We had three sea days en route to Mozambique. Executive Chef Alastair and Executive Pastry Chef Tony seemed to think that required extra culinary events.
On our first sea day, lunch had a special Sicilian themed station. The Aquavit Terrace continues to be a wonderful location for these special displays, and allows for the World Café still to offer all its usual food stations.
On our second sea day, the special lunch event was a Cobb Salad station, with freshly grilled chicken breast and salmon offered as the proteins to go on top of all the other wonderful ingredients: romaine, shredded carrot, shredded cheddar, hardboiled eggs, kidney beans, corn niblets, chickpeas(garbanzo beans), picked beets, lovely huge croutons, and black olives. I took everything except lettuce and salmon and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ted opted for pizza followed by a tiramisu eclair – but he walks every day and has maintained his weight, whereas I have 5 extra pounds of which I need to divest myself.
We were invited to have dinner in the restaurant with some of the senior officers, which was an unexpected treat. We’ve heard from friends about that kind of thing happening on Oceania, but it’s never happened to us before.
Ted can verify that the event, which included 4 couples plus our General Manager, Cruise Director, Future Cruise Consultant, and Executive Chef, was wonderful.
Unfortunately I had to leave during the appetizer course due to a severe bout of motion sickness.The seas have been calm for almost 6 weeks; how frustrating that it was last night that they suddenly decided to roll.
On day three, Executive Chef Alastair and his team pulled out all the stops for a brunch event celebrating the half way point for the longest option of our World Cruise (Fort Lauderdale to New York City). Foods from all of our ports of call – and those to come – were featured.
“Security” staff barred the entrance to the pool deck and wintergarden until the unveiling at 10:15 a.m. for photos, and then the general opening of the event at 10:30 a.m.
It was another absolute wow – a true feast for the eyes as well as the palate!
While it was impossible to get photos of everything, especially while vying with other photographers for the best angles, here’s a pretty representative selection. Missing is the breakfast station, the sliders and salads set up in the pool grill, and the gorgeous breads and sushi displays (the latter two because they were set up under a huge red Viking umbrella as protection from the sun, and so were tinged pink in all the photos).
There are always incredible carved fruits and vegetables as the themed décor.
There are lots of healthy options, like glorious fresh fruits (you don’t HAVE TO dip them in the white or dark chocolate fountains) and cool juices (again, you don’t HAVE TO add the Prosecco or vodka!)
Executive Pastry Chef Tony went all out with sugar work again: a flying fish and coral, a tribute to London including the Westminster clock tower, a call box, and the London eye, and a profiterole tower wrapped in a sugar sash.
But today’s pièce de resistance was his elephant family!
The pasta station
The Indonesian station.
Everywhere we saw chefs, sous chefs, assistant chefs, and cooks proud of their accomplishments. And everyone said the same thing when we complimented them: “it’s teamwork!”. We agree. What a team!!
Our choice for lunch was the biryani and butter chicken from the Southeast Asia station, because neither of us could resist the incredible smells created by perfectly blended spices. (Plus, I just adore Sous-Chefs Vishnu and Sanwar)
There are always a ridiculous number of tempting desserts. Ted went for fresh donuts (no photo, because it was pink-lit) snd I succumbed to a couple of macarons.
It’s more than just the food that makes these events so incredible. A big part of it is the participation of the senior officers and the entertainment staff.
It may not be quite the same as cutting their wedding cake 10 years ago, but Cruise Director Cornelia and General Manager Marcel made the most of prepping and serving the Asian noodles!
I took advantage of the opportunity to get hugs from and photos with some of my favourite people on the ship: Hentje (the band guitarist, who was our strolling minstrel today), our irrepressible Restaurant Manager Antonio, and our elegant and oh-so-talented Cruise Director Cornelia.
And now we’re ready for Maputo, Mozambique tomorrow!
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 