“Kherson is Ukraine!” – Government Courier
The team of the 27th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition, which works at the “Akademik Vernadskyi” station, originally congratulated all Ukrainians on National Flag Day and Independence Day. You watch the video, and the strings of the soul flutter. Because being physically 15 thousand kilometers away, researchers are together with Ukraine. Therefore, everyone remembers their hometown and talks about their plans after returning from the expedition.
Doctor Vasyl Matkovskyi wants to see the best sunrises in the world on the embankment in his native Mariupol, Ukraine; Marta Dzindra, a biologist from Lviv, invites everyone to the biggest coffee, and Yuriy Lyshenko, a diesel engineer from Kharkiv, dreams of celebrating the next Independence Day on the reconstructed Freedom Square, the largest in Europe. The head of the expedition from Kyiv, Yuriy Otruba, for whom this is already the seventh winter, has a special ritual: after landing on his native land, change the clock to Kyiv time. The one in which unique chestnuts are waiting for him.
Perhaps the most creative of you was the chef Oleg Kurus, already familiar to our readers (we published a detailed interview with him before the start of the expedition on February 19).
“Hello to my native Kherson! You are the first to reveal to me the secret of the kitchen business, you gave me the inspiration, strength and skills to increase my confidence on the way to new culinary heights. During the occupation, you showed that Kherson is Ukraine! And after the victory, I will definitely come to you for watermelons!” — with these words, with bread baked by his own hands, Oleg congratulated us all on the Independence Day of the state.
“I recorded the greeting from another time, slightly improving the proposed picture. I decided that it would be most appropriate to congratulate with bread,” said Oleg Kurus, with whom we contacted via Viber. After all, now the station has unlimited internet.
Of course, I couldn’t resist asking in more detail how the wintering of our scientists is going.
— The day is getting longer, it dawns already at eight in the morning. Anyway, on September 1, the Antarctic spring begins. And already in December, it will be a 24-hour day here, – Oleg smiles. Because we did not see each other for half a year, I noticed that he had freshened up and gained weight. — But winter does not want to give up: there were no severe frosts, and even none with a positive temperature, the wind 20-30 meters per second and the wind caused ice. There are still penguins at Penguin Point: the last ice did not bind the ocean, they have something to eat. Such is our society. Our scientists go out for research on mobile motor boats “Zodiac”.
– Oleg, you couldn’t wait to see the latest kitchen equipment that was used to stuff the station and work on it. Satisfied?
– Sure! And he himself gained eight kilograms, and all the polar explorers gained weight. All thanks to provision and caloric nutrition. We smoke meat and fish here, and brew beer ourselves. One of the companies handed over not only a rooster installation, but also several bags of hops and a mill to kill him. We also make kebabs in the new oven on the grill, because it is forbidden to light a fire here. And what would you think? They only lack smoke, but the taste is the same. I also bake bread, baguettes, buns and pies myself, make mayonnaise and various sauces. I even cook jello for the boys! I forgot to say about dairy products. They are prepared from leaven and dry powder. Two bags of Dutch sourdough yielded 20 kilograms of delicious cheese.
In a word, if in the 17th expedition, where I was also a cook, we ate quite simply, then not much more diverse, and products of the highest quality. We have a lot of fish products – fresh and marinated: octopus, squid, mussels, herring, red fish. On Independence Day, we had meat and fish cuts, seafood salad, potatoes stuffed with mushrooms, under cheese, and cheesecake. So health polar explorers are fine, no one gets sick, because the food is varied and balanced.
– What do you order happily?
– Burgers. I bake buns for them myself, cheese sauce with several cheeses on homemade mayonnaise, too. I make cutlets from beef, add fried bacon and pickled cucumber. The highlight of my burger is pickled onions. The marinade is ready as follows: I bring a liter of water to a liter of vinegar, 700 grams of sugar, bay leaves and peppercorns to a boil and pour them over the onion. I take mostly red. Try it, it’s incredible.
— Thank you for the recipe, I think it is interesting to our readers as well. And do you take water from the ocean?
— Yes, it comes through special filters.
Head of the 27th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition Yuriy Otruba: “We are proud that the Ukrainian flag flies over the Antarctic! That under it we conduct research, especially for all mankind: we study the geospace, the ocean, the Earth’s magnetic field, climate changes, the formation of weather and various natural phenomena, the ozone hole, the unique surrounding world of animals and plants. It is incredible pride — to do world-class science under the flag of Ukraine and glorify our state. We thank our defenders for this opportunity. We will win!”
We look forward to the results of the research and the participants of the expeditions in Ukraine. It is thanks to our research vessel “Noosphere” that the entire Southern Ocean opens before them.
INTERESTING FACTS
The area of Antarctica is 10% of the Earth’s landmass, it is 22 times larger than the area of Ukraine.
Antarctica is the only place on Earth where emperor penguins live; it is the only species that breeds during the Antarctic winter.
90% of the planet’s ice is concentrated in Antarctica. Its average thickness on the continent is 2133 meters. If all this age melts, the world’s sea level will rise by 61 meters.