Southern Comfort: A Poet’s Biography of Antarctic Cuisine

By Jessica Monk
Here the geography is so singular that our presence is inseparable from our desire to see: here we are the only figure on the figureless ground we study. This is the bright ground that obsesses me. Where else on Earth could I find such marvelous reflection?
Before Jason Anthony settled on the topic of Antarctic food for his book Hoosh, nobody was writing home about Antarctic cuisine. Starving explorers dreamt up lavish feasts, and Antarctic workers smuggled in vegetables to relieve the boredom of canteen food. “In my case, the worse the food, the better the story, which is so...