What were the pax dining on back when??

[CGTNORMANDIE]

Hello all you cruise foodies.  Since things have gotten quiet here I thought it would be fun to look back at what the pax were dining on about 50 or 60 or 70 years ago when cruising started to take off.

 

Here is a sample menu from RMS Caronia II from A North Cape Cruise July 12, 1959.  These are just a few of the starters: giant shrimp cocktail, smoked sturgeon, delice de fois gras, beluga malossol caviar and a galantine of veal was available on the cold buffet.  The fish dishes were supreme of turbot, Dover sole and fried smelts.  Pasta Calabraise was offered for the farinaceous course.  Entrees were poussin en cocotte, smoked ox tongue and escallop of veal.  The joint course was prime ribs and Yorkshire pudding.  The grill offerings were prime sirloin steak, lamb cutlets and spring chicken.  The releve course was roasted stuffed chicken.  Vegetables offered were French string beans, buttered broccoli,  garden peas and sautéed corn.  A strawberry sorbet was served as the palate cleanser.  Potatoes offered were boiled new, château, O’Brian and gratinee.  There were 7 selections offered from the cold buffet.  There were 6 different salads and 4 salad dressings.  Desserts were soufflé mocha, coupe Diablo rouge, marquise salambo, Charlotte Russe and a baked pear in red wine sauce.  There were 4 different ice creams and hot butterscotch sauce.  In case you wanted to hang on after dinner for a glass of port there were savories , Scotch woodcock, croute derby and sardines on toast along with fresh fruits, dessert figs and raisins.

 

WOW…that’s what I call a real dinner!😃

 

 

[shipgeeks]

A colleague gave me copies of menus from her family's sailings on SS Rotterdam in 1965 and 1966.

On Friday, October 22, 1965, Festival Sailing Dinner, Tourist Class, the menu included:

Eggs Russian Style, Ripe and Green Olives, Red Radishes, Carrot Sticks, Chilled Hearts of Table Celery

Soups: Cream of Chervil (maigre), Consomme Monte Carlo

Fish: Supreme of Turbot, Hollandaise Sauce

Releve: Roast Larded Tenderloin of Beef with Gravy

Vegetables etc.: Buttered Mixed Vegetables, Creamed Fresh Endives, O'Brien and Mashed Potatoes

Roti: Roast Chicken Bourguignonne

Salads and Compote: Lettuce - Tomato and Cucumber Salad, Raifort and Holland Dressing, Compote of Pears

Dessert: Mascotte Cake, Coupe Jamaica, English Cake

 

In 1969 I sailed for 42 days on Cap Vilano, a 12-passenger cargo ship of Columbus Lines.  My menus are "somewhere".  I do remember several soups I had not had before: shark fin, kangaroo tail, as well as luncheon desserts such as Blueberriesjogurt.  The food, by the way, was excellent, but with very few choices.

 

[CGTNORMANDIE]

1 hour ago, shipgeeks said:

A colleague gave me copies of menus from her family's sailings on SS Rotterdam in 1965 and 1966.

On Friday, October 22, 1965, Festival Sailing Dinner, Tourist Class, the menu included:

Eggs Russian Style, Ripe and Green Olives, Red Radishes, Carrot Sticks, Chilled Hearts of Table Celery

Soups: Cream of Chervil (maigre), Consomme Monte Carlo

Fish: Supreme of Turbot, Hollandaise Sauce

Releve: Roast Larded Tenderloin of Beef with Gravy

Vegetables etc.: Buttered Mixed Vegetables, Creamed Fresh Endives, O'Brien and Mashed Potatoes

Roti: Roast Chicken Bourguignonne

Salads and Compote: Lettuce - Tomato and Cucumber Salad, Raifort and Holland Dressing, Compote of Pears

Dessert: Mascotte Cake, Coupe Jamaica, English Cake

 

In 1969 I sailed for 42 days on Cap Vilano, a 12-passenger cargo ship of Columbus Lines.  My menus are "somewhere".  I do remember several soups I had not had before: shark fin, kangaroo tail, as well as luncheon desserts such as Blueberriesjogurt.  The food, by the way, was excellent, but with very few choices.

 

Amazing that the Rotterdam menus were from Tourist Class.  They were dining better in Tourist than we do on a cruise!!  The Rotterdam was a class act.  I’m sure RK will attest to that.  Rotterdam was his first ship!

[rkacruiser]

On 3/28/2022 at 9:00 PM, CGTNORMANDIE said:

Amazing that the Rotterdam menus were from Tourist Class.  They were dining better in Tourist than we do on a cruise!!  The Rotterdam was a class act.  I’m sure RK will attest to that.  Rotterdam was his first ship!

 

Yes, I will attest to that.  I lost all of my menus from those early years on the Rotterdam, but, I think I still have a few menus that my Mother kept when we sailed in 1971.  I am not sure where they may be, but, I will try to find them.  

 

 

[CGTNORMANDIE]

On 3/31/2022 at 9:22 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

Yes, I will attest to that.  I lost all of my menus from those early years on the Rotterdam, but, I think I still have a few menus that my Mother kept when we sailed in 1971.  I am not sure where they may be, but, I will try to find them.  

 

 

Let us know when you find them RK.  I would love to compare then with now.

[shipgeeks]

Looking at my remaining menus from SS Rotterdam in 1966, I see one item that is consistent every evening:  Chilled Table Celery - Olives - Radishes - Carrot Sticks.

I've only seen this once in my own experience, and that was at a Captain's Table dinner on Premier Cruises Sea Breeze, in 1999.

The food on that cruise was spectacular at every meal, but that "throwback" item only appeared that one time.  However, the skinny little breadsticks, brought to the table as soon as we were seated, were a highlight.

[CGTNORMANDIE]

Celery, olives etc. at the dining table we’re the norm back when.  They even served bar snacks like salted nuts and big green olives!

 

Let’s take a look at a Welcome Aboard dinner onboard RMS Amerikanis on  December 23, 1969.  

Wild Boar Terrine in jelly

Epicurian Fois Gras 

Fruit Cocktail Grand Marnier

St. Daniel Prosciutto 

Nova Scotia Smoked Salmon

Malossol Beluga Caviar on Melba Toast

Essence of Chicken in Jelly Consommé

 

Andalouse Beef Broth in Cup

Boutsaris Lemno Soup with Rice

Oxtail Soup with Profiteroles

Atlantic Fresh Lobster en Bellevue

Russian Salad in Mayonnaise 

Darne of Halibut Maitre d’Hotel

 

Roast Stuffed Vermont Turkey with Cranberry Sauce 

Haricots Vert

Maitre d’Hotel Potatoes

Sugared Pineapple and Glazed Ham

American Sirloin Steak and Bernaise Sauce

Marianna New Carrots

Endives Glazed and Green Peas

Rissole Potatoes

Salad Thousand Island

 

Kutchen Dough and Chocolate Welcome Cake

Apricot, Fig and Pear Compotes

Assorted Ice Creams 

 

Coffee

 

Now that’s what I call an interesting menu.  Now need to go to a Specialty Restaurant with a menu like that!

 

 

 

[shipgeeks]

For some reason I just got really hungry!

[rkacruiser]

On 4/1/2022 at 10:41 PM, CGTNORMANDIE said:

Let us know when you find them RK.  I would love to compare then with now.

 

Still looking.  

 

On 4/2/2022 at 8:11 AM, shipgeeks said:

Looking at my remaining menus from SS Rotterdam in 1966, I see one item that is consistent every evening:  Chilled Table Celery - Olives - Radishes - Carrot Sticks.

 

At least on HAL ships, one can request a small dish of such foods to be on the table each evening.  At least for fixed seating dining.  Would it work with open dining?  I'd bet it wouldn't.

 

On 4/3/2022 at 4:04 PM, CGTNORMANDIE said:

 They even served bar snacks like salted nuts and big green olives!

 

A mixture of warm and cold snacks have been available at the bars on HAL ships during Happy Hours.  After HH, if there are leftovers and one asks about these snacks, they will be served.  Nuts--just plain nuts--are always available.  A cruiser friend that I made was never satisfied with just "nuts".  She always told the bartender she wanted "Formal Nuts" whether it was Formal Night or not.  (Formal Nuts were a deluxe mix of nuts.)  She was never denied.  (She was also a high status Mariner.)  Goldfish are now also available.  Sometimes, they are served in place of just "nuts", but, they can be requested if not served.  There is likely a container of them available in the bar's pantry.