BELFAST, Maine — Travel writer Jason Anthony will talk about his adventures in the Antarctic (and the local cuisine!) as part of Left Bank Books’s “Winter Lyceum” series this Sunday, March 3, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the bookshop, 109 Church St., in downtown Belfast. The public program is free.

Anthony’s talk will be based on his prize-winning new book, “Hoosh: Roast Penguin, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine,” a narrative and culinary history of Antarctica from the early age of exploration up through the present. As Anthony readily admits, Antarctica is not famous for its cuisine.  Yet it is famous for stories of heroic expeditions in which hunger, he says, was the “one spice every man carried”.  In the early years of exploration, cooks improvised under inconceivable hardships, castaways ate seal blubber, and men stretched their rations to the breaking point while dreaming about feasts back home. Today, scientists at the international research stations still wait at the far end of the planet’s longest supply chain for meals better known for sustenance than variety.

A veteran of eight seasons in the U. S. Antarctic Program, Anthony offers a fascinating taste of this “Last Place on Earth” from the historic “hoosh” — a porridge of meat, fat and melted snow — through the scurvy-plagued expeditions of Shackleton and Scott, to his own plans for provisioning a two-man camp in the Transantarctic Mountains with 300 meals plus snacks.  An accomplished journalist and marvelous writer, Anthony has been writing about the Antarctic for years, with work appearing in such publications as Orion, VQR, Forbes.com, Best American Essays 2006 and Best American Travel Writing 2007.  Hoosh, just published by the University of Nebraska as part of its “At Table” series, has already been short-listed for a 2012 Andre Simon Food and Drink Book Award, and celebrated as “unexpectedly delicious” even if you do want to skip the recipes!

Sunday’s talk is the second in the “Winter Lyceum” series; the third program is scheduled for Sunday, March 17 with novelist Peter Behrens, author of “The Law of Dreams” and “The O’Briens,” telling ”Stories of Ireland and America.“ All of the programs are free, but seating is limited and winter weather or unexpected illness sometimes require a change to the schedule.  To reserve a seat for Sunday’s program, a signed copy of Hoosh, or for more information about the balance of the Lyceum schedule, please call Left Bank Books at 338-9009.  The shop is open daily.