clo

We were in Hue, Vietnam, and Bourdain had talked about a place that had the best soup in the world, Bun Bo Hue. I was able to track it down, broke away from the group one morning, got there at 8AM when they opened. (When they run out of meat she's done for the day.) Only locals. IIRC two bowls of soup and a bottle of water was about $4!

How about "fine ribs"?

We've only been on Gate 1 and from what I'm reading here there are better choices from a food standpoint. Thanks.

And I TOTALLY get it.

I only remember having one dessert on probably any cruise and that was the creme brulee at Jacques one of the specialty restaurants on Oceania.

I only remember having one dessert on probably any cruise and that was the creme brulee at Jacques one of the specialty restaurants on Oceania.

Operative words "to me" ? I can eat three meals a day and not overeat. Quality over quantity. At home if we buy an 8oz steak that's two meals for the two of us. One a ship, it's the same. We share pretty much all the food. That way we can have more things, not more OF the things.

Probably a good thing that she doesn't charge you by the hour. LOL

And from our experiences, those that were were nothing to write home about. 'Course in fairness it's hard to feed 20+ people all at once and generally no menu for that many.

I DO eat meat but I find the better the restaurant the more likely to have way better than average non-meat dishes.

Oh we do quite regularly. Over a number of trips I've found group meals to be LCD - lowest common denominators, i.e., feed the masses. Whenever we can we break away from the group and do our own thing for meals. I do the research first so can find something better than average in almost any town.

It doesn't have to be "fancy" to be "fine." At all.

So YOU don't "cook and wash" at home?????

Yup 🙂

But if you carry some ziplocs and a bigger bag and are discreet about it, sure. A few years ago on a Hurtigruten cruise there lunches were the equivalent of dinners. Their breakfasts were a buffet with a few cooked to order things. A couple of times I took a couple of slices of bread, some ham and cheese and later made myself a sandwich for lunch. I mean really, who loses?

Was I c oliver or cath oliver?

That separates folks like I from probably the majority. I find out so much about an area and the people through their food. And frequently really have fun with those locals. One time in Rio, we were up a side and mostly light industrial street having lunch. One of the locals who actually spoke some English went home and brought back an umbrella for our outside table and good-naturedly fussed at my husband for allowing my pale skin to sit out like that. 🙂

We you ever on CH? 🙂

Here's the deck plan. https://www.oceaniacruises.com/ships/nautica/deck-plans-details?deck=05

I'm not familiar with that term.

And eat the local food 🙂

I don't know about that area or that stone but in other parts of the world I've read that when stones/jewelry are brought home reputable jewelers haven't had kind things to say about them.

And they were validated somehow of being from there?

I'm so jealous. We were going on a similar cruise and then the Ukraine catastrophe struck and it was canceled.

Oh, I'm with you on the pre and post but I'm honestly not going to head back to those inbetween places. Some of that I'm sure is our age - mid70s.