Thursday 3 December 2015

Nom, Nom, Nom, Groan

Let's see... what else is on my list of things to post about that I jotted down at some point this summer..... ahhhh yes... the food on the cruise.

I have been lucky enough to go on a holiday at an all-inclusive resort where the food is part of what you pay.  And I liked the food, generally buffet style and found I could always find something I could eat.  So I think this is about what I expected on the cruise we went on this August.

I asked my parents if they'd mind passing on to the cruise ... what do you call it, company?  To pass on to them that I can't eat gluten.  I'd read that they'd likely be able to work with that, one of the great things about celiac and gluten free becoming more well known and gluten free in general hitting the general public.

They handled it amazingly well.  Their menus all had gluten free options laid out and on top of that, my food was always checked over by my waiter.  (They followed us from dining place to dining place to ensure they knew what we liked and to be consistent with us.)  When we'd go for, say a sit down breakfast and give our room information, they'd know that one of us had a gluten free meal and would ask who it was.  They'd then, to my delight, ask if I wanted gluten free bread, or even one morning, donuts!  But that wasn't the only thing that I was pleasantly surprised by.

The food was delicious. 

It was beyond my expectations of "good buffet food" (although there was that too) and dove into the realm of the delicious.  And because I was on a cruise, quite possibly for the only time in my life, I decided I would try things I might not at an ordinary restaurant.  Like escargot!  And lobster (no, I'd never had it before, what?) And each dinner was four courses....appetizer, soup/salad, main, dessert and you could have more if you wanted, or, well, the meals all sounded so interesting I could hardly say no.

But a few days in, I started to feel... well, over-fed.  I started to have less at breakfast.  Or maybe just a snack around lunch.  But my stomach still wasn't thrilled with all the rich, delicious food.  It was a lot.  And it was a lot sort of all of a sudden.  I don't eat that much, and often I don't eat that well and to go from that to four course meals and all?  Groo.

So I had to take it easy food wise, and even once I got home (and then subsequently headed back on the road) my stomach was... not thrilled.

Perhaps if you eat rich food like that all the time you get used to it, but I think for me, a meal out now and then is doable, but the vacation equivalent of fancy meals out several days in a row is a bit much.

But the food, I do have to say, was beyond what I'd expected.  Well done cruise chefs and such.  I have no idea how they do it.

2 comments:

Jason Langlois said...

There is definitely something to your theory about rich foods. Ramping up like you did, I'm impressed you survived the cruise!

What did you think of the lobster and escargot? I tend to think of them as excuses to eat a lot of garlic butter, without people looking at you funny.

Victoria said...

Escargot I was pleasantly surprised by (also didn't think about it) and yes, garlicky buttery flavour is all I cared about really ;)