Family Vacation 2013: Food

Good thing the formal night was early in the week.

Food, glorious food!
What wouldn't we give for
That extra bit more --
That's all that we live for
Why should we be fated to
Do nothing but brood
On food,
Magical food,
Wonderful food,

Glorious food!

In my limited experience, when you ask someone about their cruise vacation, they may mention the weather, but invariably there will be talk about the volumes of food consumed. Throughout the day and at every turn there are buffets, cookouts, snack bars, dining rooms, and restaurants. All but the specialty restaurants are included in your ticket price.

In many ways, a cruise is indeed an all inclusive trip. Purchase a few add-ons such as the bottomless soft drink ticket or an all-you-can-drink premium pass, and the spigot never turns off. Food, drink, fun, and merriment is sure to be the result.

For breakfast each member of our party was pretty much on their own. The breakfast buffet overflowed with slightly warm breakfast choices from around the world.  Unfortunately, I have a tiny bit of an aversion to serve-yourself buffets. While parents think it is so adorable for their four year old darling to serve themselves from the buffet line, I only see a 30 pound germ bag digging around in the food I was thinking of eating. By the end of the week, my breakfast selections ended up being a bowl of hot oatmeal, a cup of yogurt, and a banana.

For lunch, I would meet my sister and nieces for an afternoon nosh around the solarium (adults only) pool. The small deli bar had salads, hot and cold sandwiches, and juice. The chorizo quesadilla was really tasty.

Dinner, on the other hand was a more formal affair. We had 8:30 dining room reservations providing plenty of time to shower, dress, and perhaps catch an early show before sitting down to a three course meal. This was really the only time we were all together throughout the day, so there were plenty of topics for conversation as we all got caught up sharing our experiences from the day.



The ship's dining room seats 1250 people and there are two seatings a night. The menu descriptions of the food tend to over promise and under deliver. Serving that many people in 90 minutes twice a night, requires banquet style service. So everyone is being served sort of warm food all at once. The food wasn't really bad, but it wasn't really good either.

The specialty restaurants, on the other hand were outstanding. Our ship had both a family-style Italian restaurant and a steak house:

Giovanni's Kitchen: This is not your local Italian fare of pizza and lasagna. Instead, it is a full service restaurant specializing in upscale Italian fare served in the Italian style: Antipasti, soup/salad, pasta, protein, and dessert. Woof! Each diner chooses an appetizer and/or salad course, then pasta courses are served family style (i.e. in large bowls), then each diner chooses an entree. The appetizers were large enough to share and it was all I could do not to fill up on the lovely carpaccio and antipasti platters. The mushroom risotto was outstanding as were the broiled tiger prawns. All that topped off with Italian pressed coffee and a giant scoop of tiramisu prepared the way it is supposed to be. I could barely walk when dinner was over, but it was one of the best meals I have had all year.

 

Family Style, Indeed!

 

The risotto was a winner

Moo

Baa

What sound do prawns make?

Creamy and full of liquor!As it should be.

Chops Grille: It has an extra "e" so it has to be good. What can you say about a steak house? The wine was yummy, the food was delicious and cooked the way I ordered it, the service was impeccable. Either my stomach was sufficiently stretched to accommodate more food or I was getting better at choosing smaller portions since this dinner ended with me feeling comfortable and content.

The specialty restaurant experiences only served to highlight the mediocrity of the dining room's fare. But, I have to admit that the dining room staff do a good job of getting diners in and out without making them feel rushed.

Dining room meals are included in the cost of the cruise ticket. There are also options to eat at the serve-yourself buffet for both lunch and dinner. Add-on charges for the specialty restaurants are $20 per person for Giovanni's and $30 per person for Chops Grille. Alcohol is not included.       

And while I just may sound a little like an ungrateful food snob in the above descriptions, the extra pounds I picked up feasting my way to and from the Caribbean have been a great incentive for adding a few extra miles to my weekly runs. Fortunately, this year's bathing suit season is nearly behind us.

Tomato Pie? For Dessert?

Some of my favorite emails come from the Empire Eats mailing list - particularly when they are announcing a new menu or chef's dinner.

With the abundance of fresh produce available this time of year, chefs can expand their creativity beyond the protein and make the veggies shine. And what vegetable is more representative of summer's bounty than the tomato?

So, I was overjoyed to see that Gravy's next chef's dinner would be dedicated to the celebration of this quintessential summer treat. Even better, the dinner was to served outdoors on the patio. I immediately forwarded the email to my foodie friends, Cathy and Arjay, who immediately accepted the invitation.

The Starter: Gazpacho with Lump Blue Crab Meat.

Tomato and Pole Bean Salad with Pimento Cheese Fritter

Slow Roasted, Glazed Pork Belly with Queen Corn and Heirloom Tomatoes

Herb Roasted Chicken Leg with Tomato Panzanella Salad

Tomato Pie - Yep Tomato Pie

Thoughts on Dinner:
Once again, we lucked out by having friendly table companions with similarly dark senses of humor. No topic was off limits, including roosters, mating dances, and boudoir photo books.

Dinner was slightly delayed by the need to relocate the tables from the patio to the banquet area, but that was a minor inconvenience. The food was all quite tasty. For me, the standout items were the gazpacho, the pimento cheese fritter, the pork belly and the chicken leg, which would suggest that the proteins were still the stars of the show.

We were somewhat surprised by the wine pairings which consisted of 4 whites and a red. The white wines ranged from very sweet to turpentine and yet, when consumed with each dish, the wines took on different characteristics complementing the dishes. Even though we are all fans of red wines, I think that we would give at least 5 thumbs up for these pairings.

Our server seemed a little overwhelmed or intimidated by the sommelier at our table (who brought his own collection of wines). On each course she seemed to miss/forget/overlook at least one of our party for either the wine or food course. I think this was due to the efforts of serving the ladies first, which I think unnecessarily complicates service when there are 20-25 people at a table. On the other hand, we were all having the same thing, so it should have been obvious who did not have what.

Other than the inconsistent service, the dinner was great fun. We are looking forward to our next dining adventure.

For more information:
Gravy Italian-American Kitchen
135 Wilmington Street
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 896-8513