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Food from "Star Trek" that is a Klingon delicacy made from serpent worms - Daily Themed Crossword

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Food from "Star Trek" that is a Klingon delicacy made from serpent worms

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A Primer to 'Star Trek' Food and Drink

To seek out strange new worlds ... and eat their foods.

The J. J. Abrams–helmed Star Trek movie opens tomorrow. As I was reading up on the new installment, I came across this line in the Wikipedia entry : "Another reference to Abrams' previous works is Slusho, which Uhura orders at the bar she meets Kirk at."

That reminded me that food and drink is depicted routinely in the Star Trek franchise—across ten movies and six TV shows. There's no doubt—or at least, I hope —that there will be food references in the 11th movie, which will feature Romulans, Vulcans, Orions. As a refresher, I thought I'd take a look at what passes for serious eats in these alien cultures. Join me on this mission, won't you?

Romulans: Huge Drunks Fond of Tart Candy

The biological cousins of the Vulcans, Romulans are devious, paranoid, and militant.

The Romulan Star Empire has been at odds with the United Federation of Planets since before the Federation's inception in 2161, and was in fact the catalyst for the Federation's formation. By 2379, however, relations between the Romulans and the Federation had warmed somewhat.

A Romulan named Nero is the villain in the new movie, traveling from the future to destroy the Federation before it gets off the ground.

Romulan Ale

Any Trek fan worth his or her salt (included in Starfleet emergency rations , by the way) knows that Romulan ale is one of the most widely referenced food-and-beverage items in the franchise. It's an ultrapotent blue drink that reportedly results in instant drunkeness. [ After the jump, recipes for Romulan ale, Klingon bloodwine, and why Vulcans hate barbecue. ]

Science fiction often holds a mirror up to contemporary culture, critiquing its practices, politics, and mores. So, too, with Romulan ale. Because of the United Federation of Planets' standoff with the Romulan Empire, the drink is illegal within the Federation—much like Cuban cigars are in the U.S. But like the captains of industry of today, captains of starships indulge in this vice. As Kirk said in The Undiscovered Country, the routine violation of the embargo is "one of the advantages of being a thousand light years from Federation headquarters."

Its proper Romulan name may be kali-fal .

Recipes: There are several recipes out there for Earth-bound Romulan ale .

Romulan Foods

• Jumbo Romulan mollusk : a delicacy that appears to be served over rice, with perhaps scrambled egg
• Osol twist : A very tart candy first mentioned in Deep Space 9 episode "Image in the Sand"
• Viinerine : A military staple, it first appears in TNG episode "Face of the Enemy"

Vulcans: They Don't Like Barbecue

You know what the Vulcans are all about--ultra logical, emotionless, intellectual, cool under pressure. Their food seems equally bland, too, and from what I can remember in all my years of watching Trek shows and movies, there hasn't really been a standout dish that's mentioned again and again in the way Romulan ale is.

Most Vulcans are vegetarians, and while it would be easy for other folks to take a swipe at the veg lifestyle, I've had pretty damn good meatless meals--so there's no excuse for lame food in the Vulcan repertoire.

A little digging shows that Vulcans are absolutely prissy when it comes to food and drink. First of all, alcohol reportedly has no effect on them (even though they do produce spirits on the planet Vulcan). And this doesn't sound very appealing--according to Memory Alpha, "Vulcans have a superior metabolism to Humans. Caffeine and sapotoxins have little effect on them. They are also capable of surviving for long durations without food or sleep."

Oh, and they don't touch food with bare hands , unless using special gloves. This means that Vulcans would hate (if they could hate--emotionless, remember?) Buffalo wings, pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, and sandwiches of all kinds. And barbecue would make them spaz--again, if they could spaz.

Anyway, let's engage...

Vulcan Foods

• Brandy : Alcohol supposedly does not affect Vulcans, so Vulcan brandy may be used for ceremonial purposes or for export only
• Gespar : Some sort of breakfast food
• Jumbo mollusk : Related to the Romulan jumbo mollusk
• Mocha : You'd never guess that this was a coffeelike beverage, would you?
• Plomeek soup (Plomeek broth) : A bland breakfast soup. In the original series (TOS), Spock threw a bowl of it at Nurse Chapel while he was going through his pon farr (crazy, horny mating period)
• Plomeek tea
• Vulcan port : Again, Vulcans are supposedly immune to the effects of alcohol... You know, I really love Memory Alpha. It's so geeky and thorough. Its entry on Vulcan port goes into AOC/DOC territory, noting that a port wine is techinally from the Douro Valley in Portugal and hence Vulcan port probably "is a colloquialism, which suggests that the production of Vulcan port, and the production of Vulcan alcoholic beverages in general, are an imported practice not native to Vulcan culture"
• Redspice : Helped make a dish so tasty that Chief Miles O'Brien (DS9) asked for the recipe
• Vulcan spice tea : Seems like it was Captain Janeway's (Voyager) version of Earl Grey

Orions: Watch Out, Boy, She'll Chew You Up

You know when casual Star Trek fans refer to Captain Kirk getting with green alien women? Well, he only encountered one such alien. She was an Orion , a race little seen in the franchise.

As Wikipedia notes , "Not much has been revealed of Orion culture. Orion pirates often harassed and attacked early Earth cargo ships. Stock for the Orion slave trade is obtained mostly through kidnapping of other species. If slaves don't command a high enough price at auction, they can be sold as food."

Sadly, Klingons Are Not Part of This Movie

J. J. Abrams reportedly wanted to focus on Romulans as the bad guys instead of Klingons, since Romulans are less well-known.

And, because Klingons eventually ally with the Federation and became heroes later on in the Trek universe, Abrams didn't want to show them in their earlier incarnation as Federation enemies.

Still, while in the rabbit hole of Memory Alpha, I couldn't help look at their cuisine, since it appeared regularly in TNG and DS9. Here are some of my favorites.

Klingon Bloodwine

Along with gagh , this is probably one of the best known Klingon foodstuffs. Served warm, it's an alcoholic beverage that you probably don't have the conjones (or whatever they call them in Klingon) to consume. Jonathan Archer (Enterprise) was the first human to give it a go. According to Memory Alpha , Lieutenant Commander Worf "liked his young and sweet," which sounds kinda dirty. Also according to Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Cookbook seems to suggest it's made with fermented blood and sugar.

Recipes: If you want to go really nuts and make an Earth-bound version, here's a recipe for fermenting your own Klingon bloodwine that uses 10 to 15 packs of unsweetened Cherry Kool-Aid. Wow. Sounds almost as potent as the actual stuff from Qo'noS . If you're too much of a bIHnuch for brewing your own, the Klingon Imperial Diplomatic Corps has a number of cocktail-based Bloodwine recipes.

Update: Eugen Beer of Coldmud points out that buy' ngop , which would translate to "That's good news!" literally means "The plates are full" in Klingon.

Other Klingon Food and Drink

• Bahgol : A warm tealike beverage. Well, not too different from humans ...
• Bregit lung : Spoke too soon. Bregit lung is not actually a respiratory organ but a dish of reptilian animals. Commander Riker (TNG) professes to like it. (Of course, Riker would--didn't he try to impress a Klingon female in one episode with his love of gagh?) Bregit lung is often eaten with grapok sauce
• Gagh : A Klingon delicacy--live serpent worms. "Allegedly, the actual taste of gagh is revolting and it is eaten solely for the unique sensation of the gagh spasming in one's mouth and stomach in their death throes." But the real question is, Would Andrew Zimmern eat it?
• Gladst : Finally, some vegetable matter. I was beginning to get worried about Klingons' regularity
• Klingon martini : Neat. It's a bit of cultural fusion--vermouth, gin, and a dash of bloodwine
• Pipius claw : Looks like chicken feet. I doubt it tastes like chicken, though
• Racht : A big bowl of live worms
• Raktajino : The rare Klingon foodstuff that humans enjoy. Probably because it's a coffeelike beverage
• Rokeg blood pie
• Targ : A type of Klingon herding animal. Eating heart of targ is believed to instill courage in a warrior, and the milk of the creature is apparently consumed as well
• Zilm'kach : Some fruit to round things out

Video: Klingon Food Critic

This really weird fan video of a mock Klingon newscast has the anchors tossing it to a Klingon food critic who reviews popular Earth foods. I think it's supposed to be funny. It's not, really, but it is oddly compelling and--what's the word?--oh, yeah, warped.

Star Trek Cookbooks

Lastly, there are a couple of Star Trek cookbooks, if you really want to replicate the food of the universe here on Earth.

There's the prosaically named Star Trek Cookbook , by William J. Birnes and Ethan Phillips, whose character, Neelix , could often be found cooking in Star Trek: Voyager (his feragoit goulash is known across 12 star systems, after all).

And the Official Star Trek Cooking Manual has a cool spin on things, written as if it's Nurse Christine Chapel's recipe book that was somehow transported to the present time. As Memory Alpha notes, "The introduction includes what is purportedly a food synthesizer algorithm for Dr. McCoy's favorite dish; in fact, it is FORTRAN source code for a program that prints the message, 'CHICKEN 3.14159 SKEPTIC.'" Whatever that means.

Close the Channel

When I started poking around for info for this post, I thought it would be a quick one. But, crap, I've pretty much spent all day tooling around various Star Trek sites, with Memory Alpha being a huge help and awesome resource. I think I now know more about Star Trek food than anyone should. Tomorrow night, though, I think I'll skip the osol twists and get a big bucket of popcorn--it's a Terran snack made from dried corn kernels that are heated until they burst, commonly eaten slathered with butter at movie theaters during the 20th and 21st centuries.

Live long and prosper.

10:41 a.m., 5/8/2009: Jason Kottke linked to this today , saying, "Oddly, my only complaint is that (somehow) his piece isn't long enough. Adam, you didn't even get in to 'Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.'"

I know, Jason. I would have loved to have included Picard's iconic food-replicator order, but I had to limit the scope of this post somewhat or I could have spent weeks in the food quadrant of the Trekiverse. I figured focusing on the aliens encountered in the Trek reboot was a fine way to do that.

As it is, I'm relying heavily on Memory Alpha. Going any deeper into ST food, I'd just basically be aping what they've done on their awesomely extensive database of food and drink across the entire franchise.

More Serious Eats Recipes

Twice Cooked

Cooking, eating, politics, cooking , cooking & eating , savory, klingon gagh.

Klingon gagh, no doubt, is the iconic food of the modern Star Trek canon. Whether it’s on The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine , whenever a group of Klingon warriors congregate together to share a meal and sing a song, there are two things of which you can always be assured: first, that there will be loud calls, in mixed tones of anger and levity, for another barrel of blood wine ; and second, that there will be the relished consumption of gagh.

According to Memory Alpha the great wiki repository of all things Star Trek canon, gagh is a Klingon delicacy made from serpent worms. Although most Klingons preferred it live, it could also be served stewed or cold .

It doesn’t sound appetizing. And in fact, in one of the great food scenes in all Star Trek, Commander Riker, getting ready to transfer aboard a Klingon vessel as part of an officer exchange program, takes a sort of philosophical view of the whole thing. His last meal aboard the Enterprise is a feast of so-called Klingon delicacies including — as he explains to Dr. Pulaski — pipius claw, heart of targ, and gag [sic].

Gagh?! Pulaski replies, in a kind of repulsed horror. And a conversation ensues in which Pulaski tells Riker: I’ve never heard of a Klingon starving to death on his own vessel, but you might.

That’s awfully early in the Star Trek TV reboot — a season 2 episode of The Next Generation called “A Matter of Honor.” And as the show progresses, and as we get into Deep Space Nine territory where the Klingons are central characters rather than side-show stereotypes, Klingon gagh becomes less a food that’s calibrated simply for the gross-out factor of watching folks on TV eat worms, and more of a legitimate traditional foodway.

Nah! Who am I kidding? Gagh is always a punchline. Even as late as the season 5 episode of Deep Space Nine , “A Simple Investigation,” we have Major Kira complaining during an inspection of some Klingon cargo that: I was checking the contents of one of those crates — a tentacle grabbed my hand .

Gagh , Odo tells her in response. As though that simple fact should explain everything.

At any rate, the reason that I bring this up — the reason why I have Klingon food on the brain today — is that Saturday night, as part of a fundraiser, I cooked a Star Trek feast for myself, Sarah, and seven guests. And given its iconic status, no Star Trek feast could be complete without a plate of wriggling, writhing, slimy serpent worms; without Klingon gagh.

There are some limiting factors, however, in terrestrial gagh production and consumption. First: serving a plate of live worms is absolutely, undoubtedly out of the question. It’s inhumane and horrible. And besides, if we eat the worms, who would be left to transform our kitchen scraps into compost?

The second limiting factor is that one of the guests at said Star Trek feast was a vegetarian. That means that, even barring the consumption of real-life annelids, we couldn’t have, say, long strings of beef tartar or buckwheat noodles soaked in meaty consommé. It just wasn’t going to work.

In fact, of the dozens of ideas for how to produce Klingon gagh that I found online, it seemed that none was likely to work. They were all either inappropriate, or inadequately ‘real,’ or seemed like they would not taste good.

And then, after doing a little bit of research, I hit on an idea: what about savory gummy worms?

Sarah wasn’t convinced that this was going to work. But I knew. A vegetarian broth of mushrooms and kelp, thickened to solidity with agar, would have just the right look and feel. And allowed to solidify inside of a drinking straw, it would have just the right shape, too.

My only surprise was just how well it all turned out. The ridges on the bendy straws I got for the project added just the right wormy surfacing; and using agar rather than beef gelatin gave it a kind of wet, slimy look that only added to the effect.

Linda, whose help putting together the Star Trek feast was more than invaluable, later commented on Facebook that: the Gagh hit the uncanny valley. Adam Zolkover absolutely got the jiggly wriggling worms just right!

I’ve not seen a better approach to Klingon gagh than this one. It’s not every day that you need to impress a room full of guests with something slimy from outer space. But when you do, this is the approach I’d recommend. And there’s one more important advantage to gummy gagh that I did not share with my guests: It’s actually super easy to do.

4 – 4.5 cups of Water 1 – 1.5 cups Dried Shitake Mushrooms 1 cup Dried Seaweed or Kombu 4 tbsp Agar Flakes 2 tbsp Tamari or Dark Soy Sauce 1 tbsp Tomato Paste 1 Star Anise Pod 8-10 Whole Peppercorns Half a Stick of Cinnamon

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the water, mushrooms, seaweed, tomato paste, star anise, cinnamon, and peppercorns to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, and allow it to cook at a high simmer for about a half hour.

Using a fine mesh seive, strain the liquid out into a bowl. Remove any particulate matter from the saucepan. Measure out a scant two cups of the broth (you may actually need to add a little bit of water to get it to that level), and return it to the saucepan along with the tamari and the agar. Cook over low-medium heat for a minute or two until the agar disolves and the liquid starts to thicken.

As soon as the broth thickens, remove it from the heat. fill a pint mason jar or a tall, straight-sided drinking glass with the liquid. And then, into the liquid, insert as many drinking straws as will fit. For the best results, you’ll want to insert the drinking straws bendy-side down. And you’ll want to extend the accordion bits to achieve the wormiest ridges.

When it has cooled just a little bit, move the glass of liquid and straws into the refrigerator, and allow it to chill for 4-6 hours, or overnight. You’ll know it’s done when the liquid has solidified.

Once the broth is solid, to make the Klingon gagh, remove the straws from the jar and, using your fingers, a rolling pin, or the side of a fork, push the worms out of the straws and into a bowl.

The gagh can be eaten alone, but it is best served, I think, on a bed of Japanese-style seaweed salad, drizzled with sesame oil and sprinkled with a few sesame seeds.

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Why trekkies are so obsessed with making a disgusting klingon dish called gagh.

Four types of gagh, as seen in various Star Trek episodes. Screenshots via Memory Alpha wiki

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An attempt at gagh using spaghetti and beets, as shared on Wikimedia Commons

An attempt at gagh from the blog Twice Cooked. Photo courtesy of Adam Zolkover

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Star Trek-inspired meals for your Klingon guests

Make your own morcilla gagh and blood pasta, and rokeg blood rolls with gagh sauce.

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Here's a twist on Guess Who's Coming To Dinner — what if your guests are Klingons?

An Ottawa Star Trek fan group challenged Ottawa chefs to come up with recipes for an interplanetary dinner party for Klingons, the humanoid alien species in the sci-fi franchise.

• Starfleet Academy exhibit at Aviation and Space Museum

Randy Fitzpatrick of Petit Bill's Bistro created rokeg blood rolls with gagh sauce and Jordan Holley of El Camino created morcilla gagh and blood pasta.

​Here' s the request to Alan Neal, host of CBC Radio's All In A Day , from listener Jody Heffernan:

Together, we're planning an invasion of the Star Trek Experience at the Space and Aviation Museum, and we need a special meal, to celebrate! This is Star Trek's 50th anniversary, after all.

We know that Klingons eat gagh, a kind of maggoty delicacy best served live. [Rokeg] pie, a disgusting black pudding, like pie made with real blood. But those kind of sound disgusting. So what could the Ladies Who Trek serve to the Klingons?"

Rokeg blood rolls

Ingredients (makes 6 rolls)

• 500 g good-quality pork sausage meat.
• 200 g blood pudding, crumbled.
• Few sprigs parsley, chopped.
• Few sprigs of Newfoundland savory, chopped.
• 1⁄2 tsp. ground mace.
• 1⁄2 tsp. cayenne.
• 3 tbsp. English mustard.
• 1 x 500 g packet shop-brought puff pastry.
• 1 egg, beaten.

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, mix the pork mince, black pudding, parsley, savory, mace, cayenne pepper and mustard (you may add a pinch of salt and black pepper, if you wish). Mix well and squish together in your hands.

2. Roll the block of pastry out into a large rectangle (12 x 8 inches) and square off the edges of the pastry. Cut into six equal squares. Put the filling down the middle of each square.

3. Roll the pastry over the meat then pull the other side of the pastry up on top. Square off the ends, then turn the roll over so the fold is underneath. Pinch with a fork tip all the way around.

4. Cut in vent holes on the top of each sausage roll, and brush with beaten egg. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. grainy mustard.
• 1 tbsp. smooth mustard.
• 1⁄4 cup heavy cream.
• Spring of fresh thyme.
• Pinch of salt & pepper (to taste).

1. Heat all ingredients together in a sauce pan and stir until well blended.

2. Can be served hot over the blood rolls or cold as a dip.

Morcilla sausage ragu

​Ingredients

• 1 lb morcilla sausage (or any blood sausage will do).
• 1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced.
• 1/2 green bell pepper, finely diced.
• 4 stalks celery, finely diced.
• 6 shallots, finely diced.
• 5 cloves garlic, sliced.
• 1.5 cups white wine.
• 1.5 cups chicken stock.
• Pinch chili flakes.

1. Over medium-low heat, sweat peppers, shallots, celery, garlic until soft, no colour. Once softened, remove from heat and set aside.

2. Remove morcilla from casings, and gently render out over medium heat, stirring frequently (approximately five minutes).

3. Add sweated vegetable mix, and continue to cook another five minutes.

4. Deglaze with white wine, simmer for five to 10 minutes, add chickens stock, and simmer an additional 15 minutes over low heat.

5. Adjust seasonings, and serve over blood pasta.

Blood pasta

• 200 g all-purpose flour.
• 200 g 00 flour.
• 90 g pork blood.
• 15 g kosher salt.
• For garnish: Parmesan, blood sorrel, olive oil.

In this pasta dough, the blood replaces the need for egg.

1. Combine flours and salt. Transfer to work surface, make a well in the centre. 

2. Add pork blood, and continue to stir to combine, slowly drawing flour in from the sides. Once a loose dough has formed, knead for approximately 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

3. Roll out using a hand crank pasta machine to desired thickness, and cut into linguine or fettuccine. (You could also make other pastas, such as rigatoni, if you have a pasta extruder.)

4. Pour ragu over pasta, and garnish with grated Parmesan, blood sorrel and a drizzle of olive oil.

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The Bizarre Food On Star Trek Explained

Star Trek has existed in one form or another for more than 50 years. In pop culture terms, that's infinity — many people have literally never known a world without Star Trek . So far, there have been ten television series, 13 theatrical films, and countless novels, comic books, games, and other media. That's a lot of material and world-building. At this point, Star Trek may be the most finely detailed fictional universe ever created.

Many of those details are in the service of creating convincing alien cultures. Star Trek  contains alien civilizations at just about every level of technological and cultural advancement, and it's unusual in that humanity isn't presented as the center of everything. Earth culture is very much just one of many and is often presented as being a bit backward in some ways, a bit advanced in others — for example, food.

Food plays a surprisingly important role in the Star Trek universe. Several stories pivot on shared meals, characters bond over their favorite dishes and reveal themselves in how they react to unfamiliar dishes, and alien cultures are illuminated by what they eat and how they treat the rituals of food preparation and consumption. Since a lot of this is alien food, it can get a little crazy, of course. Here are some of the more extreme examples of the bizarre food on Star Trek explained.

Klingon g agh is one of the most famous dishes in the Star Trek cookbook, in part because Klingon culture is such a big and fascinating part of the universe and in part because gagh is, frankly, disgusting. There's no easy way to say this: It's worms. Specifically, fictional serpent worms — preferably eaten alive and wriggling — which makes sense since the Klingons are a warlike, aggressive race of people who value individual courage and honor. You can see where making every meal a predatory victory would appeal to them.

According to the Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha , the Klingon dish comes in about 51 varieties (in large part because the many, many writers on the many, many series and films weren't particularly consistent with how gagh was described or presented). Luckily for the human characters, some of these involve stewing or chilling the worms, meaning it's a slightly less horrifying eating experience. This might explain why so many Star Trek fans are obsessed with actually preparing  gagh and eating it, despite the fact that serpent worms don't actually exist.

As reported by  Vice , there's significant interest and energy put into trying to create something vaguely resembling gagh in real life. Unsurprisingly, most of these efforts don't actually involve living worms but use worm-like stuff like pasta, noodles, or overcooked veggies to approximate the experience. Of eating worms. Because that's an experience you want to approximate, apparently.

Romulan ale

One of the most famous consumables ever mentioned in the Star Trek universe is Romulan ale, an incredibly powerful intoxicant with an iconic blue color. (It sometimes appears to be phosphorescent as well.) As the Romulans are usually Federation enemies, Romulan ale is usually illegal. Serious Eats  notes that this is often presented as a parallel to real-world Cuban cigars: something highly prized and considered extremely high-quality that is illegal for purely political reasons. Though, to be fair, it is sometimes implied that Romulan ale is also illegal because of its potency — for many, it apparently results in instantaneous inebriation, followed quickly by incapacitation. As  Memory Alpha  notes, even Worf, who enjoys a Klingon's robust constitution, is affected powerfully by the stuff.

Naturally, the combination of extreme intoxication and bright blue color makes it a common example of Star Trek fare that people try to create in real life. The good news is that Romulan ale has never been described in great detail, so all you need to do is make a really, really strong drink that has a really, really blue color to it. There are several recipes on the Internet for cocktails you can reasonably call Romulan ale, most of which involve everyone's go-to blue liqueur, blue curaçao, and everybody's go-to alcoholic dynamite, Everclear. This one packs a punch, for example.

Plomeek soup

The Vulcans are just as important to Star Trek as the Klingons in terms of alien races. Spock , portrayed by the late Leonard Nimoy and later by Zachary Quinto, remains one of the most popular characters in the show's universe. And the Vulcans are at the center of many of Star Trek 's most important storylines.

But Vulcan cooking isn't given as much attention on the show as the Klingons' or even some other, less important alien races. That's largely because the Vulcans, being ultra-rational beings, don't treat their meals like violent deathmatches as the Klingons do, and they also embrace a vegetarian lifestyle that simply isn't particularly exciting. But one Vulcan dish does get a lot of attention: plomeek  soup.

As  Westword  explains, plomeek soup is a traditional breakfast meal for Vulcans and is basically a very bland vegetable broth. Its most famous moment of screen time comes in the classic Original Series episode "Amok Time," when Spock goes through the Vulcan mating cycle known as pon farr . Nurse Chapel prepares some plomeek soup in an attempt to comfort and calm Spock. It does not go well and represents one of the rare times Spock (or any Vulcan) displays an emotional reaction.

If you're hankering for some tasteless veggie broth (and who isn't), Buzzfeed offers a simple recipe for something approximating the fictional version.

Heart of targ

A lot of the food mentioned during Star Trek 's five-plus decades of existence is recognizably traditional human fare jazzed up with some funny names and food dyes. Sometimes you can imagine the writers just taking any earthbound meal and tacking the name of an alien race at the beginning, like Talaxian omelettes or Ktarian beer (which looks a lot like regular beer).

Klingon food, however, is reliably weird. The Klingons are a sneering, violent race, after all — but a sneering, violent race with a rich culture. Even when their culinary achievements can be traced back to relatively normal human equivalents in the real world, there's usually a violent and terrifying twist to them. Such is the case with heart of targ .

As  Memory Alpha  explains, a targ is essentially a boar, except with spikes on its back and a tendency to destroy everything in its path. Naturally, the Klingons keep targs as pets and enjoy eating them in a dish called heart of targ which, you guessed it, involves the heart torn from a targ . The Klingons believe eating it confers courage, so they naturally eat it a lot . Horrifyingly, Buzzfeed reports that Food Replicator, a food blogger, has actually created this dish in the real world using lamb's hearts.

Rokeg blood pie

The Klingons in Star Trek have a rich legacy of poetry, art, and aggressively violent interactions with everyone, including themselves. They're also all about their food. But the Klingons can't just make a delicious, nutritious meal. They generally have to work some kind of off-puttingly violent imagery into it ... or simply make it kind of gross, food that requires courage just to eat.

As a result, an unsurprising number of Klingon foods include the word "blood." In fact, when the Klingons aren't eating stuff like live worms , their food seems to have a disturbingly high blood content. Case in point: Rokeg blood pie. Because who doesn't want their daily recommended serving of blood served in pie form?

To be fair, human beings have a fair number of blood puddings and the like, so it's not like the Klingons invented eating the coagulated blood of other beings. Star Trek does a great job of making the food in its stories meaningful, however, and as  Memory Alpha  notes, Rokeg  blood pie is notable as being a comfort food for the Klingon character Worf. It's also traditionally consumed on the Klingon Day of Honor, when warriors looks back on their deeds and judge their honor.

Recipes exist, but be warned: Most use more palatable stuff like raspberry puree. If you want to make the real stuff,  Food Replicator has a recipe that uses real blood. You have a blood guy, right?

Pipius claw

When the subject of weird alien food on Star Trek comes up, it usually centers on Klingon dishes. This makes sense because the Klingons are both a fantastic creation, equal parts violence and poetry, and a collection of bizarre, off-putting cultural details. Their food reflects this. Most of the Klingon dishes mentioned in the show sound revolting or like the sort of prank dish kids are forced to eat when rushing a particularly cruel fraternity.

Take pipius  claw, which the ever-adventurous Commander Riker ate in the TNG episode "A Matter of Honor." Riker was being temporarily assigned to a Klingon ship and wanted to acquaint himself with the culture via a traditional meal.

If you're wondering how awful something called pipius claw would be in real life, Memory Alpha notes that Alan Sims, the guy who created the food prop for the episode, used chicken feet with one of the toes cut off. The legs were then placed in a liquid broth of some sort and garnished with some colorful vegetable matter. While it's true that people do actually eat chicken feet in real life, we maintain that when the best thing you can say about dinner is that it resembles chicken legs, you've already lost.

If you're planning some sort of Star Trek -themed dinner party, you might look into meals that can be approximated by real-life recipes, if only to avoid serving a bowl of wriggling worms to your impressed but horrified guests. That makes hasperat an ideal choice, because, as  Memory Alpha  notes, all we really know about this Bajoran food is that it resembles a burrito and is so hot and spicy it makes the eyes water and literally burns the tongue. That means that all you need to do is make something vaguely burrito-like and make it spicy AF. In fact, the prop food used in the series was as basic as it comes: flour tortillas, cream cheese, and red and green peppers.

That simplicity makes it ideal for themed party food because it's easy, and attaining a level of verisimilitude is easy enough — they're just space wraps, after all. The challenge lies in the heat level. If you want an authentic Star Trek   hasperat experience, those babies have to be hot, hot, hot. Recipes found at places like Food.com or The Geeky Chef both call for hot sauce but leave it up to you for the level of fire (and the choice of sauce). Whether you make them mildly spicy or thermonuclear, hasperat remains one of the few Star Trek meals you can replicate in your kitchen with a reasonable resemblance to the real (fictional) food.

Stewed Bok-Rat Liver

Ah, those kooky Klingons and their aggressively terrible food. The persistently unappetizing nature of Klingon dishes is one reason their food is the most memorable on the show — and why it's always the Klingon meals  that fans try to make in real life.

A prime example is stewed bok-rat liver. You might think no one in their right mind would want to eat any part of a rat, but as  Practical Self Reliance  points out, rats and mice have been considered delicacies in many cultures throughout history. According to  Food Replicator , this dish is a staple of Klingon warships and is best enjoyed fresh.

Unfortunately, as with most Klingon meals, it's not meant to be appetizing to us regular humans. As  Memory Alpha  notes, in the script of the Deep Space Nine  episode "Soldiers of the Empire," the dish is described as "vile and slimy," which might be exactly what a bunch of Klingon warriors serving in a crowded, stuffy warship for years on end look for in a comfort food but doesn't work so well with human beings. Or at least not normal human beings.

Luckily, the recipe that Food Replicator offers (using lamb's liver) actually sounds delicious — assuming you like liver to begin with.

Alfarian hair pasta

At first glance, Alfarian hair pasta sounds like the classic sci-fi technique of taking something perfectly normal and mundane and adding a sci-fi word in front of it, like "space madness." In this case, take some (angel) hair pasta, attribute it to the Alfarians, and call it a day.

But Alfarian hair pasta is actually a lot more interesting and a lot weirder than you might think at first glance, mainly because the word "hair" isn't so much a descriptive adjective as it is literally what you're eating. Have you ever considered eating the wool from a sheep? If not, it's possibly (probably) because of your provincial human outlook on life. As  Memory Alpha  explains, the hair of the Alfarians is edible, and every year when they begin to shed, their hair is gathered up, cooked, and eaten.

Luckily, Alfarian hair pasta looks more or less like traditional human pasta (thank goodness for the traditionally low budgets of Star Trek TV shows), so recipes like the one offered at Food Replicator are pretty easy to make — although whether or not your obsession extends to actually making your pasta from scratch is entirely up to you.

Because the Star Trek writers traditionally understand the cultural power and importance of food, the Klingon culinary arts get a surprising amount of attention in the various TV shows and films. While sometimes, these mentions of food and drink are just set dressing or provided for shock value, they can also provide a great deal of depth to the fictional cultures of the universe. Klingon bloodwine is a great example of this.

As  Memory Alpha  explains, bloodwine is a staple alcoholic beverage for the Klingons. It's powerful stuff, considered much stronger than whiskey — in fact, most non-Klingons can't tolerate it. At the same time, it has vintages like our wines, so it's a varied experience. Klingons often have favorite vintages and will stock up on a particular year to drink on special occasions. Served warm and very strong, like most Klingon food and drink it's almost certainly disgusting unless you're drinking one of humanity's many versions of it.

Interestingly, there's no official proof that bloodwine actually contains blood, though there are non-canonical sources that suggest it's made from blood and sugar (yum). Most of the recipes created to approximate bloodwine don't actually call for blood –  Cook Fiction's  recipe, for example, uses grenadine and cranberry juice to give the cocktail that bloody look.

Jumja sticks

One of the more subtle and effective bits of world-building employed by the writers of Star Trek is the varied reactions to the alien foodstuffs mentioned in the stories. Having some characters love a dish while others react in horror is a small detail, but it really helps to sell a universe with real depth. In real life, there are plenty of food items that divide people.

That's what makes jumja sticks so interesting. These typically huge treats are made by Bajorans from the sap of the jumja tree. According to  Memory Alpha , jumja sticks are really, really sweet. And like many sweet treats, jumja sticks can be flavored in various ways. As a result, creatures with a sweet tooth tend to love them, while many others find them to be cloying and kind of gross. They're kind of the  Peeps of the Star Trek world, in other words. In fact, behind the scenes, jumja sticks were referred to as "glop-on-a-stick," which gives you some idea of just how appetizing they were intended to be.

If you're wondering what a jumja stick might taste like, some have suggested that maple syrup sugar candy could be used to approximate them. Food Replicator  suggests treacle, which seems like a better match in terms of sweetness and how quickly you'll get very, very tired of eating them.

Klingon skull stew

The Klingon diet is not for the faint of heart. Just about every dish has words like "blood" or "heart" in the name, and these should be taken very, very literally. They also tend to be pretty accurately described — no foodie poetry for the Klingons. So if you glance at your menu and see that you're being served Klingon skull stew, you know a skull is going to be involved. The only question is whether it'll be a Klingon skull or ... something else.

According to  Memory Alpha , Klingon skull stew appeared in one and perhaps two episodes of different Star Trek series. In Deep Space 9 , Klingon skull stew is offered by the Replimat, along with a blurry photo depicting it. In Enterprise , an unnamed stew-like dish is shown being prepared on a Klingon ship with an obvious skull floating in it.

The Star Trek Cookbook –  which isn't considered canon but is still fun to read – includes a recipe for Klingon skull stew using a calf's skull (naturally) and honeycomb tripe (also naturally). Which means that skull stew may be the only Star Trek meal that is actually more horrifying in its real-world approximation than its fictional version.

Star Trek: What Eating On The Enterprise Would Really Be Like

"Star Trek" depicts a future where humanity has finally achieved a utopian society — one where different races, genders, and species all exist harmoniously together. And while some might claim Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell), the inventor of the warp drive, ushered in this new age when his ship made contact with alien life and helped unite everyone on Earth, the truth is humanity owes a greater debt to a different piece of future technology — the food replicator.

Made popular on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ("TNG"), food replicators are found on every starship and most Federation planets, and they can convert energy into virtually any type of food or drink. Thanks to this invention, food insecurity and starvation are truly problems of the past, and everyone who lives on Earth or serves aboard a ship like the U.S.S. Enterprise can go about their business with a full stomach — which plays a key part in maintaining the peaceful society humanity thrives in.

That said, there are a few downsides to living in a society where computers let you try cuisines from hundreds of different worlds. Due to replicator malfunctions or alien food allergies, dining aboard a starship can be an adventure in and of itself. But if you've ever wondered what sort of dishes you might try in the world of "Star Trek," read on. From getting drunk on Romulan ale to teasing your stomach with Klingon gagh, here's what eating on the Enterprise would really be like.

You can order anything you want on the Enterprise

Foodies who enjoy broadening their palates by sampling exotic dishes will feel like they're in paradise aboard the Enterprise. Not only does the ship's database contain a library of recipes from hundreds of different alien worlds, you can sample practically all of them thanks to the food replicators located in your quarters or in the ship's recreation lounge, Ten Forward.

The next generation model of the "food synthesizer" made popular in the original "Star Trek" series, the food replicators in "TNG" use the same  matter-energy conversion technology used by transporters to transform molecules into anything you want — including a five-course meal. All you need to do is ask the computer for a bowl of Ratamba stew or a Bolian souffle, and the replicator will manifest it for you immediately using the ship's replicator reserves.

There are a few limitations — the Enterprise won't let you replicate anything poisonous or dangerous — but otherwise, you and your fellow gourmets could spend many happy hours hanging out in Ten Forward and indulging in Bajoran, Ktarian, or Betazoid cuisine. And best of all? Since money isn't used among  Federation citizens , everything is free! Sure, it might get attacked by the Borg or thrown back in time every other week, but when it comes to food, the Enterprise is the ultimate cruise ship.

Doing the dishes is ridiculously easy

Automatic dishwashers may have revolutionized sanitation in the modern age, but people in "Star Trek" have an even better way of doing the dishes — just let the replicator dematerialize your used plates, uneaten food, and utensils. This eliminates the need to store drinking glasses or waste water, saving both space and resources. This also explains how a ship like the Enterprise always seems to have more than enough of everything. Thanks to the replicators' ability to recycle anything, spare molecules can be rearranged into any number of useful items like engineering equipment, medical supplies, or even clothes.

Of course, since food replicators are capable of creating anything from the ship's replicator reserves, that also means your next meal could be constructed out of atoms that used to be part of a champagne glass or a chafing dish. So, if your next replicated meatloaf tastes like it was made out of your old gym socks ... that's probably because it was.

Replicated junk food is good for you

Unsurprisingly, being able to order anything you want from a food replicator causes a lot of people to indulge, and many of the Enterprise's crewmembers like to replicate junk food. However, "junk food" in the 24th century isn't anywhere near as unhealthy as it is in our time.

By default, the Enterprise's replicators are designed to manifest food and drink with nutritional value. So when Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) orders chocolate ice cream or caviar from the replicators, she's actually eating healthy. At one point in the "TNG" Season 3 episode "The Price," Troi says she can tell the difference between real and replicated ice cream when she asks for a chocolate sundae with real whipped cream. In response, the computer indicates it's programmed to provide foods of acceptable nutritional value and Troi would have to override its program to manifest actual junk food.

Oddly enough, this means that if the  alien trickster Q (John de Lancie) had eaten the 10 replicated chocolate sundaes he ordered shortly after becoming human in the Season 3 episode "Deja Q," he might've ended up with better muscle tone and stronger bones. One can only dream that future miracle diets will include such replicator rations.

Bar-hopping won't get you drunk

Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) may be the Enterprise's bartender, but the truth is most of the beverages served at Ten Forward are non-alcoholic. By the 24th century, synthehol is the drink of choice for many Starfleet officers. According to Data (Brent Spiner) in the "TNG" Season 6 episode "Relics," synthehol is an alcohol substitute that "simulates the appearance, taste, and smell of alcohol." However, the intoxicating effects of synthehol drinks are easily ignored.

On one hand, this makes sense. Starfleet doesn't want their officers to show up at their duty stations hungover, so synthehol appears to be an acceptable compromise for bar-hoppers. However, this revelation horrifies Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), who knows immediately that the "scotch" he's served at Ten Forward is definitely not scotch.

Amusingly, it's later revealed in the "Star Trek: Voyager" Season 5 episode "Timeless" that the one alien species that can get hammered from synthehol is ... the Borg. That's right, Starfleet's most dangerous enemy is incapable of holding their liquor, as seen when  Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) gets drunk from just one glass of non-alcoholic champagne. A few years later, however, Seven shows the Borg nanoprobes in her blood apparently adapted to her low tolerance when she chugs back multiple shots of real bourbon in "Star Trek: Picard." That, or she's become a full-blown alcoholic.

There are plenty of ways to get wasted on the Enterprise

"Star Trek" may depict a future where humanity has risen above the bad habits of its ancestors, but apparently, humans still haven't conquered their self-destructive tendency to get completely plastered. Although synthehol may keep most crewmen sober, there are still plenty of alcoholic beverages on the Enterprise that are far more intoxicating than anything you can encounter in the 21st century.

Shortly after Scotty shows his displeasure at being served synthehol drinks in "Relics," Data reveals that Guinan keeps a limited supply of real alcoholic beverages and serves him from a very potent bottle of "Aldebaran whiskey." Other episodes reveal aliens consuming kanar, a thick Cardassian liquor, as well as Romulan ale, a blue drink that's so intoxicating it's been made illegal by Starfleet. Despite this, practically everyone from Kirk to Riker has smuggled in and shared Romulan ale at parties and even state dinners, showing that Starfleet officers aren't just explorers — they're bootleggers.

Okay, but surely Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) wouldn't approve of all this alcohol floating around his ship, right? Not quite. Turns out, he's the one who gave Guinan the bottle of Aldebaran whiskey that Scotty enjoyed, and he's more than capable of holding his liquor alongside Mr. Scott. Considering that Picard's family has owned a French vineyard for several centuries, it's not surprising that the captain has an appreciation for fine wine and alcoholic beverages.

Cooking is a lost art

Technology does tend to strip a society of some basic skills, and in the case of food replicators, that skill happens to be cooking. When all you need to do to make lunch is ask your replicator for a hamburger and fries, learning how to chop your own meat or use a stove seems unnecessary. This has led many people to learn how to "cook" by programming replication patterns — essentially replacing cooking skills with coding skills.

Which can lead to some big problems. After all, replicators can get damaged, leaving you unable to synthesize your dinner or midnight snack. A few people, like Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales), dabble in cooking by trying to make chocolate chip cookies the old-fashioned way in the "Picard" Season 1 episode "Stardust City Rag." However, he still has to use the food replicator to create the flour, butter, eggs, sugar, baking soda, and chocolate chips to prepare the cookies, making his girlfriend, Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill), question the logic behind his actions.

Those who can cook are very passionate

Luckily, human society in the 24th century emphasizes finding personal fulfillment by honing skills, and some people are still very passionate about cooking. In the prequel series "Star Trek: Enterprise," the crew applauded the culinary skills of their cook, Chef. In the final episode, Chef was played by Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) in a holodeck simulation. Riker, who loves cooking, once invited his crew mates for an Owon omelette in the Season 2 episode "Time Squared." However, most of the crew hated his meal — except  Worf (Michael Dorn) , who described it as "delicious."

Riker's cooking skills improve by "Picard," when he makes a pizza from scratch for his family and some unexpected dinner guests. And while we're off the Enterprise, let's head over to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," where Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) also enjoys cooking and learned his skills from his father, Joseph Sisko (Brock Peters), the master chef of a popular restaurant in New Orleans.

However, the most enthusiastic (and essential) cook in "Star Trek” is Neelix (Ethan Phillips), the Talaxian chef/morale officer in "Voyager." Since Voyager is stranded in the Delta Quadrant , replicator rations need to be limited, making Neelix responsible for most of the crew's meals. Although his early attempts do create several cases of food poisoning, some of his later attempts are more edible, and he proves very creative with the various ingredients the crew harvest from other planets.

People still raise their own food in the future

Replicators may be able to make food out of "simulated protein molecules," but most people agree that naturally grown food still produces the tastiest dishes. The Enterprise NX-01 has a hydroponic greenhouse where they grow fruits and vegetables for their meals, and the Enterprise-D has a hydroponic laboratory that can presumably do the same thing.

Many of the strange new worlds that Starfleet visits are also veritable Gardens of Eden. "Picard" finds William Riker living on the alien planet Nepenthe, where the soil has regenerative properties, allowing the Riker family to grow very rich tomatoes, basil, and other vegetables. After sampling a tomato, the android Soji Asha (Isa Briones) can immediately taste how "real" naturally grown food is compared to replicated meals.

But the one starship that truly got to appreciate home-grown food was the Voyager. After being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the crew had to ration their supplies, which meant harvesting plants and other foods from alien planets and cooking them aboard their ship. One of the more unusual dishes was seen in the "Voyager" Season 2 episode "Parturition" when Lieutenant Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) eats some Alfarian hair pasta. Turns out, this pasta is made from the actual hair follicles of mature Alfarian animals that shed them every year in early fall.

Klingon cuisine is very strong

Klingons constantly like to prove how tough they are — including at the dinner table, where most of the dishes look like they were created on a dare. William Riker got to sample several types of Klingon food during a cultural exchange in the "TNG” Season 2 episode "A Matter of Honor." While he claimed to enjoy the bregit lung and rokeg blood pie, even he got squeamish when he was offered a dish of gagh – aka live serpent worms. A Klingon delicacy, there are at least 51 types of gagh, including varieties that squirm, jump, or wiggle as they make their way into your stomach.

Surprisingly,  many "Star Trek" fans really want to try Klingon food , leading to the creation of several Klingon cooking blogs that instruct you on how to cook broiled krada legs ( actually spider crab legs and Moreton Bay bugs ), as well as multiple varieties of gagh (including one made of Japanese soba noodles).

And while genuine Klingon food may prove too strong for some palates, most people love Klingon beverages. Klingon bloodwine was frequently consumed on "Deep Space Nine," and many Starfleet officers found themselves hooked on raktajino, the Klingon version of coffee that could be served hot, iced, or with whipped cream. The drink was so popular, one wonders why some enterprising Klingon baristas didn't open up a whole chain of raktajino houses and become the 24th-century version of Starbucks.

Vulcan dishes tend to be bland

Where warrior races like the Klingons may prefer to eat meals rich in meat, the logical Vulcan race favors a more ... dispassionate cuisine. Many Vulcans, including the Enterprise's Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are vegetarians who prefer eating Vulcan fruits like gespar or various types of broth. Vulcans also don't like touching their food with their bare hands, making even a vegan barbeque out of the question.

In terms of popular dishes, Nurse Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett) once made a bowl of plomeek soup for Spock in the "Star Trek" Season 2 episode "Amok Time." Considered a traditional morning meal on Vulcan, plomeek soup is usually a bland broth (although there are spicier versions). Unfortunately, Spock was suffering from the Vulcan pon farr mating drive at the time and angrily threw the soup back at Nurse Chapel. He later apologized and requested that she make him another bowl.

Strangely, in the "Deep Space Nine" Season 2 episode "Melora," the Ferengi bartender Quark (Armin Shimerman) serves a dish of "jumbo Vulcan mollusks" to a diner. Since mollusks are meat, this has led to some speculation among fans over how strict the Vulcan vegetarian diet really is. Of course, if the mollusks were replicated, this could serve as a loophole for any Vulcans who chose to partake in such a meal.

Ferengi meal preparation is an ... intimate affair

There are some meals that even replicators can't fully prepare. Take Ferengi cuisine, for example. While a replicator may be able to produce a fair facsimile of beetle puree, slug liver, or Slug-o-Cola, within Ferengi culture, Ferengi women are required to cut up the meals and chew it to make it softer for the male members of the household. Some females, notably Quark's mother, Ishka (played by both Cecily Adams and Andrea Martin), refused to do this, leading other boys to ridicule Quark and his brother, Rom (Max Grodénchik).

Quark himself ran a popular recreational facility known as "Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House, and Holosuite Arcade" (or just "Quark's") on Deep Space Nine and served many alien foods and drinks. Most of his offerings were replicated, but he did have certain fresh wines and delicacies shipped in and indicated some of his meals were made from scratch.

Despite displaying traditional Ferengi greed, Quark was an excellent host, leading many "Star Trek" fans to want to go to Quark's — which they got to do at the Star Trek-themed attraction "Star Trek: The Experience" at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel from 1998 to 2008 . The  real-life bar served several Ferengi dishes , including "Moogie's Famous Ferengi Flat Bread" and "Moogie's Choice Pasta."

Future food allergies can be ... weird

The 24th century has done a lot for medical science. In "TNG," Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) states that the common cold has finally been cured. Human life spans have been vastly extended, and many illnesses can be immediately alleviated with just a single hypospray injection.

That being said, in a universe where people visit alien worlds every week, the chances of discovering a new food allergy are pretty high. Luckily, many of these allergies tend to be more weird than deadly. In the "Deep Space Nine” Season 5 episode "Let He Who Is Without Sin ..." Lieutenant Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) admits she's allergic to icoberry juice (it makes her spots itch), but she likes it so much that she drinks it anyway. Other episodes show that the entire Talarian species can become intoxicated by Klingon raktajino.

On "Voyager," some people react so violently to Neelix's cooking that the  Doctor (Robert Picardo) once compared Neelix's Bolian souffle to a bio-weapon in Season 7's "Body and Soul." Tom Paris once had a severe allergic reaction to the water in Neelix's coffee in Season 2's "Threshold" (although to be fair, Paris' body was already mutating into a salamander after he broke the transwarp barrier and was developing new allergies).

Even starships can have food allergies

With all the different alien species aboard Federation starships, it was perhaps inevitable that many people would have unique food allergies — but that's nothing compared to the time a starship developed a food allergy.

In the "Voyager" episode "Learning Curve," one crewmember requests that Neelix make some macaroni and cheese, leading the Talaxian to culture some brill cheese from the schplict milk he acquired from an alien grakel . Unfortunately, the bacterial spores inside the cheese contain an alien virus that infect the bio-neural gel packs on Voyager. This causes every system aboard Voyager to become "sick," and the holographic Doctor is forced to kill the virus by raising the temperature aboard the entire ship, causing multiple crewmembers to pass out from heat stroke. 

So, while making meals may have gotten simpler in the future, major dinner party disasters are still very much a thing.

10 Star Trek Foods We Wish Were Real

A culinary tour of the Alpha Quadrant and beyond (and there's a lot of booze).

With over five decades under its belt, Star Trek has explored alien cultures in ways most franchises can only dream of. From religion, architecture, and customs to the geography and weather patterns that shape societies, each new series has added greater depth to various species.

Still, too little emphasis has been placed on one of the most fundamental elements of culture: food! There’s been the odd chartreuse drink in Ten Forward and several bizarre things mentioned in the replimat, but they’ve been too much show and too little tell.

Human food has dominated, notably in Captain Sisko’s quarters, while most alien dishes and ingredients have been reduced to human foods with alien adjectives and no description – Jibalian fudge, Ktarian eggs, Malkothian spirits, and so on.

To understand a culture, it’s best to break bread with the locals. The best part of traveling, after all, is eating new foods. And until they start selling tickets to Qo’noS, we’ve got to rely on what the TV shows us.

Here, then, are 10 iconic Star Trek foods that have added greatly to the canon by making our bellies rumble.

10. Raktajino

The senior staff of Deep Space Nine couldn’t seem to function without regular infusions of raktajino. Described simply as Klingon coffee – essentially Earth coffee with a Klingon-grade targ’s kick of added caffeine – it’s easy to see why and how Sisko, Kira, and the rest won the Dominion War.

As later items on this list will show, Star Trek, particularly DS9, has sometimes used foods to convey the basic traits of various alien species. It’s no surprise, then, that raktajino touches all the Klingon bases: bold, strong, energetic, and even polarizing.

Before being bonded to the Dax symbiote, Ezri Tigan absolutely hated raktajino. Afterward, she was overwhelmed by the intense love of the drink passed along from previous hosts Curzon and Jadzia, and Ezri found herself unable to resist it.

Klingons: Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there’s no denying that their glorious raktajino won the war (and countless battles against staying in bed each morning).

Writer, DS9 devotee, committed AFOL, and expat stranded in South Korea, lightyears from home.

Star Trek: 8 Best Alien Food And Drinks

The denizens of the Star Trek universe consume a wide variety of unique food and drinks.

• Star Trek explores a wide range of alien races and their unique food and drink offerings, from Tribbles that were initially meant to be a food source to Denobulan sausages enjoyed by Doctor Phlox.
• Plomeek soup, a plant-based dish native to Vulcan, has appeared in various Star Trek shows and was altered by Neelix to add more flavor, much to the chagrin of Voyager's resident Vulcan, Tuvok.
• Klingon coffee, known as Raktajino, is a strong beverage of choice on Deep Space Nine, while Slug-O-Cola, a slimy Ferengi soda, and wriggling Klingon worms called Gagh offer a taste of the less appetizing aspects of Klingon cuisine.

Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek has introduced viewers to many iconic alien races, from the logical Vulcans to the (sometimes) honorable Klingons. Fans have seen humanity, as part of the United Federation of Planets, travel out at warp speed to explore the cosmos.

RELATED: Star Trek: What Is The Mirror Universe?

Boldly going where no one has gone before doesn't just mean meeting alien races (and sometimes hooking up with them), but also sampling the weird and wonderful food and drink produced around the galaxy. From bland soups to illegal ales, the Star Trek universe offers something for even the most discerning set of taste buds.

Tucking into Tribble fillet sounds like a good way to cough up a hairball, but the rodents were originally intended to serve as a food source. The Short Treks episode "The Trouble with Edward" shows the titular scientist genetically engineering the species aboard the USS Cabot , against the orders of the starship's captain. Edward goes so far as to incorporate his own DNA into the Tribbles.

RELATED: Star Trek: How Tribbles Became An Icon Of The Franchise

His efforts result in the Cabot 's destruction when the Tribble population rapidly grows, stressing the starship's hull. Ironically, these voracious creatures would gain a reputation as consumers of food, rather than providers—hence the Klingon dislike for the Tribbles .

7 Denobulan Sausage

Denobulan sausage is, thankfully, not made from one of humanity's first friends in the Alpha Quadrant . Instead, it hails from the same planet, Denobula, and is considered a delicacy by the world's twelve billion inhabitants.

Doctor Phlox, a Denobulan who serves aboard the Enterprise NX-01, enjoys the pinkish sausage when it is served to him in the episode "The Seventh." The sausage, garnished with vegetables, is specially prepared by the starship's chef and appears to be consumed like Earth-based charcuterie. Phlox's dining partners stick to food from Earth, however, perhaps suggesting that Denobulan sausage is not to everyone's taste.

6 Plomeek Soup

Although it has not yet appeared on-screen, plomeek is a plant native to Vulcan that serves as an ingredient in many Vulcan recipes. Both p lomeek soup and plomeek tea have appeared or been referenced in different Star Trek shows, with the former being a popular breakfast choice aboard the Enterprise NX-01. It can be assumed that plomeek soup is entirely plant-based, as Vulcans do not eat meat.

Plomeek soup was considered overly bland by Neelix, who worked as the USS Voyager 's chef when the ship was stranded in the Delta Quadrant . To remedy this, Neelix chose to make the recipe more zesty, resulting in plomeek soup a la Neelix. Voyager 's resident Vulcan, Tukov, was unimpressed by the alteration.

5 Jumja Stick

The mostly static location of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine facilitated a deep dive into Bajoran culture. Fans learned about the lives of Bajorans under the brutal Cardassian Occupation , as well as the religion that gave them the strength to persevere. With such a troubled past, it's unsurprising that some Bajorans might choose to indulge in a sweet treat.

RELATED: Star Trek: Prophets of Bajor, Explained

The Jumja stick is a lollypop-like confection produced from the sap of a native plant. This sap gives the candy a sugary taste. While the flavor is unpalatable to some, Jumja sticks are popular with a number of other species, including Ferengi and Romulans, and many different variants are sold at a stall on Deep Space Nine's Promenade.

4 Raktajino

There are many differences between our time and Roddenberry's utopian vision of the future. One thing that remains true, however, is that coffee remains vital for keeping people productive. Captain Janeway credits the beverage for helping her to outwit the Borg, and even the Earl Grey-loving Captain Picard frequently takes coffee with his morning croissant.

Klingon coffee, or Raktajino, is the beverage of choice aboard Deep Space Nine. The drink, which can be served either warm or iced, is stronger than coffee from Earth. Jadzia Dax, DS9's science officer, complains that drinking too much keeps her up at night; a non-caffeinated variety is pioneered by Quark, although the resulting concoction is dismissed as being undrinkable.

3 Slug-O-Cola

The avaricious Ferengi Alliance is no stranger to unusual culinary customs, as it is typical for the female to chew up her mate's food for him. However, even among a mostly bug-based diet, Slug-o-Cola (allegedly the galaxy's slimiest drink) stands out.

This algae-based beverage may offer zero nutritional value, but it remains the most popular Ferengi soda and even made a recent cameo in Star Trek: Picard . Slug-o-Cola even becomes the focus of an alien power struggle, with a pre-women's rights faction of Ferengi arguing that marketing the drink to females will give the drink the edge over its competitor, Eelwasser .

The Klingons are dedicated to a grungy aesthetic, from their grimy bridges to their warrior code. Klingon cuisine is no exception to this pattern, featuring a wide range of disgusting-sounding foods. Targ heart, bregit lung, Rokeg blood pie—small wonder that Commander Riker initially struggles when assigned to a Klingon vessel in the episode "A Matter of Honor."

RELATED: Best Klingon Episodes, Ranked

Riker's greatest challenge is the still wriggling Klingon worms, Gagh . Although Riker eventually became acclimatized to the bizarre foodstuff, it is rarely eaten in non-Klingon diets. Even the well-traveled Ezri Dax states that it is better to flush Gagh out of an airlock than to eat it, suggesting that the worm-based meal is a truly acquired taste.

1 Romulan Ale

The blue Romulan ale is a beverage so highly prized that even Starfleet's finest are willing to bend the law to obtain it. When Doctor McCoy visits Admiral Kirk to celebrate the latter's birthday in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , the medical officer brings a bottle of Romulan ale as a gift. He explains that he is able to smuggle the interdicted alcohol across the Neutral Zone because of its medicinal uses.

The Federation embargo on Romulan ale is later lifted due to the anti-Dominion alliance between the two powers. However, it may have been banned for reasons other than politics, as even Klingons like Worf find the drink highly intoxicating. The post-war legality of Romulan ale remains unclear, but one thing is certain: no matter the law, characters will always find a way to get hold of a glass.

MORE: Best Lighthearted Star Trek Storylines

Foods and beverages

• View history

Trip Tucker enjoys a meal

The following is a list of foods and beverages organized by species and cultures .

According to Doctor Phlox , many species feed on underground fauna and flora such as tubers , fungi , and insects . ( ENT : " Terra Nova ")

• 1 Acamarian
• 2 Altairian
• 9 Cardassian
• 18 Talaxian (and other concoctions made by Neelix)
• 19 Torothan

Acamarian [ ]

• Parthas a la Yuta

Altairian [ ]

• Grand Premier

Andorian [ ]

• Cabbage soup

Antarean [ ]

Bajoran [ ].

• Hasperat souffle
• Jumja stick
• Makapa bread
• Ratamba stew
• Marob root tea

Betazoid [ ]

• Jestral tea
• Uttaberry crepe
• Tomato soup
• Tonic water

Cardassian [ ]

• Red leaf tea
• Rokassa juice
• Sem'hal stew
• Yamok sauce
• Cherel sauce
• Takka berry
• Algae puffs
• Tarin juice

Ferengi [ ]

A Ferengi crab

• Flaked blood flea
• Jellied gree-worm
• Millipede juice
• Puree of beetle
• Slug-o-Cola
• Snail juice
• Snail steak
• Stardrifter
• See : Human foods and beverages

Klingon [ ]

• See : Klingon foods and beverages

Ktarian [ ]

• Chocolate puff

Romulan [ ]

Romulan cuisine

• Jumbo mollusk

Talaxian (and other concoctions made by Neelix) [ ]

• Talaxian champagne
• Amber spice
• Nimian sea salt
• Spith basil
• Jibalian omelette
• Talaxian omelette
• Even better than coffee substitute
• Landras blend
• Paris Delight
• Jiballian fudge cake
• Sweet leola root tart
• Traggle nectar
• Chadre'kab ( Talaxian )
• Darvot fritters
• Laurelian pudding
• Paraka wings
• Plomeek Soup a la Neelix
• Jiballian berry salad
• Talaxian spice stew
• Felada onion crisp
• Feragoit goulash
• Leola rice pilaf
• Leola root broth
• Leola root soup
• Leola root stew
• Talaxian tomato

Torothan [ ]

• Roast teracaq
• Rippleberry
• See : Vulcan foods and beverages

Yaderan [ ]

• Harrid berry

Yridian [ ]

• 14 Beta 7 ( replicator order)
• Aldebaran whiskey
• Aldorian ale
• Alfarian hair pasta
• Alkian confection
• Allakas malt
• Alpha-currant nectar ( Wadi )
• Alvanian brandy
• Antarian cider
• Arcturian fizz
• Balso tonic ( Trill )
• Bergamot tea
• Bio-enzymatic supplement ( Iyaaran )
• Bularian canapé
• Calaman sherry
• Chocolate soufflé
• Clavisoa berry
• Coltayin root
• Confection bar
• Delovian souffle
• Delvan fluff pastry
• Delvan pudding
• Denobulan sausage
• Draylaxian whiskey
• Dutara root
• Ennan VI ale
• Enemy's blood ( Kazon )
• Enolian spice wine
• Enyak's milk
• Fanalian toddy
• Feline supplement 74
• Fettran risotto
• Fetran sauce
• Gamzian wine
• Gramilian sand pea
• Green drink
• Hatana ( Taresian )
• I'danian spice pudding
• Icoberry juice
• Icoberry torte
• Jacarine peel
• Janaran tea
• Jelinian ale
• Kaferian apple
• Kandora champagne
• Karvino juice
• Kesatian ale
• Kohlanese barley
• Kohlanese stew
• Livanian beet
• Lorvan cracker
• Luhvian quail
• Maaza stalk
• Makara fizz
• Malkothian spirits
• Mantickian paté
• Maraltian Seev-ale
• Mareuvian tea
• Matopin rock fungus
• Medicinal brew
• Melvaran mud flea
• Meridor ( Gorn )
• Modela aperitif
• Muskan seed punch ( Haliian )
• Olian guava
• Papalla juice
• Palamarian sea urchin
• Petrokian sausage
• Poma ( Brunali )
• Pyrellian ginger tea
• Rhombolian butter
• Rumall stock
• Samarian sunset
• Saurian brandy
• Senarian egg broth
• Silmic wine
• Spiny lobe-fish ( Tilonus IV )
• Syrup of squill
• Talsa root soup ( Augris' species )
• Tamarin frost
• Tarkalean tea
• Tarvokian pound cake
• Tarvokian powder cake
• Terellian pheasant
• Tellurian spice
• Thalian chocolate mousse
• Til'amin froth
• Trakian ale
• Tranya ( First Federation )
• Trova ( Eminian )
• Trixian bubble juice
• Tulaberry wine ( Dosi )
• Tzartak aperitif
• Vak clover soup
• Valerian root tea
• Vermicula ( Antedian )
• Warp core breach
• Waterplum ( Mari )
• Wentlian condor snake
• Whelan Bitters
• Yigrish cream pie
• Zariphean blend
• Zoth-nut soup ( Rivos V )
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Oct 16, 2023

Did Post-Scarcity Kill Earthlings' Culinary Traditions?

Let's look at why the culinary habits of 24th Century humans are stuck in the 20th.

StarTrek.com

Food has been the centerpiece of many scenes in Star Trek , but the franchise rarely examines the cultural impact of the simple (but essential) task of eating. The only impression we get for the most part, in the Federation at least, is that the views and traditions of food consumption are "normal."

There are some outliers, but Federation officers enjoy predominantly Western cuisine, with the rare "exotic" ethnic dish here and there, and see cooking as a hobby more than a necessity. But, is it really as simple as that?

We can assume that every world in the Federation has access to replicator technology. There are some agrarian worlds whose inhabitants seem to really enjoy roughing it, but even they probably have replicators for emergencies. So, in a post-scarcity society, why is the Federation so dull when it comes to eating? If you could beam almost any food into existence with just a few words exactly the way you want it, would you always be asking for, "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."?

"Bloodlines"

Despite their alliance as of the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , the Federation and Klingons are opposites in many ways, including in their culinary habits. While the Federation predominantly relies on replicator technology for its foodstuffs, Klingons tend to shun imitation cuisine. We hear several times throughout the franchise, particularly during the Dominion War, that Klingon ships carry live food like gagh and officers tended to bring their own casks of bloodwine onboard.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “ Sins of the Father ,” Worf's brother had to be reminded that members of the Federation relied on replicators for their food. While this could be taken to mean that Klingons are unfamiliar with replicator technology, it seems impossible that an empire that's technologically equivalent to the Federation wouldn't have discovered or acquired it by the 2360s when The Next Generation takes place. Instead, it seems to speak of a significant cultural difference between the two powers.

Riker enjoys a spread of Klingon delicacies in "A Matter of Honor"

Klingons are a boisterous race who have a history of xenophobia and violence. They're also bound to a strict warrior code and tradition, which indicated a potential reluctance towards introducing the comforts of technology into their daily lives. When we see them on screen, the only technological applications we see concern weaponry and conveyance to use that weaponry.

Other than the fact they have starships and disruptors, Klingons tend to be happiest in a feudal state. This extends to their ideas behind food. We usually see Klingons just before or after a fight, and their dining experience is generally centered around a major figure such as their commanding officer or chancellor, with much revelry and drunkenness. They prefer their food to be living when they begin to consume it, and thusly, replicator technology holds very little interest to them.

A serving of gagh aboard the Klingon ship in "A Matter of Honor"

In contrast, Federation officers comment on their diet rarely. Aside from eating from necessity, we've seen some who cook as a hobby, with Benjamin Sisko being the most notable. However, his father, who owns a restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana on Earth is looked at as quite eccentric, even by his son. This suggests that the availability of any dish at any time via replicator has actually stifled the culinary traditions of Earth and perhaps the Federation at large.

Unlike the Klingons, members of the Federation don't seem to get overly excited about food or drink. Whenever we see a party or gathering, it's usually conducted as though everyone is attending a seminar at the local Ramada Inn. There's none of the drunkenness and revelry of a Klingon gathering. Instead, everyone stands around in neat groups until Geordi, Kira, or Tuvok pipes in over the com that something is going on, and then everyone disperses.

"Children of the Comet"

When someone on a Federation starship or installation cooks, it's usually treated as a big deal by those partaking. This makes it seem that the act of preparing a meal from raw ingredients (or even replicated ones) is more of a hobbyist thing. This is backed up by the fact that there's no "food of the future." In the West, 350 years ago, people were still mostly eating pottage, which was made just chucking whatever they had into a pot sitting above their fire and that was about the extent of the average person's cooking expertise.

The 19th Century saw the revolutionary inventions of refrigerators and canned goods, and throughout the 20th Century, food went in and out of vogue, so to speak. A plate of Taco Bell or McDonald's from today would be completely alien to someone who lived only a few centuries ago and even to someone from the early 1900s would likely be taken aback. Nuking a frozen dinner in the microwave would be a foreign concept to anyone who lived before World War II as well.

So, why don't we see any culinary cornerstones in the 24th Century? With all the myriad races that make up the Federation, it seems as though there should be some melting pot of the many edible traditions that combine to produce mind-blowing fusion dishes. But, there's just not.

"The Game"

Have you ever had a house full of food and you're hungry, but you just kind of mope from the fridge, to the cabinet, bored with everything you have? Sometimes, the more food you have on hand the harder it is to get a craving to eat any particular dish. I think the Federation as a whole is suffering from this on a much, much larger scale.

Sure, Troi freaks out over chocolate every once in a while, but for the most part, the Federation characters we get to know have a small array of dishes they eat, and there's very little fanfare about it. So, when Jean-Luc Picard is ordering his multiple cups of Earl Grey everyday, it seems like he's saying, "this is fine," instead of, "I love Earl Grey tea."

"Rules of Acquisition"

One might say that Starfleet has learned to cope with their perpetual culinary malaise by just ordering the same thing over and over; everyone wants a cup of Raktajino because it's good enough. Oddly, this might also be the reason we never see the issue of food addiction in Star Trek . No one is really all that interested in food anymore outside of their daily dietary requirement. It's possible that unlimited access to food has had the ironic effect of limiting Federation citizen's personal palate to a handful of dishes.

It might be that the Klingons love food because they continue to prepare it live instead of from a replicator. They're always excited to eat because they lack the massive amount of choice that Federation members do. If you're eating gagh six days a week, then bregit lung Tuesdays become something to look forward to. We can also assume that more prized consumables, like bloodwine, are held in reserve and doled out much like rum was on the ships of the 1700s and 1800s. If you do good in battle, part of your reward is likely the privilege to drink from the officer's reserve. With the Klingons, food is still seen as a prize, a status symbol, and an integral part of their culture.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Of course, this all plays into our culinary beliefs today. There's a subconscious belief throughout almost every culture that the more civilized you are, the less you should have to deal with food preparation directly. In the United States, in particular, the average citizen is almost wholly divorced from the supply chain that brings meat, fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy into their reach. It's enviable to eat at restaurants — the more expensive, the better — and when presented with ethnic cuisine, it's often considered a novelty.

What we know is that the Klingons, despite their outward aggression, have a rich history, and even in the 24th Century, continue to relish their culinary traditions. In contrast, the more "cultured" Federation only appears to have a shadow of the interest in cuisine we see on Earth today. Hopefully, we too can move towards a post-scarcity future, one where food is available to anyone who's hungry. However, I hope that we continue to celebrate and evolve the myriad schools of culinary arts that bring so much enjoyment and allow us to enjoy a different culture by just having a bite to eat.

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This article was originally published on July 25, 2019.

Brittany Vincent (she/her) has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Empire, Complex, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, Shacknews, Yahoo and more. She's also appeared as a speaker at video game conventions like PAX East and has coordinated social media for companies like CNET. When she's not writing or gaming, she's looking for the next great visual novel in the vein of Saya no Uta. 

• Food and Drink

Giant Freakin Robot

Star Trek's Best Hero Created To Avoid Adding Another Woman

Posted: April 19, 2024 | Last updated: April 19, 2024

Star Trek’s Best Hero Created To Avoid Adding Another Woman

Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced us to the Klingon Starfleet officer, Worf, and he eventually became one of the most dominant characters in the entire franchise. That’s partially because of Michael Dorn’s basso profundo line deliveries and partially because his later starring roles in Deep Space Nine and Picard season three made him the most prolific Trek actor in history. However, it turns out that Star Trek would never have had Worf as a character if Gene Roddenberry hadn’t been scheming to keep a female commander off the Enterprise-D.

The Origins Of The Next Generation

This bizarre Star Trek story goes back to the earliest production of The Next Generation when a veteran writer of The Original Series pitched the character that would become Worf. Writer David Gerrold wanted the series to have a Klingon first officer on TNG who would effectively parallel Spock in TOS. Just as the first Trek series had a prominent alien in a command role, Gerrold thought the sequel series should continue that tradition with a Klingon rather than a Vulcan.

Didn’t Want To Re-Use Aliens From The Original Series

When Gerrold pitched the idea, franchise creator Gene Roddenberry was having none of it. One reason for this was that the Star Trek guru wanted his new show to be very distinct from The Original Series, and Worf would effectively be a constant Klingon presence. The Klingons were mainstay villains for Captain Kirk and crew, and in the earliest days of TNG, Roddenberry wanted to avoid featuring Klingons, Romulans, and other overt reminders of The Original Series.

Klingons Were Villains

Beyond the Star Trek creator’s desire to avoid reminders of the earlier show, he was loathe to add Worf to the show because he allegedly wasn’t that interested in the Klingons. According to the late Original Series writer and Next Generation associate producer D.C. Fontana, “Roddenberry just felt that Klingons were totally black hats.” In case you’re not up on Western lingo (time to rewatch “A Fistful of Datas” again), “black hat” refers to the villain in a cowboy film, and Roddenberry may have had a point: in The Original Series and its films, Klingons mostly functioned as flamboyant foils for Captain Kirk.

Some Of The Best Episodes Are About Worf

A mere four months after he vetoed Gerrold’s idea, however, the Star Trek creator decided to put Worf on the show, but not as the first officer. Given how great the later Klingon episodes were, you might think that Roddenberry gave in because he realized how much narrative potential these honor-obsessed aliens had. However, the truth is much sadder than that: Roddenberry allegedly gave the green light to the Worf idea mostly due to misogyny.

Debated Adding A Female Officer

Fontana was pitching ideas for Star Trek: The Next Generation at the same time as Gerrold, and she thought that a woman should be the commander of the Enterprise rather than a Klingon such as Worf. Roddenberry had two very different ideas for a new character from his veteran Original Series writers, and he ultimately decided to go with Gerrold’s idea rather than Fontana’s. Gerrold would later make the explosive claim that the franchise creator did this due to his own negative experiences with women.

Gene Roddenberry Painted With A Broad Brush

According to Gerrold, “Gene had been badly burned by women” due to his “bitter divorce” from his first wife, Eileen, who “wanted half the money of Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Because of this, Gerrold claimed that Roddenberry “tends to generalize” and because seemingly “most of the women” he met were mean to him, Roddenberry got the “feeling that all women are mean, even though it’s not true.” Regardless of these disappointing Star Trek allegations, Roddenberry obviously went with the idea of adding Worf to the show, transforming the franchise forever.

One Of Star Trek’s Greatest Characters

While I’m sad to hear David Gerrold’s allegations that misogyny was his primary motivation, I think Star Trek is a much stronger franchise thanks to the presence of Worf. Michael Dorn always knocked the performance out of the park, and Worf served as a constant window into the culture of Star Trek’s most fascinating (sorry, not sorry, Vulcans) alien race. Now that he’s graced three different Star Trek series and four films, I have one question for Paramount: when will you make good on how awful that Picard show was by giving us the solo Worf series we deserve?

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