Food - what’s good, don’t miss or should avoid

[Blur]

58 minutes ago, baelor said:

Are they children or extremely old?  I am still very confused about what kind of adults act that way.

Considering there's tons of adults who don't eat pork at all, I'd say it's not abnormal.

 

I love pork belly but my wife refuses to eat any bacon that isn't thin and crispy.  Nothing to do with age since plenty of kids who love trying new foods.

[Ret MP]

10 minutes ago, Blur said:

Considering there's tons of adults who don't eat pork at all, I'd say it's not abnormal.

 

I love pork belly but my wife refuses to eat any bacon that isn't thin and crispy.  Nothing to do with age since plenty of kids who love trying new foods.

Yep.  

To be honest.  If it wasn't for the candied part of the Chop's Grill Pork Belly, I probably wouldn't eat it.  I don't like large layers of fat, especially soft/seemingly undercooked/kind of like jellied fat.  But, the candied (I think it is actually a very sweet BBQ sauce and I love BBQ Sauce) just overrides that for me with Chop's Pork Belly.  

[smokeybandit]

I once made beef stew with cow heart. My wife loved it.

 

Then she found out it was cow heart and said don't ever make it again.

[baelor]

19 minutes ago, Blur said:

Considering there's tons of adults who don't eat pork at all, I'd say it's not abnormal.

Right, but @Ret MP had already stipulated that not only did the people involved eat pork, they ate pork belly in the form of bacon!

 

20 minutes ago, Blur said:

I love pork belly but my wife refuses to eat any bacon that isn't thin and crispy.

It just seems weird for a grown adult to not even try it, especially if it is free and/or a taste off someone else's plate.

[baelor]

27 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

BTW, don't you know anybody that won't eat Venison, or Moose, or anything that is hunted in the wild?

No, I do not, but I also do not live in a particularly rural area where hunting is common.  If anything, people prefer wild-hunted and free-range meat products where I live, since they are viewed as higher quality and status symbols.  

 

If the objection is ethical, that seems categorically different from someone not trying it because they are freaked out or whatever (especially if they have eaten that same food in another form...).

[Ret MP]

1 hour ago, baelor said:

No, I do not, but I also do not live in a particularly rural area where hunting is common.  If anything, people prefer wild-hunted and free-range meat products where I live, since they are viewed as higher quality and status symbols.  

 

If the objection is ethical, that seems categorically different from someone not trying it because they are freaked out or whatever (especially if they have eaten that same food in another form...).

I'm not asking anyone to make sense of it.  I'm not!  My life will not change one bit if someone eats or doesn't eat "Pork Belly".  Your life will not change one bit if I eat or don't eat hunted products.  

 

My only purpose of mentioning it was to brag about getting the unwanted product and explain how I got it.  I really had no intent on this turning into a "justification" process.  I'm done here!

[Ret MP]

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I once made beef stew with cow heart. My wife loved it.

 

Then she found out it was cow heart and said don't ever make it again.

 

Can't say as I blame her, one bit. LOL

[rudeney]

6 hours ago, Bound4Bermuda said:

I think you’re doing your math backwards—unless I’m misunderstanding the point you’re making. If $15 of your cruise fare is allotted to the MDR, then paying $60 for Chops is really like paying $75, not $45. (Though, the value for the MDR food is certainly more than $15, so your all-in price for the specialty restaurant might be closer to $100.)  I agree that $60 is a pretty decent price for a 3-course meal in a restaurant, but I’m with those who say I spend a lot of money eating out in nice restaurants at home as it is. I might as well get the food I already paid for in the MDR. However, I have NOT eaten in any of the specialty restaurants, so I am completely willing to admit I have no basis for comparison and maybe the specialty restaurants are just so incredible that I would be weeping because my taste buds have never experienced such ecstasy. So, I don’t know, I’m sure someday I’ll try it.

 

Yep, you're right - I reversed the sign on that equation!  I really have no clue what the daily per-passenger meal cost allocation would be, but $15 per meal sounded somewhat reasonable.  

 

Normally we only do a couple of specialty restaurants per cruise, but this time, I decided to buy the UDP and try "all specialty" dining on our next cruise.  It's just an experiment to see how we like that.  We very well may miss the MDR.  OR not  - we shall see!  

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

5 hours ago, baelor said:

 

 

It just seems weird for a grown adult to not even try it, especially if it is free and/or a taste off someone else's plate.

 

 

Surely you've dined with people who tell you they are allergic to things.  Guess what?  That's what some resort to saying rather than justify to anyone else that they simply do not want to try something.  I don't blame them the way you are going on about this.  Let it go. 

[baelor]

3 minutes ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

Surely you've dined with people who tell you they are allergic to things.

Actually, no.  I have not had that happen to me, except for people who have allergies to things like nuts or take medications that interact with, e.g., grapefruit.  But I am also not a fan of lying, so take that as you will.

 

Anyone, we can end here and let it go.

[shofer]

On 7/16/2022 at 8:54 PM, smokeybandit said:

Avoid the beef stroganoff in the MDR. Not sure what that recipe is but it's not any stroganoff I've ever heard of. Not that it's bad, but, just not stroganoff.

 

 

 

 

I had the stroganoff on Symphony and liked it so much I asked for the recipe.  I have made it from scratch and with a packaged sauce and RCCL version was pretty good.

[baelor]

3 minutes ago, shofer said:

I had the stroganoff on Symphony and liked it so much I asked for the recipe.  I have made it from scratch and with a packaged sauce and RCCL version was pretty good.

I created a thread a bit ago about beef dishes in the MDR, and someone mentioned that the stroganoff had additions like pickles and other...interesting choices.  (Upon research, it looked like the pickles were a Finnish variant of the original.)

[hazeleyes46]

14 hours ago, baelor said:

Right, but @Ret MP had already stipulated that not only did the people involved eat pork, they ate pork belly in the form of bacon!

 

It just seems weird for a grown adult to not even try it, especially if it is free and/or a taste off someone else's plate.

My husband is sooo picky and won't try a lot of things, not even cheese cake because the word "cheese" is in it. SMH lol

[Itchy&Scratchy]

14 hours ago, baelor said:

It just seems weird for a grown adult to not even try it, especially if it is free and/or a taste off someone else's plate.

not weird at all.

Both DS and DH have some texture sensitivities, so neither will eat certain things because they know how it will make them feel. DH will not touch fatty meat if you cannot cut off every minuscule piece of fat first. DS will not touch it to begin with.

I cannot make them try something even if it's free or a taste of someone else's plate. And you wouldn't either if you knew in advance that your kid would start gagging right there in MDR. My kid also won't have anything with mushrooms in it because of the texture. When I was a kid (and even now), I picked out all the onions out of the food first, but at least I ate the rest. My kid will not touch a dish if it has mushrooms in it.

 

P.S. Storytime: my grandpa didn't eat chicken since childhood because he witnessed a chicken being killed for dinner and it made a profound impression on him. He loved meat and ate all the other kinds of meat, but couldn't bring himself to eat chicken. So, yeah, you couldn't make him try it off of your plate even if it were free.

 

P.P.S. DS also got very upset on our last Harmony cruise because we ordered veal osso buco and he found out it was a baby cow. He cried and made us promise we'd never order veal again. We complied.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Itchy&Scratchy

[rudeney]

13 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

P.S. Storytime: my grandpa didn't eat chicken since childhood because he witnessed a chicken being killed for dinner and it made a profound impression on him. He loved meat and ate all the other kinds of meat, but couldn't bring himself to eat chicken. So, yeah, you couldn't make him try it off of your plate even if it were free.

 

 

I've never been a big fan of chicken.  It's not like beef where you get better marbling and flavor in higher grades.  It all tastes the same, which is bland and with very little actual flavor from the meat itself.  Also, some years back, I began having problems with chicken giving me some lower-GI distress.  I found out it's because of a bacteria present in most chicken that I don't tolerate well.  I'll eat it if I have no other choice, but otherwise I pass on chicken.  

[Ret MP]

10 hours ago, baelor said:

Actually, no.  I have not had that happen to me, except for people who have allergies to things like nuts or take medications that interact with, e.g., grapefruit.  But I am also not a fan of lying, so take that as you will.

 

Anyone, we can end here and let it go.

You accuse someone of lying and then you want to let it go.  You are special, aren't you!!!!

[baelor]

9 hours ago, Ret MP said:

You accuse someone of lying

I absolutely did not accuse anyone of lying.  If any statement of mine led you to believe that, please let me know which one so I can clarify or retract it as necessary.

[Ret MP]

37 minutes ago, baelor said:

I absolutely did not accuse anyone of lying.  If any statement of mine led you to believe that, please let me know which one so I can clarify or retract it as necessary.

Naaaa, not going there with you.  You absolutely know what it's about.  

 

[joeyancho]

Beef tenderloin and the lasagna are two of my favourites.    Also any Indian food in the Windjammer. 

[Mum2Mercury]

On 7/17/2022 at 5:44 PM, Cruiser 5452 said:

One of my favorites is the Tutti Salad at lunch in the Main Dining Room.   MDR is only open at lunch on sea days.

Oh, I used to love that!  

On 7/18/2022 at 1:06 PM, MsSoCalCruiser said:

When was the non-standard food offered and is it available on other ships?  This looks really good.

I wish Windjammer offered that seafood buffet a couple times per cruise!  

On 7/25/2022 at 4:18 PM, Bound4Bermuda said:

I think you’re doing your math backwards—unless I’m misunderstanding the point you’re making. If $15 of your cruise fare is allotted to the MDR, then paying $60 for Chops is really like paying $75, not $45.

Exactly how we look at it.  

Additionally, we think adding dinner in a specialty restaurant on a ship adds little to a cruise ... whereas going out to dinner at home adds something to a regular week.  

On 7/25/2022 at 5:28 PM, Ret MP said:

BTW, don't you know anybody that won't eat Venison, or Moose, or anything that is hunted in the wild?  Some people just have psychological hang up by the way things are presented/called/named.  

Farm raised vs. wild can taste different.  

When I was a kid, we killed our own chickens, and one of our family FAVORITES is Chicken Livers; cooked properly, they are delicious.  I never liked the hearts and kidneys, which we cooked along with the livers.  They tasted tougher; I always thought it was because those organs worked harder /became tougher.

20 hours ago, rudeney said:

Normally we only do a couple of specialty restaurants per cruise, but this time, I decided to buy the UDP and try "all specialty" dining on our next cruise.  It's just an experiment to see how we like that.  We very well may miss the MDR.  OR not  - we shall see!  

We're doing the opposite experiment!  We're about to go on our first cruise as a retired couple, and we're staying in the cheapest room and not spending on any "upgraded" meals.  We're trying to see how satisfied we can be spending the least amount of money.  

10 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

P.P.S. DS also got very upset on our last Harmony cruise because we ordered veal osso buco and he found out it was a baby cow. He cried and made us promise we'd never order veal again. We complied.

My niece was super excited about trying lobster for the first time on a cruise.  At the table she asked us, "Do they kill the lobsters, or do they just find them dead and cook them?"  Oh, My Sweet Summer Child.  Of course, she scarfed down steak every single night of the cruise, never thinking about cows.  She hadn't yet made that connection.

10 hours ago, rudeney said:

It all tastes the same, which is bland and with very little actual flavor from the meat itself.  

That's why the skill of the cook and the ingredients chosen make all the difference. 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Mum2Mercury

[Ret MP]

26 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

  

Farm raised vs. wild can taste different.  

When I was a kid, we killed our own chickens, and one of our family FAVORITES is Chicken Livers; cooked properly, they are delicious.  I never liked the hearts and kidneys, which we cooked along with the livers.  They tasted tougher; I always thought it was because those organs worked harder /became tougher.

 

We're not to different.  However, I don't do liver, hearts, brains, tongue, knuckles or kidneys.  A lot of that may be in some sausages but I usually check out the ingredients before I buy.  I don't do "whole hog" breakfast sausage or Vienna sausage.   One thing strange though, I love "blood pudding sausage", sliced and fried in butter. 

I don't do brown eggs, either.  Why?  I don't know, I just don't!

We don't need excuses or justifications why we like certain foods.  

 

Oops, add tripe to that long list!

Edited July 26, 2022 by Ret MP

[Ret MP]

1 hour ago, joeyancho said:

Beef tenderloin and the lasagna are two of my favourites.    Also any Indian food in the Windjammer. 

A lot of people comment about how much they enjoy the Indian food in the Windjammer.  I'm going to try some as long as it has curry in it.  

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

48 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

A lot of people comment about how much they enjoy the Indian food in the Windjammer.  I'm going to try some as long as it has curry in it.  

 

 I have a 12 night sailing coming up on Jewel and the app features an Indian entree every night in the MDR regular menu.  A lot of people suggest asking for off menu Indian dishes.  I wonder if it's become so commonplace that Jewel, and maybe other ships, decided to add an option?

[Ret MP]

1 minute ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

 

 I have a 12 night sailing coming up on Jewel and the app features an Indian entree every night in the MDR regular menu.  A lot of people suggest asking for off menu Indian dishes.  I wonder if it's become so commonplace that Jewel, and maybe other ships, decided to add an option?

Hope so!

[Oceansaway17]

I enjoy the cookies on RCI ships, however, I just returned from NCL and their other desserts are realy very good and tasty.

I find a lot of RCI cakes and pies are pretty but blah or bland.  But NCL has very tasty and quite different desserts than RCI.