kochleffel

The storm was still raging when I got up, but an hour later we were entering the harbor at Taino Bay.

Iguana Mama cancelled the eating and drinking tour at Puerto Plata and had nothing that I wanted to change to, so I’m replacing it with a generic RCI tour. If I keep the Panama booking on NCL—there is a potential conflict with school—I’ll be at Puerto Plata again in December. Or I might change that trip to the Zaandam from San Diego in January and visit Corinto?

The MDR theme tonight is Italian and there will be minestrone but I won’t be having any. I’ll also not have lasagna or tiramisu. The cocktail sounds awful. There is no way that I would want 2 tsp of hot sauce, pineapple juice, or a lobster claw. We were in a substantial storm overnight but it’s calmer now. It’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow at Puerto Plata.

I didn’t have the butternut squash soup. I would probably have liked it but a familial tremor discourages me from eating soup in public.

The espresso bar didn’t have any.

BAD COMPUTER! BAD COMPUTER!

My room is an obstructed-view balcony stateroom. It’s classed as 50% obstructed but from the deck plan and a photo on the interweb I thought it would be less. It’s actually much less.

Butternut squash soup is on the MDR menu tonight. There’s also butternut squash risotto on the lunch menu. There was no butternut squash at breakfast. The special French starter is escargots.

I’m sorry, but that reminded me of Ralph Kramden’s “to the moon!” threats to Alice on The Honeymooners. Wouldn’t be tolerated now, for good reason.

Duplicate post

There was a thread recently in the RCI forum about an alleged decline in the food since new MDR menus were introduced about a year ago. It reminded me of the Borscht Belt joke: “The food is so bad and the portions are so small!” The only significant change I could see is that the MDR now has a theme each night, affecting only one starter, main, and dessert. Tonight it was American: crab cakes, fried chicken, key lime pie. There was also prime rib, which the waiters were recommending, but I had had roast beef for lunch. Tomorrow, a formal night, will be French. There is also one Indian main each evening. Tonight it was chicken saag, which I had. The portions, mine and others that I saw, seemed the same as on my previous RCI cruises, in 2019 and 2022.

For the northeast:

MANY, MANY THANKS for all the bon voyage wishes. I was pleasantly surprised last week when Vanessa listed my cruise, because I didn’t remember ever posting details. The drive from the ferry terminal to the cruise terminal would be unpleasant even in good weather but this was not good weather. The only really bad part, however, was the line of about 1000 cars creeping up to the luggage drop-off. Nevertheless, quite a few people drove on past, parked, and then dragged their large bags back to the terminal, mostly bringing them inside and taking offense when told by the staff to take their tagged bags back outside. RCI doesn’t serve Embarkation Day lunch in the MDR. I would have been satisfied with coffee and a snack in Café Promenade, but it was full and I went to the Windjammer. There was some pretty good roast beef, but the rest was WJ-Mediocre.™️

Is there a Butternut Squash Growers Association that is pushing these recipes? Last night I attended Central Synagogue and then had dinner at Fig & Olive in 52nd Street: wild mushroom croquettes with aioli, and a Middle Eastern salmon dish with green beans and sweet hummus (a little strange but at least not butternut squash), plus the Albariño that was the wine of the day recently. This morning, brunch at The Smith on Broadway, across a small park from Lincoln Center. Mimosa, house-made potato chips with blue-cheese fondue (very unhealthful), and Caesar salad with chicken. Then across the park and Columbus Avenue for Nabucco, by Verdi. It’s about the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and was very confusing. I taught about it in the fall as depicted in the Bible, but the opera turns it into an Italian tale of love and betrayal that has nothing to do with any actual history after the initial premise. It had started snowing outside, and the Lincoln Center plaza was slippery, but the sidewalks weren’t. On a weekday I would take the NY Waterway free shuttle back to the ferry terminal. On the weekend the routes are consolidated and I would have to walk halfway there. I was worrying about hailing a taxi on Sunday in the snow, so I booked a car service.

I'm on the ferry from Weehawken to Midtown!

I eventually reached her through a friend who had her email address. Everything is OK.

The good news: I picked up my glasses, and the second pair had come in. Not so good: I have no idea whether I'm leaving tomorrow as scheduled, or whether I'm going anywhere at all, because the cat sitter hasn't called me back.

Why would anyone put a sock in a toaster? The meal might be OK but I probably wouldn't make it. No on the cocktail. The Finger Lakes are the Riesling capital of North America, so I'll suggest Red Newt's "The Knoll" collection of six Riesling vintages, one of which was listed among the top 100 wines for 2023. I haven't been to Loreto. I've reorganized my plans for today because of snow, but it is stopping.

Every day is Festival of Sleep day for the other residents of my house. I grew up in a city with a significant Hungarian population, and they probably made real goulash. Goulash was starting to catch on among other people, but none of us knew from Hungarian paprika. I didn't have good goulash until I was a student in Vienna, where many refugees from Hungary in 1956 seemed to have been or become cooks. I don't think I'm allowed to drink the blood of anything, including zombies. Oyster-fermented wine wouldn't be allowed either, but there is good Sauvignon Blanc in the Finger Lakes and I'll suggest Buttonwood Grove's 2021. I haven't been to South Africa. With the downstairs furnace working, I was able to think about my travel arrangements. I've made restaurant reservations for the weekend: Friday dinner near Central Synagogue, Saturday brunch near Lincoln Center since I have a ticket for a 1:00 performance, and Saturday dinner near my hotel because it could be snowing by then.

When they unpacked the thermostat, it was wrong. Because I couldn't go away without a functioning thermostat, I've had them make a temporary repair by relocating the existing one to a spot that is easier to run wiring to.

Mona Lisa has been especially vocal this morning; maybe she knows what day it is. I avoid the buffet on ships as much as I can. I would enjoy chicken divan but couldn't make it at home. No on the drink, another pseudotini, except maybe on Washington's Birthday. For the wine, Goose Watch 2021 Pét-Nat Viognier, which is sparkling and so might help my champagne deficiency. I haven't been to Casablanca. While I was answering a call on my mobile number from the optometrist's office, the heating contractor called on the land line. My distance glasses have arrived, although the bifocals haven't, and the heating contractor wants to send a technician with the thermostat within an hour. I need the distance glases worse since the current ones are broken.

Canada Post does not have a monopoly in this. In the 1970s, I mailed a tin of cookies to my mother for her birthday. They were going from Indiana to Ohio (adjacent states). The tin was in the mail for five weeks. She thought they were the worst chocolate-chip cookies she had ever tasted. They were actually pumpkin spice (her birthday was in November) with raisins.

But I was definitely awake after midnight. Someone set off fireworks within earshot, and that set off a festival of barking all around.

Rabbit, rabbit. I may or may not have been awake at midnight. I think that I have some Euros, also some Danish and Faroese kroner and Swiss francs. I like sweet potatoes well enough but probably won't be having any. No on the drink. For the wine, Damiani 2010 Brut. I haven't been to Osaka. I felt awful yesterday, and eventually realized that in addition to emotional distress, I hadn't eaten properly, so added several different vegetables plus brown rice to the vegan sausage for dinner. I need to buy vegetables, as I have plenty of cucumber but almost nothing else.