What I ate on vacation – Part I: Cruise Food

I know, I know . . . I’m a horrible procrastinator. I’m already back in Taiwan and itching to tell you about what I’ve eaten so far and I still haven’t even begun to talk about the food that I ate when I cruised around the Baltics last month? Let’s play some catch up . . .

For our trip to the Baltics, my family chose to sail with Princess Cruises again after having an excellent experience the last time we cruised around the Eastern Caribbean. This time, we were on the Emerald Princess, which is a relatively new and large ship; despite having a cabin whose view was partially obstructed, and while I can’t really speak for the onboard entertainment and activities (my family prefers to go offshore on days that we stop at a port or just relax at our own pace on days at sea), I was really satisfied with the whole experience. Our cabins were spacious (by cruise ship standards), clean and well-kept due to the incessant cleaning by the cabin attendants.

As for the food, we found Princess Cruises’s to be quite good (we give a slight edge to Princess’s over Norwegian, though Norwegian’s breakfast buffet layout and options were better). Here’s a sampling of what I ate while on the ship:

Post-buffet aftermath is never pretty. But hey, at least I put my utensils in the correct position to indicate that I’m done . . .

What most people don’t realize is that the room service is already included in your cruise expenses, so take advantage of it!

On the days where we’re at sea, my sister and I enjoy having afternoon tea; Princess does their version in one of their formal dining room complete with live music courtesy of a string quartet, waiter service, unlimited refills of hot tea, tea sandwiches, small pastries, petit fours, scones with real clotted cream and jam.

My sister’s plate: baguette with sliced ham, tomato and cucumber relish on a toasted roll, a slightly dry slice of pound cake.

My plate: Smoked salmon (love love love and would probably ingest in copious amounts if it weren’t for the sodium) and cream cheese tea sandwich, cucumber on a baguette, marbled shortbread.

Dinners were quite nice as we were allowed to pick our dining partners and when we ate (we’re not such a fan of pre-determined seating arrangements and dining times). I usually opt to pick light, fish based, non-dairy courses as the last thing I want to feel while I’m vacation is bloated and weighed down.

Some appetizers that we enjoyed included a caviar and seafood salad.

Another seafood salad lightly dressed in a cool citrus sauce.

A perfectly cooked red snapper filet.

Halibut, haricot vert with spiced tomato sauce, steamed potatoes.

I did deviate on the Chef’s Special Dinner when I ordered a roasted pheasant entree (accompanied by prociutto wrapped haricot vert, caramelized onions in a sweet sauce and steamed vegetables). Sadly, while the pheasant was juicy and well-seasoned, the sauce the caramelized onions was overly sweet and starchy (too much cornstarch) and was so gummy I couldn’t touch it after the initial bite. As for the veggies, it’s kind of hard to mess that up.

But . . .

I always have to save room for dessert. It’s become a bad habit of mine to always indulge in something sweet after dinner; the day just doesn’t seem complete without it. For the most part, the desserts on Princess were good; look at the pretty gourmandises plate that I got one night:

Top to bottom: candied fruit and almond slices, linzer cookies, which were my favorite of the bunch as the cookie was a perfectly executed buttery shortbread, chocolate cream eclairs and coconut macaroons).

Another night: A dessert wine and a plate of fruit.

One favorite dessert: a berry gratin with an almond-based crust and biscotti.

My sister and I also were greedy little pigs and went up to the twenty four hour buffets after our four course meals and snuck MORE desserts to take back to the room to enjoy later.

This poor tasteless muffin was doomed from the start.

Though I did get hooked on their awesome chocolate chip cookies. I should have gotten the pastry chef to give me his recipe as these were cookies that I long for: crispy on the outside, chewy in the center, studded with big chunks of chocolate. I’d always enjoy one as a late-night snack with milk tea . . . drooling now that I’m thinking about it again.

Overall, we had an excellent time on the cruise! We’ve heard stories before of people eating nothing but steak and pasta (two foods I’m not a huge fan of), but this wasn’t the case with Princess.

If you’re interested, please read the other posts in this series:
Part II: Offshore Eats (St. Petersburg, Russia and Rostock, Germany).
Part III: Eating Copenhagen