Now, that’s what we call takeout food

NO CHOPSTICKS IN SPACE

BEIJING •

Astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisjeng were accompanied by a larder full of Chinese delicacies when they blasted off into space yesterday.

On the menu were cuttlefish and meatballs, and beef with orange peel, the state Xinhua news agency reported.

But the pair of orbiting diners are having to do without chopsticks, which are considered too difficult to manoeuvre in the weightlessness of space. Instead, they are using spoons and forks.

The menu for China’s second manned space flight is much more extensive than that of the first manned mission in October, 2003, offering 50 varieties of food instead of 20.

Two years ago, Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut, declared his space food, such as chicken cooked with dates, was “great.” But he ate only cold meals because the last spacecraft did not have a food heater.

The latest astronauts will dine on heated food, including rice, dehydrated vegetables and a wide assortment of fruit — strawberries, bananas and the very sweet Chinese Hami melon.