Midwinter dinner is a longstanding tradition in Antarctica, going back all the way to the days of Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen exploring the continent. The tradition involves eating a feast, having a few drinks, and enjoying the company of your compatriots on station. My midwinter at Palmer meant that we got some delicious guanaco from our chef, Mike Hiller. He did an amazing job that year, and the freshies were a nice surprise considering that Palmer does not have a greenhouse and did not have any new shipments of fresh food.
This midwinter, our chefs did a fantastic job as well. Appetizers consisted of duck confit, apple and brie crostini, and a crab and artichoke dip. The cocktail of choice during the hor d'oeuvre portion of the meal was an old fashioned. And, as a nice symbolic gesture, the weather decided to cool down all the way to -100F for the first time this season!
 |
| Congratulations 2017 South Pole Winterovers! We are now a part of the group that has hit -100F in the winter. |
Following the cocktail hour, we were served a salad with an orange vinaigrette, made from the greenhouse freshies. The main course was lobster thermidor, a filet of beef, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. Dessert was delectable as well - a homemade chocolate lava cake and homemade vanilla ice cream. We don't have any vanilla ice cream on station this year, so this was certainly a nice treat.
The following are photos taken by Dr. James Casey of IceCube that were saved onto our network's common drive:
 |
| Salad! |
 |
| Our main dinner plate |
 |
| Dessert. The red sauce is a raspberry puree. |
Aside from our dinner, we had a number of events occurring on station in celebration of midwinter. Earlier in the day there was a facial hair competition, of which I was a judge. Jason was told to shave this winter thanks to being on team two for emergency response (fire response - they need a close seal between the mask and skin so beards are a no-go), but he participated regardless. He presented a photo of himself with a beard from Palmer in the summer of 2015/2016 and expressed to the judges the plight of being beardless. Shockingly enough, he almost won for best attempt! Alas, there were other men on station who had actually attempted to grow a beard so they won the prize of a six pack of beer.
 |
| Here we are judging the contestants. As you can see, we take this job seriously |
 |
| Jason talking about his plight of being beardless at the South Pole. Yes, he wears socks and sandals. |
 |
| Final deliberations! We separated ourselves to not spoil any surprises for the winners (and losers). |
After dinner, one of my fellow winterovers designed a murder mystery for people to enjoy. Jason and I did not opt in on this event as it just seemed like too much work and too much of a commitment. I could have changed my mind mid-dinner and decide not to participate which of course would screw up the storyline for everybody else. It was best to just not sign up and not ruin the fun for others. From what I hear, everybody seemed to really enjoy the event that night. I had fun observing everybody in character while on the sidelines.
So now that we are officially at midwinter day, what does it mean? Well, the sun will slowly begin to rise again. In August we'll start to see our first glimpse of sunlight over the horizon. I can't say that I'm eager to welcome the sun back into my life though. Sleeping is difficult with 24 hour light, and putting up window shades and blankets only does so much to block out the light. It also means that the stars and auroras will be gone. What will be nice is having the temperatures warm up a bit as the cold is really starting to get old.
EDIT: Here is our official Midwinter Photo. This photo gets sent to all Antarctic stations, ASC, and the NSF.
No comments:
Post a Comment