Fermented cabbage slathered in hot pepper and garlic. Doesn't sound like the ideal snack for an enclosed space ship. But for Ko San, who will be the first Korean to partake in space travel, it's the one dish he can't leave home - nevermind earth - without.

"If a Korean goes to space, kimchi must go there, too," said Kim Sung Soo, a Korea Food Research Institute scientist.

So how do you prepare this Korean staple to survive the elements and be safe for the sensitive equipment of the space ship?

Lee Ju Woon at the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute experimented with his mother's recipe. First he killed the bacteria with radiation, then he developed the packaging to control the fermentation process. Finally, he altered the kimchi to reduce the pungent smell by at least one third.

San, a 30-year-old computer scientist, will blast off on April 8 on board a Russian-made Soyuz rocket, together with two Russian cosmonauts. He will stay in the International Space Station for 10 days conducting scientific experiments.

Ko says his space-ready kimchi will be the ideal snack for curing homesickness and bridging the cultural divide.

:: original article via boingboing.net