Creative Cooking

We’re on our 6th day of sailing now. We left Ecuador and have done nothing but sail through very rolling seas (which apparently are not that high, but they’re higher than I’d like, thank you very much!). The monotony of the rolling combined with the monotony of the food has driven me to desperate measures.

The kitchen and dining room staff on the ship are as sweet and as kind as they can be. For the most part they are all Philipino, although there are some West Indians as well. The problem is that the food they cook is not native to them and it all tastes somewhat odd. Couple this with the fact that all our water is essentially reclaimed in the desalination plant of the ship, and you have a culinary crisis on your hands.

Breakfast is the best meal of the day. They bake all the breads and pastries and they are wonderful. There are always eggs, potatoes, some meat, cereal, hot cereal, fruit, yogurt, and toast as well. In particular the chocolate croissants are delicious.

The problems come at lunch and dinner. There is always a salad bar. This consists of iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, the occasional green pepper and dressing. Always two dressings, usually one which I will not eat (the kind you like mom) a French or a 1000 Island. There is a pasta dish with every meal, usually with some kind of frozen veggie in it, rarely with tomato based sauce. There is a fish in a sauce of some kind and a meat in a sauce of some kind. And here is where the problems begin.

I don’t want any more wet food. I don’t want thick, boogery, creamy sauces that never taste quite right. I want a baked chicken. I want things grilled. And I want vegetables that are not previously frozen or that are not salad based.

So The Kid and I have begun to “cook” in the dining hall. Two nights ago I “made” a nice light pasta. There was blue cheese in the salad bar so I took it, put hot pasta (with no sauce on it) on top and mixed it around. A dash of pepper, dash of Worcestershire, and voila! Today at lunch we made “deconstructed twice baked potatoes.” We took the salad bar bacon, butter, cheese, and mashed potatoes and mixed it up. Very tasty.

Right now I am making “bathtub cream cheese.” I grabbed a plain yogurt this morning and am draining it in the fridge in my room. I plan to grab some nuts from the bar tonight and mix them with honey and the cream cheese in order to have a topping for tomorrow’s bagel or English muffin. And this is what I have been reduced to.