star trek-y foods?

[alaughingdog]

I am doing a small fund-raising dinner with my husband -- he's doing the Star Trek (I know, I know, but people signed up), I'm providing food. So I ordered the Star Trek cookbook, but honestly, it's disappointing. Does anyone have ideas for fun, tasty, alien-looking food or drinks? Thanks!

[lgss]

http://www.geocities.com/Ktesh_kag/kl...

[hill food]

why am I reminded of the SNL sketch that caught Shatner all that $#%# a number of years ago?

and yeah I watched old ST religiously.

[alkapal]

oh goodness! i thought my chow obsession was bad! k'tesh is seriously (did i mention "seriously") into star trek.

and i just HAD to look at the recipe for "blood pack".

[alkapal]

did alaughingdog ever post the final menu?

[Captain Zorro]

I just joined, so I know this is a very late answer to your request, but you might try rutabaga root recipes. There is a very similar root that Neelix from Star Trek Voyager used all the time, called "Leola root". If anyone asks, say that "Leola root" isn't available in the Alpha Quadrant and that you had to substitute rutabaga.

[alkapal]

but captain zorro, time is only one dimension. two years earth time is equal to perhaps only a couple of minutes on the enterprise. ;-)

greetings from chowhounds!

[Cinnamon]

Just make calamari, and call it whatever you like.

[chowdear]

Definitely Calamari! I think most any Klingon would enjoy Portuguese-style Squid Stew in a red wine tomato sauce, tentacles included. Other possibilities:

"Spock's Mind Meld"
Elevate the fondue pot just high enough so a picture of Spock is positioned below it, so that the pot appears to be coming from his head so to speak.

“Bean Me Up, Scotty"
Choose a favorite bean recipe - - perhaps a good bean dip?

Dilithium Crystals
Should be added to "energize" all drinks. For this, use those plastic, battery-operated fake ice cubes that light up in blue. Hmmm, at least I'm pretty sure blue is the right color!

[Cinnamon]

And there are many blue liqeurs with which you can make blue cocktails. I happen to hate the fluorescent green melon liqeur but what about blue curacao, etc.?

[Cinnamon]

You could make almost any kind of fritter and pass them off as tribbles.

[Jack_]

Roasted Tribble on a bed of Quatrotriticale

I see several posters have commented about getting tribbles.

If you can't find Quatrotriticale you can substitute plain old triticale whcih is easy enough to find (it's the bastard child of wheat and rye http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triticale)

[Main Line Tracey]

Truffles rolled in coconut-Tribble truffles

Cook pasta in water with food coloring (blue, purple) and make lasagna w/alfredo (also tint alfredo different color)

Tapioca pudding with those big tapiocas that they use in bubble tea (also good idea for Haloween. Eyeball pudding)

Mix food coloring in with (or mix with water & paint on) bread & bake.

Enjoy!

[alaughingdog]

So much to think about! I will post a menu and pics under another thread in a few weeks! Thanks to all!

[Divamac]

Mr. Divamac and I are big Trek fans. If I were to make a party menu, I would make "regular" food, but give it Trek names. Here's a quick idea for a casual get-together. If there are Star Trek fans at this party, they will get the names. Print up either menu cards or small signs for each dish. The possibilities are endless. The startrek.com website referenced above is a good resource for names.

Kalavian biscuits (A snack food prepared by Neelix) - cornbread muffins
Gabarosti stew (Dish native to the Delta Quadrant) - chili served with hot sauce, chopped onion, scallion, cheese, etc... for topping
Gagh (A Klingon delicacy of serpent worms, pronounced "gawk") - make the chili a "cincinnati" style by serving it with spaghetti.

Dessert:
Thalian chocolate mousse
Tarvokian pound cake
I'danian spice pudding (makes me think of kheer)

Beverages:
Romulan ale - porter
Klingon bloodwine - cabernet
Tea, Earl Grey, hot

[silverbear]

As a DS9 fan, let me add to this approach based on that show:

hasparat (Bejoran) -- tortilla wraps

yamok sauce (Cardassian) -- siricha

tube grubs (Ferengi) -- orzo

Let me also reiterate the following site, which was recommended above. It seems to be amazingly thorough. Someone definitely had a little too much shore leave on his or her hands:

http://www.geocities.com/ktesh_kag/in...

[NovoCuisine]

So many years of watching Neelix in the kitchen and I just can't come up with anything at the moment.. I really want to know what the final menu is ;)

[meels]

I saw a "making of" episode where the props people were explaining how they made the alien vegetables that Neelix always managed to find. The only one I remember was a ginger root that they stuck a carrot top on top of...

[NovoCuisine]

Leola root!

[Jennalynn]

If you have any real Trekkers (we hate the term Trekkie)...

You need to serve Saurian Brandy.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/food/article/72217.html

A recipe: http://supercocktails.com/5090/Sauria...

If you know what I'm talking about... Long live and prosper.

[bogie]

It's not a food contribution, but you should decorate your table with some of those exotic protea flowers.

They always remind me of something you would have seen on Star Trek, particularly in that Garden of Eden episode!

[withalonge]

I think mainly, if you want to appeal to trekkies... I'd add little signs to the food. say if you served longevity noodles for example... you could add a little sign saying "live long and prosper noodle salad" things like that. where, it would be normal stuff.. but with a trekkie spin.

and you have to make some kind of fizzy drink with blue curacao (sp?) for romulun ale, of course.

with the dry ice, I wouldn't serve it in the drinks. that could be dangerous or problematic. instead why not pick up some test tubes.. and then fill a bowl with crushed dry ice and stick the test tubes in that. then people could pull them out and drink them.... and you could have all manner of "shots" alcoholic or not.. that look neat (especially layerd shots like cranberry & orange.. if would look kind of star-trekkie).

I also second the quarks bar recommendation... check out their menu (yes, I've been there... and have a picture of myself on "the bridge" geeked out almost as much as the time i went to the french launddry). they had a lot of great names for items you could adapt. (even chicken wings w/ vulcan hot sauce). they also have a gross green looking drink (with dry ice) that is called a "warp core breech", I opted for a "mind meld" which tasted suspiciously like a mai tai. we ordered the "smorgasborg" appetizer platter.. here is an article that describes a few more dishes... and has a link to the star trek experience at the hotel.. for other ideas.

http://www.digitkit.com/startrek/inde...

good luck! would love to see pictues!

[Tugboat]

I think the biggest problem with Trekkie food is that there is no blue food.

How can you honor the greatness of Spock without having blue food?

Damn this world!!!

[Bananna A.]

Oh, but there is blue food! If you can find a reason to have a blend of raw ginger, garlic & onion on the table (perhaps with the tribble?), you may really be charmed by the bizzare glowing-frosty-blue aspect.

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

[foodiegrl]

Funny -
Googling "Tribble Recipe" brought up these entries:
http://www.geocities.com/rhelynn/SFC/tribble.html
http://www.geocities.com/ktesh_kag/klingon_food.htm
http://www.recipeland.com/recipe/25917/

[brooklynmasala]

You should also ask some Trekkies. There is a Star Trek discussion board here

http://bbs.simonsays.com/cgi-bin/ulti...

[alaughingdog]

I'm having more fun with these posts -- perhaps tribbles with some grated beets for color? I definitely feel much more inspired than I did earlier!

[foodiegrl]

For some reason porcupine meatballs (meatballs with rice in them) came to mind - call them "Tribbles" :)

[Pei]

LOL. I don't know if it's the same as what you're talking about, but "pearl meatballs" are a Chinese favorite of mine. Take your average pork meatball and stud it with glutinous rice that's been soaked overnight and drained well. Steam until the rice is cooked through. Very cute, and very tasty. Just make sure you press the rice in a bit so they don't fall off during steaming.

[twh1475]

Hey I haven't thought about porcupine meatballs in YEARS! My mom used to make them all the time. Think she used rice-a-roni, got the recipe off the box.

[Eileen]

You may want to look on the webiste for the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton hotel in Las Vegas. They have a pub there (Quark's Bar) to see what they serve. They also had Romulin beer to buy by the 6-pack- maybe they do mail order. good luck and have fun

[Siobhan]

"This is tranya. I hope you relish it as much as I." Some sort of orange colored cocktail would be a good stand in...

And I believe Warf's favorte drink is prune juice. That's be an interesting addition to your menu ;-)

[alaughingdog]

These are all wonderful ideas! Thanks so much! Keep 'em coming! I'm not much of a fan myself, so appreciate the inspiration. I love the dry ice idea, as well as the carrot/burdock and seaweed salad ideas. Not sure I can afford sea urchins, but that's just the right tone...hmmm... I was thinking about layered drinks -- with color? And a jello dessert, molded, with unusual fruits perhaps, would be great. Also, thanks for the spraypainted styrofoam -- my dishes are more utilitarian than modern, never mind space-age :-).
Sue.
P.S. If I can get it together, I'll post a pic with the names of the dishes...

[Kater]

Sea urchin immediately leaps to mind. There are a couple of companies on Catalina who can ship you whole fresh sea urchins that make a stunning presentation. Now I have been served whole fresh sea urchin and can tell you that the effect is stunning and I happen to love it. But I have not taken on the task of cleaning and serving them myself!

It sounds quite straightforward except that you'll have to be very careful of the spines. If you think that your guests would be fearful of raw sea urchin you can wash the shells, lightly sautee the roe and return it to the shell for service. When I've had it, it has been plated on crushed ice atop a bed of seaweed with beautiful floral and seashell decorations. You could make yours more 'space age' rather than sea focused. Caviar is a wonderful garnish along with some lemon. You can also offer french bread of crostini and have your guests use the roe as a spread.

Here's a blurb for you with cleaning instructions:

The only edible part of the urchin are the gonads or roe. Lucky, other than the shell, the roe is the heaviest part of the urchin. Cut a hole or "test" around the mouth on the underside of the urchin. Drain out the fluid, and run your finger along the inside of the shell to dislodge the roe. Pour the roe out and rinse, but do not soak, in cold, fresh water.

[Pei]

Oh my god, I can't get Star Trek music out of my head. You'd better repay us with photos of this meal.

I feel like the characters on Star Trek are always trying to make normal food and then complaining about how godawful it is. Just make bad food? :)

Either that or they're drinking funny colored drinks at the bar. Jell-O inspired colors are right on.

Hey, my blackberry vodka looks pretty much like blood wine. http://www.chezpei.com/uploaded_image...
You could get your husband to relabel some bottles of really dark full bodied red wines in Klingon. He's fluent, right?

[Scrapironchef]

Earl Grey tea, hot.

[mendicant_av8r]

To be absolutely correct, it's "Tea, Earl Grey, hot".

Sorry. I watched WAY too much ST growing up.

[welle]

The first rule for the spacecraft food - no crumbs. You may want to make things like mousses and pates. Something like this one: http://www.kqed.org/w/jacquespepin/wi...
Maybe, decorate with some alien motif.

Jello for dessert - psychodelic colors and alien forms.

I don't know, maybe cook whatever you feel like and serve food, say in StarTrek-theemed styroform take-out containers? (silver and neon spraypaint may work).

[Akatonbo]

I think Japanese food is a rich source for extra-terrestrial-looking foodstuffs. One of my favorites is kimpira - finely slivered burdock root and carrot braised with soy sauce. It comes out looking like a tangle of swamp grass from somewhere in the Delta Quadrant. To make it easy, just use carrots (it's delicious).

Peel as many large carrots as you can stand to work with. Score them along their length with a sharp knife at 1/8" intervals (no need to be too precise). Use a vegetable peeler to shave off long, very thin strips (use as much of the carrot as you can, but you can discard the thin core once it gets too hard to shave). Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet. Add the carrot strips and stir-fry for three or four minutes, then, for every two carrots add 2 T. sake and 1 T. sugar. Stir to mix and keep stirring for two more minutes. Add 1 1/2 T. soy sauce (again, this amount for every two carrots). Continue to stir until glossy and brown and the carrot strips are tender. Serve it in individual heaps.

I think a nice seaweed salad also looks very extra-terrestrial. And how about star-fruit?

[Cinnamon]

Burdock is delicious

[Infomaniac]

You probably want to make your foods, but how about some Freeze Dried and Dehydrated Foods that you could buy from a sporting goods camping dept.

Dry ice in drinks.

Frozen Milky Way candy bars on a popsicle stick.