Fine dining

Goldiegirl

VfM4meplse wrote: »

As for the comments about cruises and laziness, anyone who has been on a cruise with lots of Americans and Northern Europeans will attest to the amount of obesity witnessed on such jaunts, coupled with sedentary "activity" and excessive alcohol consumption. It's completely unnecessary.

What cruise lines have you travelled with, and when did you travel?


If you travel with American lines, then I think you will see more larger people eating bigger meals.... because that's what many Americans do..... they don't just do it on cruise ships - that's what they do at home as well


It also depends on the demographic of the cruisers.


If you sail out of season from Southampton on longer cruises you'll find more older people, so many of them will be more sedentary. But if you sail in the school holidays, the ship will be full of young families, doing all the activities that young families like to do.


I've done several cruises, and have yet to see a drunk lurching around the ship, yet this sight is commonplace around the towns and cities of this country on a Saturday night.


As I said in a previous post, most cruisers manage to eat normal sized meals throughout their cruise. Perhaps you didn't see my post, and others like it, or chose to ignore them?

Andypandyboy

The demographic of the cruiser dictates their lifestyle/cruise behaviour. It is not the cruise that does it.

If you go to the US and eat in any of their buffet style restaurants; Denny's, Ponderosa, Dairy Queen etc, you will see plates piled high going back into the kitchen, you will see obesity on a scale we don't have here or in the rest of Europe.

All restaurants cater to it, US cruise lines cater to it, they do not cause it. Anyone else visiting those establishments or cruising is likely to behave as they do at home. We don't eat just because it is there, we don't eat two starters or desserts just because we can. In fact, because it is so readily available we usually eat less.

I am not sure how many cruises you have done but I think you have a skewed perception of the reality of cause and effect.

SmallL

I have never done any type of fine dining, I really really dislike the taste of cheese and it tends to feature in many 'fine dining' foods. I have tried every cheese in every meal under the sun and dislike the taste.

In fact I'm not a fan of many dairy based sauces/foods. It must be the inherent creaminess that puts me off!

Goldiegirl

I don't have cheese in my food. I like cheese, but I have to keep it to a minimum, as it has too much salt in for my requirements.


But most restaurants, including fine dining restaurants, can cope with special dietary requirements. You just need to talk to them about it, in advance if necessary. Most are willing to help, and if they aren't then I don't go there.


Going back to cruising, food is only a small part of the experience


This is why most people do cruises


http://travel.aol.co.uk/photos/cruise-ship-views-captains-favourites/324475/?ref=21242989

kboss2010

I think it depends on a) how hungry you are and b) the food your palate is used to.

For me, personally, I'm so used to eating cheap chinese and Japanese-style ingredients from when I first taught myself to cook that I find British traditional food often too stodgy, greasy and salty. My grandparents would eat greasy cheap meat on the bone and boil vegetables to death. My OH often cooks Scottish staples like mince and tatties which took me a while to get used to eating.

I also can't stand boring salads of iceberg lettuce, salad tomatoes and cucumber nor "fancy" French food. However, I think the French do breakfast really well.

Recently in Malta we splashed out on a fancy restaurant recommended by Jamie Oliver. In my opinion, even though the food and wine were good, I feel like we paid more for the experience than the actual meal. It was a hipster-style restaurant with vintage crockery, aged dressers for storing the cutlery near the front door, fairy lights everywhere, small outdoor tables squeezed into a prettily decorated alley and very limited table numbers.

The best expensive meal I ever had was a Japanese restaurant in Manchester which, sadly, closed a few years ago. Portions were small but sushi rice is very filling and I think I drank my own body weight in the sublime range of loose leaf teas on offer. I'm a bit of a tea fanatic.

For me, it's not about the price of the food, it's the style of cooking. A traditional English or Scottish breakfast is great as a meal but if it's greasy, the bacon is fatty or the egg isn't poached and slightly runny, for me, it's always disappointing. But I know plenty of people who love a greasy fry-up.

lessonlearned

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I'm often away on business, and would rather source a cold meal (sandwich / fruit) from a M&S Simply Food than waste money in hotel or external restaurants.

As for the comments about cruises and laziness, anyone who has been on a cruise with lots of Americans and Northern Europeans will attest to the amount of obesity witnessed on such jaunts, coupled with sedentary "activity" and excessive alcohol consumption. It's completely unnecessary.

You are not comparing like with like. A sandwich is a snack, Not a meal.

I used to work away from home and yes constantly eating out in hotels and restaurants can be a bind.

Because I am grain intolerant, snacks and "light bites" can be a problem because so many cafes and cheaper fast food outlets rely heavily on cheap wheat based meals,, ie pizzerias, pasta places, noodle bars, sandwich bars, burger chains etc

So for me ive found I need to avoid all those kind of places so I will go for a full English breakfast as a brunch, or a nice sit down fish and chip restaurant such as George's, or a good pub meal.

Most decent med priced restaurants or bistros will rustle up an omelette for me if I don't want a full meal and any decent eaterie worth its salt should be able to cook me A good steak and a nice salad.

"Fine dining" does I guess depend on your definition.

Nouvelle cuisine was infamous for its miniscule portions but most good,restaurants Nowadays are a bit more generous. But it did revitalise the catering industry as a whole, forcing cafes and restaurants to up their game.

the other thing to remember is if you are having three courses or more then you don't need heaped plates. A little at each course is plenty generous.

As my dad always used to say "enougn is an elegant sufficiency".

The pile up your plate brigade are normally seen at the lower end restaurants, such as the "family" chain restaurants and carveries.

Now that my kids are all grown up, I rarely eat in those kind of restaurants now, only if someone else in our group has expressed a preference. I find them overpriced and the food is generally bland and mediocre. I find you can usually do,better in a traditional pub which serves proper "pub grub"

And Goldiegirl is right, any half way decent eaterie can cope with dietary requirements. Avoiding dairy is no more difficult than avoiding grains or requesting low sodium meals.

kboss2010

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I'm often away on business, and would rather source a cold meal (sandwich / fruit) from a M&S Simply Food than waste money in hotel or external restaurants.

As for the comments about cruises and laziness, anyone who has been on a cruise with lots of Americans and Northern Europeans will attest to the amount of obesity witnessed on such jaunts, coupled with sedentary "activity" and excessive alcohol consumption. It's completely unnecessary.

My aunt and uncle recently went on a cruise. My aunt told me that a very attractive woman kept jogging past my uncle and he thought she was checking him out until my aunt informed him they had been sitting beside the running track on the deck for the past few hours lol.:rotfl:

So, apparently, there are facilities for exercise on cruise ships. I'm guessing they probably have gyms and swimming pools too. in my experience, though, the 'all-you-can-eat'/all-inclusive type places attract a certain crowd rather than making people change their behaviour.

On a recent holiday to Malta we stayed in St Paul's Bay and trying to find food that wasn't a poor approximation of greasy British fayre was really difficult because, apparently, that's the crowd they cater for, the 'we want Blackpool in the Med' lot. We spent a good part of the week in search of local cuisine and culture rather than fish and chips and Butlins-style entertainment. It's not for us.

purpleivy

On our cruise I didn't see anyone 'worse for wear'. Maybe we were hanging out in the wrong areas.

We were in Malta September/October last year in the St Pauls area. Fortunately we were in a half board hotel which provided a number of local dishes each day. Actually I was soooooooo ill for the whole week it didn't really matter what there was. I was so grateful that there was a lovely selection of food every day for hub without my having to leave the hotel. There was wine provided in the hotel dining room and noone worse for wear. Noone seemed to be greedy with the food, generally rather civillised. As I wasn't eating I had plenty of chance to observe!


I eventually spent 2 hours each day out of the hotel on the last three days we were there, but only because we got a hire car. We were at a museum near the airport, I waited in the car as I was too weak to do anything else. I was treated to a fantastic 20 minute display by the Red Arrows attending the Malta Air Show! Rather sad, but that was the highlight of my week.

I have SAD so I managed to get some late sun.

kboss2010

purpleivy wrote: »

On our cruise I didn't see anyone 'worse for wear'. Maybe we were hanging out in the wrong areas.

We were in Malta September/October last year in the St Pauls area. Fortunately we were in a half board hotel which provided a number of local dishes each day. Actually I was soooooooo ill for the whole week it didn't really matter what there was. I was so grateful that there was a lovely selection of food every day for hub without my having to leave the hotel. There was wine provided in the hotel dining room and noone worse for wear. Noone seemed to be greedy with the food, generally rather civillised. As I wasn't eating I had plenty of chance to observe!


I eventually spent 2 hours each day out of the hotel on the last three days we were there, but only because we got a hire car. We were at a museum near the airport, I waited in the car as I was too weak to do anything else. I was treated to a fantastic 20 minute display by the Red Arrows attending the Malta Air Show! Rather sad, but that was the highlight of my week.

I have SAD so I managed to get some late sun.

My OH was gutted that we were a week too late for the air show this year, he's plane-mad!