Food cubes in TOS

As suggested by Melakon.

What real world ingrediants were used to make the little green yellow and red food cubes seen in several episodes of TOS?

What do you think they tasted like "in universe" and what would prompt Starfleet of that era to serve food in cube form?

 

They probably taste like crap, like actual products like Tang and Space Food Sticks, based on food made for astronauts during the 1960s.

 

Is there ever an episode where a character actually eats one of the cubes?

 

In "By Any Other Name", Tomar ingests something before Scotty invites him to have a drink.

I suspect they used melon, or cheese, and food coloring. I guess even Play-Doh is possible.

 

They look like cantaloupe or honey dew dyed with food coloring.

 

I thought they were meant to look alien/futuristic rather than be the "protein pill" trope of some SF writers.

 

Well they match the color scheme of those square disks that were fed into the computer and the Lite-Brite control panels. Seems primary colors were big with Starfleet interior decorators.

I wonder what the "in-universe" explanation for their color and shape is...

 

The food synthesizers produced ice cream in "And the Children Shall Lead". So, they could make more than just colored cubes.

 

Storage and inventory.

 

Yeah, they did qualify as fun food for the novelty. I think there were some flavors I didn't like that much is all.

 

For their form factor I'd also count that they're probably very easy to hold a couple without requiring too much conscious attention, and won't roll off the console you set a couple on if the ship isn't being hurled from side to side very much.

 

So like a 24th century "Lunchable"?

 

In-universe, those cubes are an Andorian food called gristhera. It's said to be popular with lots of different alien races and so is often served at Federation diplomatic functions.

 

Source? Since Memory Alpha seems to know nothing about that name in a search, I'll guess that's from your own personal in-universe.

 

His source is non-canon Memory Beta, so it was a book or comic book.

 

They looked like dog turds, and IMHO didn't taste a whole lot better. Chacun à son goût.

 

I think they would taste like MREs.

 

Sure, but obviously we're never going to get an ONSCREEN explanation for this, so might as well...

 

Where is our resident band of sages who can divine the "Original Creator's" intent when we need them?

It is interesting how Enterprise kind of screwed with our heads when it came to food. On that show starships had supplies of real food. By TOS' era they had synthesizers, so you had the ability to create food, but you also had these weird block looking things, which could have been delicious but did not look very appetizing, and then we have the TNG era that goes back to showing delicious looking "real" food that was replicated.