British Isles Travels-The End

So our British Isles adventure is over. When we spend eight hours flying somewhere we like to stay a while, so fifteen days was perfect, but we were ready to be back home by the end. One of our favorite things to do on these trips is to eat, of course. On the ships there are endless opportunities to eat: Assigned dining room, casual buffet, hot dog/burger places and the Specialty Restaurants that offer Italian, Steak House fare or even Asian cuisine (needless to say, we try them all---sometimes we are forced to eat extra meals just to try everything--just kidding). We are adventurous enough to try a lot of different things in the cities, but on this trip one of our favorite eating adventures was on the cruise ship. I do a lot of research before we leave and I use a website called Cruise Critic for a lot of information. I had been reading about something on the ships called “The Chef’s Table” and since we are always UP for a food adventure we signed up as soon as we hit the boat. The fellow announced that we would be contacted for an “interview” in a day or two so we are thinking we have to be ACCEPTABLE for some reason or another. Just maybe we don’t want to go to their stupid dinner (Of course, there is a nominal fee for this which means it’s extra and not very NOMINAL). Turns out the “interview” was to make sure we did not have “the crud” since we would be in the ship’s main kitchen. Hopefully you can read the MENU photo because that was the most unbelievable meal ever. After a tour of the ship’s kitchen they served FOUR appetizers (not samples-size either)-Crab cocktail, Pizzette with goat cheese, Potato with caviar (only yucky item) and Puff Pastry. After this we waddled into the dining room for a huge meal of risotto, vegetables, mashed potatoes and a medieval spiked flambe of veal, beef and pork. Oh, and there was a pan of lobster tails, too. After that it just got obscene. We could have fed the crew on what we could not eat. Lovely meal, but not sure why they served that much food--wasteful, really. Along with the food was champagne, white wine, red wine, limoncello and a wonderful dessert wine. I am not much of a drinker but I tried some of each; Jim loved them all. Three hours later we were in need of a motorized wheelbarrow, but alas we had to walk back to the cabin slowly so the food would hit bottom gently. All evening we had been escorted by the Head Chef, Giuseppe Pollara, who had also been Head Chef on our Princess Alaskan cruise. While doing an Alaskan cooking demonstration (in 2001) Giuseppe told a cooking story that Jim remembered and when Jim told Chef this, suddenly Giuseppe thought Jim was the most amazing passenger he had ever known!! Believe it or not, we rarely gain weight on these cruises because besides all the excursion walking, we take the stairs everywhere we go on the ship and that really uses up the calories. After all the food talk, I really need a snack now, so I am off to the kitchen. Bon Appetit. MA