap'n Crunch), Space Food Sticks were a distinct disappointment. They were chewy, as advertised, but their flavor was chalky and indistinct, less like the glorious future and more like the smell of Grandma's denture cup. Pillsbury discontinued the original product in the 1970s but a band of brave (and perhaps foolhardy) souls currently produces Space Food Sticks for a new generation. You can order them, as well as read a detailed product history, at their web site.