More Tasman Sea

February 9, 2018

A day at sea.

Let’s talk about Ship Food.

I’ve had 19 1/2 days aboard this ship, and I have come up with a few solid conclusions. The food gets reconstituted over the course of three days. Possibly four. Basically, the main course at the Buffet (Garden Cafe) may or may not be fresh. After careful scrutiny, taste tests and copious notes, here are my conclusions.

Broccoli: The chef ordered way too much broccoli in Sydney. Various sizes of those florets were in everything for over a week. It started raw in the salad bar at lunch, steamed at dinner and then became broccoli ogratin and broccoli soup. Bits of green micro-florets were everywhere throughout this cruise.

Beef: Holy cow, I never knew you could reuse beef three days in a row in various forms. Grilled beef, then beef curry, then beef curry pies. When in doubt, shove it in a ramakin and put dough over it. Australian beef pies as well. Those were a mystery shrouded in dough.

Corn: their mistake was grilling it on Sail Away day. You can’t misidentify black grill marks on yellow kernels. Grilled corn on the cob for lunch on pool deck, then grilled corn at buffet for dinner, kernels cut from cob at salad bar next day at lunch, then corn chowder at dinner, and multiple servings of rice with corn nibblets, only blackened by the char grill marks from 4 days prior.

Sausage: breakfast sausage, then chunks the next day in sausage gravy.

Eggs: Hard boiled eggs at breaky, chopped up for salad bar, then egg salad in a bowl, then egg salad sandwiches.

Veggies: grilled veggies, grilled veggies lasagna, then veggie soups. Grilled Portobello’s, portobello sandwiches, mushroom marsala, then mushroom soup.

Fish: poached and grilled salmon, cold salmon pasta salad, salmon chowder

Ham: Morning ham steaks, chopped up for afternoon pasta salad, ham sandwiches, and chopped ham salad spread

Tuna salad, tuna melt paninis

Spinach: raw spinach for salads, steamed spinach for dinner, creamed spinach the next night, then spinach and eggplant lasagna for dinner the next, spinach ogratin as well

Bacon: breakfast bacon, crumbled for lunch baked potato toppings, then in pasta carbonara, and potato bacon soup

Potatoes: smaller boiled potatoes for dinner, then mashed potatoes, and potato pancakes for lunch the next day. Baked potatoes then double, triple or quadruple baked potatoes.

Jelly: breakfast had bowls of jelly out and when they disappeared, the muffins had jelly shoved in the centers. Upside down cakes with jelly instead of fresh fruit.

Fruit toppings: for breakfast and then English triffles

Bread: we always had bread pudding in the evenings