LIVE from QM2 June 29 to July 6

[Kordy]

2 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

And perhaps grass fed beef comes from happier cattle?

 

I would have to say "yes" to that, although it's a little subjective. But I guess it's the same concept as "free range" chickens.  Overall, I found the beef on QM2 very tasty - they actually surprised me with the amount of great steaks in MDR - Britannia Restaurant, incl. Surf & Turf, Filet Mignon, Chateaubriand, etc. 

 

OH!  How can I not mention the LAMB !!  I do think the British lamb is amazing; I always like to compare Lamb Shank that I can get in NY/NJ to the Lamb Shank I can get in England.  And just happened that on the last day of the cruise (yesterday), we had LAMB SHANK on the menu in the MDR!  And both my wife and I agreed, it was of the best lamb shanks we have ever had in our life.  And I'm a big lamb person so I do know how lamb supposed to be.  And they even had tasty lamb choices in the Buffet at dinner.

 

Cunard really delivered when it comes to lamb. 

[Classiccruiser777]

On 7/1/2024 at 1:27 PM, Kordy said:

- for the gala night the 2nd day of cruise, too many people tried to come for the 6pm open seating and there was line well beyond the Golden Lion pub and they started turning people away, asking to come back at 8pm. It was disappointing for some who waited in line all dressed up. The cruise is 100% full and so it's interesting to experience that. 
 

Over the years Cunard added more “Britannia class” and “Britannia Club”cabins on the QM2 thus increasing the number of passengers onboard. Additional space within the Britannia Restaurant on deck 2 was set aside for Britannia Club passengers. These changes have added seating pressure to the restaurant.

[NE John]

33 minutes ago, Kordy said:

So yes, without doubt, Cunard wins.  Best cruise of my life so far.

That’s great to read because the recent QM2 reviews have been dismal. If you like lamb, splurge on PG or QG next time and get the Dorset rack of lamb. The best. You also get many other food stuffs from the UK that we can’t get here: cold stream trout, Cornish crab, Loch Duart salmon etc. 

[Kordy]

5 minutes ago, Classiccruiser777 said:

Over the years Cunard added more “Britannia class” and “Britannia Club”cabins on the QM2 thus increasing the number of passengers onboard. Additional space within the Britannia Restaurant on deck 2 was set aside for Britannia Club passengers. These changes have added seating pressure to the restaurant.

 

To be fair, the issues with Open Seating only happened on that first gala night, on Day 2 of the cruise.  We have never waited more than ~3 mins in all the subsequent days.  Overall, was happy with Open Seating, but I did "book" & reserve for 6pm every day, and turned up shortly before 6pm, entering from the upper deck (3rd floor, not 2nd).

Edited July 6 by Kordy

[Kordy]

1 minute ago, NE John said:

That’s great to read because the recent QM2 reviews have been dismal. If you like lamb, splurge on PG or QG next time and get the Dorset rack of lamb. The best. You also get many other food stuffs from the UK that we can’t get here: cold stream trout, Cornish crab, Loch Duart salmon etc. 

 

Thank you ... I was already very happy with a lot of great food choices that I'm not used to here in the US - eg: kippers! or yes, plenty of smoked trout choices at breakfast.  I love trout and actually I would love to have grilled trout for dinner, not something that was offered this time round, but I certainly had trout on this cruise.  The biggest highlights for me was the lamb, it was delicious.  The only lamb that I have these days, living in NYC, is in the Indian restaurants and it's usually an upcharge.

[Host Hattie]

@Kordy thank you for your reports, it's good to hear that you had such a great time. 

[exlondoner]

3 minutes ago, Kordy said:

 

Thank you ... I was already very happy with a lot of great food choices that I'm not used to here in the US - eg: kippers! or yes, plenty of smoked trout choices at breakfast.  I love trout and actually I would love to have grilled trout for dinner, not something that was offered this time round, but I certainly had trout on this cruise.  The biggest highlights for me was the lamb, it was delicious.  The only lamb that I have these days, living in NYC, is in the Indian restaurants and it's usually an upcharge.

Just out of interest, where are the main sheep farming areas in the US?

[techteach]

We get really good lamb from the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

[Kordy]

3 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

@Kordy thank you for your reports, it's good to hear that you had such a great time. 

 

Yes, great cruise.  First time with Cunard, but will definitely be a repeat customer!   Thank you for being an admin of this forum and helping people, who are sailing with Cunard.

 

[*Miss G*]

Lamb is very dear in the US and Canada. Usually, it’s from New Zealand. I was shocked at how inexpensive it was in England! So, of course, I had to buy some. It was a real treat!

[Planning to cruise]

45 minutes ago, NE John said:

That’s great to read because the recent QM2 reviews have been dismal. If you like lamb, splurge on PG or QG next time and get the Dorset rack of lamb. The best. You also get many other food stuffs from the UK that we can’t get here: cold stream trout, Cornish crab, Loch Duart salmon etc. 

The lamb is also available in Club, including the other ships.  I too love it and found the quality really good.  I asked the MD where it was from.  He didnt know.  I come from a lamb producing country, I wondered if it was ours.  

[Pushpit]

43 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Just out of interest, where are the main sheep farming areas in the US?

[I live on a sheep farm]. The USA divides into two areas - mass sheep production, in South Dakota, Utah, down to the top of Texas, with large farms with huge numbers of sheep. Then value wise, New England, the northern half of the Eastern Seaboard (Maine to Virginia), bits of California, where you will get much smaller sheep farms which do high value, high yield supplies to specialist markets.

 

The point I sometimes make about the USA, is that by the narrowest of whiskers it became the dominant force in the Anglophone world. But it would have only needed a few twists and turns to have ended up as the dominant force in the Teutophone world - at various stages there were more German than English speakers in what is now the USA. But the English speakers were more united, less insular (mainly on the religious side) and more hacked off with London. The rest you know about.  There is an urban myth that the USA nearly adopted German but the vote failed by 1 vote - there's a lot more to it than that, but there is a grain of truth in the story.

 

Germans basically don't do sheep, whereas the Brits and French and Greeks do. If you go to pet shops in Germany you will see their dog food has far less mutton in it than next door in France. I doubt German dogs are that fussy, but their owners certainly are.

[Kordy]

8 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

[I live on a sheep farm]. The USA divides into two areas - mass sheep production, in South Dakota, Utah, down to the top of Texas, with large farms with huge numbers of sheep. Then value wise, New England, the northern half of the Eastern Seaboard (Maine to Virginia), bits of California, where you will get much smaller sheep farms which do high value, high yield supplies to specialist markets.

 

The point I sometimes make about the USA, is that by the narrowest of whiskers it became the dominant force in the Anglophone world. But it would have only needed a few twists and turns to have ended up as the dominant force in the Teutophone world - at various stages there were more German than English speakers in what is now the USA. But the English speakers were more united, less insular (mainly on the religious side) and more hacked off with London. The rest you know about.  There is an urban myth that the USA nearly adopted German but the vote failed by 1 vote - there's a lot more to it than that, but there is a grain of truth in the story.

 

Germans basically don't do sheep, whereas the Brits and French and Greeks do. If you go to pet shops in Germany you will see their dog food has far less mutton in it than next door in France. I doubt German dogs are that fussy, but their owners certainly are.

 

Thank you - this is very enlightening.  I'm convinced that if lamb was more popular/widespread in the US, the Americans would love it and it would become as popular as pork is.  I think it's just because it's not widely available, people just don't know about it, haven't tried it.   If it was made more available and more people tried it, it would become more popular.  Catch-22 situation, I guess.

[Pushpit]

5 minutes ago, Kordy said:

 

Thank you - this is very enlightening.  I'm convinced that if lamb was more popular/widespread in the US, the Americans would love it and it would become as popular as pork is.  I think it's just because it's not widely available, people just don't know about it, haven't tried it.   If it was made more available and more people tried it, it would become more popular.  Catch-22 situation, I guess.

I totally agree, it's very strange how German, Nordic and Dutch heritage people tend to avoid sheep meat, and yet in terms of things like religious restrictions on food, sheep joins chicken in terms of acceptability. The economics are changing in favour of lamb somewhat, and there are new breeds of sheep which have a milder taste. This is probably not great for you and me, but it may make it a more palatable option for others, over time.

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

Lamb is very dear in the US and Canada. Usually, it’s from New Zealand. I was shocked at how inexpensive it was in England! So, of course, I had to buy some. It was a real treat!

Lamb is usually dear here too, with that from NZ usually being somewhat cheaper, though some supermarkets no longer sell it.

[exlondoner]

35 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

[I live on a sheep farm]. The USA divides into two areas - mass sheep production, in South Dakota, Utah, down to the top of Texas, with large farms with huge numbers of sheep. Then value wise, New England, the northern half of the Eastern Seaboard (Maine to Virginia), bits of California, where you will get much smaller sheep farms which do high value, high yield supplies to specialist markets.

 

The point I sometimes make about the USA, is that by the narrowest of whiskers it became the dominant force in the Anglophone world. But it would have only needed a few twists and turns to have ended up as the dominant force in the Teutophone world - at various stages there were more German than English speakers in what is now the USA. But the English speakers were more united, less insular (mainly on the religious side) and more hacked off with London. The rest you know about.  There is an urban myth that the USA nearly adopted German but the vote failed by 1 vote - there's a lot more to it than that, but there is a grain of truth in the story.

 

Germans basically don't do sheep, whereas the Brits and French and Greeks do. If you go to pet shops in Germany you will see their dog food has far less mutton in it than next door in France. I doubt German dogs are that fussy, but their owners certainly are.

And Italians. 

The great thing about sheep is that you can keep them on land which is not good for a lot else, whether it is chalk downland in the south, or Welsh hills, or Northumberland fells.

[snaefell]

2 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

Lamb is very dear in the US and Canada. Usually, it’s from New Zealand. I was shocked at how inexpensive it was in England! So, of course, I had to buy some. It was a real treat!

Wow,in the UK we consider Lamb to be expensive!😮😮

[NE John]

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

And Italians. 

The great thing about sheep is that you can keep them on land which is not good for a lot else, whether it is chalk downland in the south, or Welsh hills, or Northumberland fells.

Is the Dorset region considered “chalk downland”?
Speaking of Italy, some of the best lamb and mutton I’ve had was while in the hills and mountains of Abruzzo. They serve mutton on skewers and it’s a simple delicacy. 

[Kordy]

12 minutes ago, snaefell said:

Wow,in the UK we consider Lamb to be expensive!😮😮

 

Lamb in the UK is accessible and available and while it costs more than, say, chicken or pork, it's priced such that a normal family can enjoy it and it's available widely in everyday supermarkets such as Sainsbury's Tesco's etc ..

 

While in the US, it's not as accessible, not as available in typical supermarkets, and it's not very popular or well-known for most folks.  It's more of a "niche" item.  Because of this, it's even more expensive in the US, than what you find in the UK.

[exlondoner]

11 minutes ago, NE John said:

Is the Dorset region considered “chalk downland”?
Speaking of Italy, some of the best lamb and mutton I’ve had was while in the hills and mountains of Abruzzo. They serve mutton on skewers and it’s a simple delicacy. 

Quite a lot of it. But I think the word Dorset signifies the breed of sheep, not that it necessarily comes from here, though it may do.

 

https://dorsetsheep.co.uk

[exlondoner]

18 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Quite a lot of it. But I think the word Dorset signifies the breed of sheep, not that it necessarily comes from here, though it may do.

 

https://dorsetsheep.co.uk

I now discover that the local native sheep is the Dorset Down sheep which are different from the ones above.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorset_Down

[Winifred 22]

51 minutes ago, Kordy said:

 

Lamb in the UK is accessible and available and while it costs more than, say, chicken or pork, it's priced such that a normal family can enjoy it and it's available widely in everyday supermarkets such as Sainsbury's Tesco's etc ..

 

While in the US, it's not as accessible, not as available in typical supermarkets, and it's not very popular or well-known for most folks.  It's more of a "niche" item.  Because of this, it's even more expensive in the US, than what you find in the UK.

Lamb is widely available but not priced I would argue that an average family may find it that affordable. Where I buy my meat ( Marks and Spencer ) it’s on average twice the cost of beef and that is not cheap either. 

[Pushpit]

1 hour ago, exlondoner said:

Quite a lot of it. But I think the word Dorset signifies the breed of sheep, not that it necessarily comes from here, though it may do.

 

https://dorsetsheep.co.uk

Yes, the National Sheep Association recognises 3 Dorset breeds, Dorset Horn, Poll Dorset and Dorset Down, the last is a rare breed. Horn and poll (poll means no horns) are variants of a single breed standard set in 1891, which is one of the older ones, but if you are buying "Dorset lamb" it almost certainly doesn't come from Dorset. The reason being it is one of the main breeds developed for Australia, NZ, South Africa and USA, it got exported a lot from 1900 onwards and now I'd guess 95% plus of Dorset sheep are not UK. Indeed the few Dorsets in the UK often have genetics that suggest they are based on stock brought back to the UK from overseas. 

 

It's a bit like Texels, there are vastly more Texels in the UK than in the Netherlands, let alone Texel island (often visible on the Southampton - Hamburg legs on Cunard's ships). They are the ones with a grumpy face.

[Kordy]

Focusing away from lamb for the moment, the other good thing about Cunard is so many different fish choices on-board, even in the buffet.  They had trout, mackerel, haddock, kippers, salmon, tuna, etc in the buffet and also barramundi, seabass, swordfish in the MDR.  Not seen that ANYWHERE else on any other mainstream cruise line!  Granted, some of it was smoked and salty (rather than fresh or gilled), but still, it's good to see.

 

Personally, I like trout so it was refreshing to see it offered more than once on board.  In general, living in the US, I wish we would see more trout choices in the US, but not seeing much. Here, seabass/branzino, cod, tilapia & swordfish, catfish (in addition to salmon/tuna) seem to be the most popular.  Trout is often left out.

 

Not to criticize, but I found the kippers on-board in the buffet way too salty for my tastes - I was thinking that maybe it's meant to be super salty and so that it's probably just me.  However, I really enjoyed trying kippers and having that option - I've not had kippers even once in the US!

Edited July 6 by Kordy

[Pushpit]

24 minutes ago, Kordy said:

Not to criticize, but I found the kippers on-board in the buffet way too salty for my tastes - I was thinking that maybe it's meant to be super salty and so that it's probably just me.  However, I really enjoyed trying kippers and having that option - I've not had kippers even once in the US!

Yes, it's salted fish (herring) that's smoked, you really can't have kippers without salt. Craster is a small village port in Northumberland which is famous for kippers, and the main merchant's website explains the brine and smoke process here. It's quite a small operation, it's not a big factory effort.

 

https://www.kipper.co.uk/history/

 

Under A Quality Product is a description of the process, but the video above it, The History of Craster Kippers, shows how it happens.

 

It's not as salted as Portugal / Azores version of salted cod, I remember a restaurant waiter there asking Brits if they had kippers, and he would then says "it's even more salty". And if they said they had never had kippers, the waiter told them to order something else!

Edited July 6 by Pushpit