The Home Gourmet thread
02-06-2012, 06:26 PM
#448
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,019
Total Cats: 6,587
Lunch today:
Asparagus, artichoke and mushroom salad, lamb chops, some kind of fish with fruit salsa, crab legs, bacon-wrapped salmon, prosciutto, and banana cake drizzled in caramel.
Asparagus, artichoke and mushroom salad, lamb chops, some kind of fish with fruit salsa, crab legs, bacon-wrapped salmon, prosciutto, and banana cake drizzled in caramel.
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02-07-2012, 06:50 PM
#451
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,019
Total Cats: 6,587
I have utterly no idea where the nearest consulate office is.
Sadly, the city of Bremerhaven is a ѕhithole. Papenburg was a really neat little town, but this place is just a dive. On the plus side, probably 75% of the ship's systems are up and running, and we've already got 1,500 crew living aboard, so it's not really necessary to go ashore all that often.
The only real problem I've had is that while I brought two bottles of Johnny Walker Black with me from the US, port security prevented me from carrying them onboard. So I left them in the car, went to the local supermarket and found a bottle of some random health drink that looks exactly like scotch (it's called Bionade, and it tastes like carbonated aѕѕholes), dumped it out, rinsed the bottle, and am using it to bring the scotch onboard 0,5l at a time. (I know, first world problem. What? I can't bring my illegally imported, undeclared 12 year scotch onboard? What do you mean I'm limited to just the paltry variety of free German beers that you have in the poolside bar and the selection of overpriced cocktails at the terminal lounge? €3,50 for a rum & cola that's only 50% rum? Bloody Germans...)
Dinner tonight was good, but I didn't get a picture. Tomato bisque, polenta with honey, ratatouille, glazed trout, fresh buffalo mozzarella, seared pepper-steak and a slice of deliriously good walnut cheesecake.
Breakfast, by comparison, has been a relatively pedestrian experience. Just the usual french toast with raspberry compote, Canadian bacon, bratwurst, smoked salmon with capers, and eggs. After a week or so of the same thing, you tend to get bored with it. (I know, first world problem. The gourmet food on this brand new, state-of-the-art mega cruise ship is so repetitive.)
What really surprised me the first day was the orange juice. Even though it gets reconstituted and squirted out of a machine, it actually tastes very good. Thick, pulpy, and without the acrid aftertaste that usually accompanies pasteurized OJ, concentrated or not. The OJ on the last ship wasn't this good.
Of course, it wasn't nearly as horrid as the dreck that KLM airlines tries to pass off as orange juice. The Dutch are good at many things, but OJ is not one of them. I don't know if this innadequacy is limited merely to citrus or if it extends to all fruit juices, but I'm not going to bother finding out. They do know how to select a perfectly adequate wine (we had copious amounts of a 2009 Shiraz on the last flight, which was quite tasty and complemented the beef burgundy rather well) but that's apparently the limit. (I know, first world problem. What the hell kind of orange juice is this that you're trying to serve me while I enjoy this lovely omelette, sitting in a leather recliner, watching a movie and hurtling through the sky 6 miles above the earth at mach 0.85?)
The sad part is that I've only been here a week, and yet we've made really amazing progress. The studios are essentially finished, and I'll be starting testing and configuration tomorrow, so there's probably only about 3 days' work left. (The last time it took a full month. I learned a lot of lessons and was much more prepared this time.) So the dilemna is whether to fly home this weekend and return to crappy TV dinners and beer I have to pay for, or find some reason to delay and wind up having to cross the Atlantic when she sets sail on the 16th, which would mean I'd be "stuck" aboard until she arrives in a location which we're still not allowed to disclose on Feb 29.
Decisions, decisions...
(On the plus side, I did meet a nice Chilean girl who'd just come aboard yesterday and was having trouble adapting the power connector on her laptop to the ship's systems. Turns out that the plugs they use in Chile are identical to Italian CEI 23-16/VII plugs, which are in turn identical to a standard Europlug, except with a ground pin in the middle. So you just snip off the ground pin and it plugs right into a standard CEE 7/4 "Schuko" socket.)
Sadly, the city of Bremerhaven is a ѕhithole. Papenburg was a really neat little town, but this place is just a dive. On the plus side, probably 75% of the ship's systems are up and running, and we've already got 1,500 crew living aboard, so it's not really necessary to go ashore all that often.
The only real problem I've had is that while I brought two bottles of Johnny Walker Black with me from the US, port security prevented me from carrying them onboard. So I left them in the car, went to the local supermarket and found a bottle of some random health drink that looks exactly like scotch (it's called Bionade, and it tastes like carbonated aѕѕholes), dumped it out, rinsed the bottle, and am using it to bring the scotch onboard 0,5l at a time. (I know, first world problem. What? I can't bring my illegally imported, undeclared 12 year scotch onboard? What do you mean I'm limited to just the paltry variety of free German beers that you have in the poolside bar and the selection of overpriced cocktails at the terminal lounge? €3,50 for a rum & cola that's only 50% rum? Bloody Germans...)
Dinner tonight was good, but I didn't get a picture. Tomato bisque, polenta with honey, ratatouille, glazed trout, fresh buffalo mozzarella, seared pepper-steak and a slice of deliriously good walnut cheesecake.
Breakfast, by comparison, has been a relatively pedestrian experience. Just the usual french toast with raspberry compote, Canadian bacon, bratwurst, smoked salmon with capers, and eggs. After a week or so of the same thing, you tend to get bored with it. (I know, first world problem. The gourmet food on this brand new, state-of-the-art mega cruise ship is so repetitive.)
What really surprised me the first day was the orange juice. Even though it gets reconstituted and squirted out of a machine, it actually tastes very good. Thick, pulpy, and without the acrid aftertaste that usually accompanies pasteurized OJ, concentrated or not. The OJ on the last ship wasn't this good.
Of course, it wasn't nearly as horrid as the dreck that KLM airlines tries to pass off as orange juice. The Dutch are good at many things, but OJ is not one of them. I don't know if this innadequacy is limited merely to citrus or if it extends to all fruit juices, but I'm not going to bother finding out. They do know how to select a perfectly adequate wine (we had copious amounts of a 2009 Shiraz on the last flight, which was quite tasty and complemented the beef burgundy rather well) but that's apparently the limit. (I know, first world problem. What the hell kind of orange juice is this that you're trying to serve me while I enjoy this lovely omelette, sitting in a leather recliner, watching a movie and hurtling through the sky 6 miles above the earth at mach 0.85?)
The sad part is that I've only been here a week, and yet we've made really amazing progress. The studios are essentially finished, and I'll be starting testing and configuration tomorrow, so there's probably only about 3 days' work left. (The last time it took a full month. I learned a lot of lessons and was much more prepared this time.) So the dilemna is whether to fly home this weekend and return to crappy TV dinners and beer I have to pay for, or find some reason to delay and wind up having to cross the Atlantic when she sets sail on the 16th, which would mean I'd be "stuck" aboard until she arrives in a location which we're still not allowed to disclose on Feb 29.
Decisions, decisions...
(On the plus side, I did meet a nice Chilean girl who'd just come aboard yesterday and was having trouble adapting the power connector on her laptop to the ship's systems. Turns out that the plugs they use in Chile are identical to Italian CEI 23-16/VII plugs, which are in turn identical to a standard Europlug, except with a ground pin in the middle. So you just snip off the ground pin and it plugs right into a standard CEE 7/4 "Schuko" socket.)
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