SHIPBOARD DINING
Anyone who knows me and the Chief Penguin well, knows that we are foodies. As in the case of Caesar, this army travels on its stomach. One of the delights of cruising with Crystal is the quality and variety of the food. And it is truly excellent! You can get almost anything you’d possibly want to eat and you will likely be offered a drink anytime you sit down in one of the many lounges. Despite the fact that there are 970 passengers on the ship, we have always been able to find a quiet, relatively unoccupied public place to sit.
We are early birds and are usually some of the first to attack the breakfast offerings. Beginning at 6:00 A.M., croissants and pastry as well as a range of fruits and sliced cold meats and cheeses are available to enjoy with coffee or tea. The Chief Penguin goes up first and gets to have both a pot of English breakfast tea and a cappuccino! At 7:00 or 7:30 A.M. depending on the day and the schedule vis-à-vis sailing or docking, a full breakfast buffet is open with everything from eggs and bacon to sausages and congee, French toast and pancakes, and about eight different kinds of bread which can be toasted, plus donuts, cinnamon rolls, and other sinful goodies. We both anticipate the arrival of the bacon strips on the full buffet!
At lunchtime at the grill, you can always order a burger (beef, turkey, salmon, etc.) and fries, or a tuna melt or a chicken Caesar wrap. Then there’s the lunch buffet: a salad station with multiple kinds of lettuce, specialty prepared salads, hot entrees (chicken, pork, veal, pasta of the day), sandwich of the day, rice preparations, and representative dishes from other cuisines such as a stir fry of some sort, lots of cut-up fresh fruit, and many little desserts, some sugar-free. There are also plenty of vegetarian options too. The selection is amazing to overwhelming and the temptation is to overeat. Requires lots of self-discipline and more laps around the promenade deck to keep off the pounds!
Dinner in the main dining room is now open seating (used to be you had a set time and table), and we routinely eat on the early side before it gets really busy and noisier. The dinner menu (presented then as well as posted on a ship screen earlier in the day so you get a preview) offers both modern cuisine and classic cuisine plus traditional favorites. For each course, there is usually a choice of six to nine options. I have enjoyed several fish preparations, a lovely green salad with Gorgonzola, lamb curry with all the condiments, and several cheeses for dessert. What is helpful for the calorie counter is that you can order half portions of any course making it possible to taste something, but not overdo.
And since, “it’s Crystal,” as Ellen would say, you can even request a particular dish ahead of time and they will generally make it for you. The other evening we asked for veal zurichoise (veal in a cream sauce with mushrooms) and Salzburger Nockerl, an Austrian dessert that is a combination of a soufflé and meringue on top of a layer of pink lingonberry sauce. The chefs in the kitchen kindly obliged and our delicious Swiss entrée was presented with accompanying roasted potato wedges, cauliflower florets, and asparagus spears while the dessert was a snowy mountaintop wedge covering the plate.
And if one should tire of the menus in the main dining room, there are several specialty restaurants which require making a reservation. We have now eaten at all three: Silk (creative Chinese cuisine served family style), Umi Uma (part of Nobu’s Japanese restaurant group where the onionskin thin new style sashimi was heavenly), and Prego (Italian fare where I had a most delicate and delicious grilled branzino over sautéed spinach with an artichoke potato mousseline on the side). A yummy set of possibilities! Lastly, if you don’t want to leave your stateroom, there’s room service, of course.
Yet another treat is taking advantage of afternoon tea served on the uppermost deck from 3:30 to 4:30 every afternoon. There is a tea menu of black, green, herb and infusion teas from which you choose. You are then presented with a three tier stand of sweets and savories: dainty cookies, small scones (clotted cream and jam are passed separately), and a row of tea sandwiches from cucumber to cheese to ham. And if that isn’t enough decadence, a waiter returns to offer oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies! The chinaware is lovely and all the treats tasty. What’s hard is not eating them all—we didn’t!
The ship’s crew hail from 45 different countries and each staff member’s badge indicates his or her home city and country. They are to a person pleasant, friendly, and delightful, and we have engaged in some extended conversations, particularly if they come from a place we have visited.
Note: Text and photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Header photo is a tug at work in the Haifa harbor.
