Curious? .. here's comfort food menu's!

[Peggy Sue]

I brought home our menu's from the 10 day Volendam last November .. I don't have the first night, as we ate in the Pinnacle, and the daily menu had been removed and replaced before I had a chance to grab it the next morning ..

Dutch pot roast - slowly braised beef in a deeply rich red wine sauce with peak flavor root vegetables, topped with frizzled onions and served with crips-tender broccoli, baby carrots and parlsey potatoes

Braised Lamb Shanks - In a rich-flavored wine sauce with stewed root vegetables on luscious roasted garlic mashed potatoes

Honey Glazed Country Ham - Thick sliced on a cushion of corn bread pudding, with home-style brown sauce and bronze-baked apples

Roasted Cornish Game Hen - Succulent and golden, with dried cherry and pecan dressing, pearly green peppercorn sauce, crisp-tender broccoli and radiant roasted sweet potato spears.

lemon Rosemary Roasted half Chicken - Dripping with rich chicken gravy alongside creamy mashed potatoes and pod-perfect snap peas.

Roast leg of lamb with minted gravy - nestled in a bed of well-seasoned roased vegetables alongside a crisp-creamy potato cake flecked with bacon and parsley.

Master chefs favorite meatloaf - soul-soothing loaf of tender ground veal and beef, gently kneaded with copious onions, herbs and special seasonings and baked until delectably juicy, sliced to order and slathered with fresh mushroom sauce, served with home-style mashed potatoes and crisp selected vegetables.

Oven Roasted Quail Stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese - Nestled on a bed of mushroom risotto with glistening glazed pineapple, grilled eggplants and bokchoy.

Home Style roast turkey - golden roasted and juicy complee with harvest-time apple pecan stuffing, giblet gravy, zingy cranberry relish and just-like-Mom's Brussels Sprouts and mashed potatoes

So, there you have it .. We had three formal nights .. and the comfort foods served were ham, quail and the turkey. Turkey was the captains gala dinner, ham was offered on lobster night. So, other than the one missing menu from our first night on board, everything above was listed under comfort food .. It really isn't your "moms meatloaf" type of offerings, but it is warm and comforting food none the less.

At the bottom of each menu it states:

Daily Alernatives -- Traditional caesar salad, grilled salmon, broiled chicken breast, grilled sirloin steak.
Baked potato with sour cream, chives and bacon bits availableupon request

I typed this rather fast, so please excuse any typos..

Peggy Sue



So...what do you think ... is this your idea of comfort food???

[dakrewser]

Oven Roasted Quail Stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese - Nestled on a bed of mushroom risotto with glistening glazed pineapple, grilled eggplants and bokchoy.

My momma never made anything like that! Heck, she wouldn't have known what some of that stuff was!

:rolleyes: -dave

[stanford's girl]

I'll have one of each please.:D I would be comforted by any of these selections.:)

[Himself]

Peggy Sue:

I tried the Quail and DID NOT like it and I don't like cornish hens and did not order the meatloaf. I think I had all the other "comfort food" and found it was okey.

You will remember we were on the same cruise. you were the one who
"identified me" one night. I was surprised you knew I was a priest.
Himself

[dougnewmanatsea]

I still think quail is a bit off the mark as "comfort food", at least for HAL's target demographic. Goat cheese is still pretty new to a lot of people, eggplant was exotic in most parts of the US 40 years ago, and while I find risotto comforting, it's definitely not traditional American comfort food (maybe it is Italian comfort food, I don't know). And bok choy? Well it might be something your mom would make if you're from California and under 30 ;) ! (FWIW, I'm from New York and under 30; my mother doesn't make bok choy and I don't like to eat it. So there ;) .)

Aside from the meatloaf, I wouldn't even raise an eyebrow at the other selections if they weren't marked "comfort food". OK, I might raise any eyebrow at pot rost, except that I'm pretty sure that's a remnant of the late, lamented Dutch Night (where they used to offer pot roast whose name - in Dutch - I can't think of). Speaking of comfort food and Dutch Night, Dutch pea soup is comfort food that I can relate to!

Anyway, I might even order some of these items (I love lamb and usually order it when it's on offer). True, they're not pretentious (aside, perhaps, from the quail) but they're hardly junk food either. At least they're not pretending to be something they aren't... I generally find that, in mass-preparation settings like large cruise ships, if menus try to get too adventurous the result tends to be rather underwhelming, whereas if they keep it simple but high-quality the results are usually very good. Save the elaborate and the exotic for the alternative restaurants I say (though Pinnacle does not offer anything remotely elaborate or exotic - in fact its whole menu is like very upscale "comfort food")!

[Peggy Sue]

I found these selections to be quite comforting and exotic .. I had to smile at the comment about meatloaf "sliced to order" .. I'm not sure how they do that..but we did try a sample of the meatloaf and found it quite good.


Himself .. I do remember meeting you!! I knew you were a priest from your comments pre-cruise on the board!! Where are you off to next??

Reading the comments from S7S's post about comfort food I was amazed at the number of people who like these dishes, although I'd say about a third of them are not "comfort food" at least, from what I remember my mom making ... but, I'm in my early 50's and I know I never saw boc choy at any dinner my mom servered up .. and she did a great job with comfort food!

I do encounter a lot of people who enjoy eating plain .. meat / potatoes kind of stuff .. they don't like the fru fru things .. We love to try, and what better place than a cruise ship .. you can always ask for something else if you really don't like it ..

HAL really did a great job making some of these plain dishes sound very fancy .. there is a comment on the bottom of the menu that all dishes can be served without sauces..so there is always something for everyone...isn't there!!

Peggy Sue

[jaguarstyper]

I didnt see anything on that list that I would be unhappy eating. It all sounds comfortable to me :)

Tim

[Himself]

I am tentatively scheduled for the OOSTERDAM out of Seattle to Alaska in May.

Himself

[Bookish Angel]

Aren't they a biohazard?