* Hope you enjoyed the ‘fish & chips’ and if you were some of those lucky ones that had to wait in line for more fish and chips (YES, I said lucky…if you were waiting for them then you know they were coming out hot & fresh!) then please continue to do so with that joyous smile I see in all the pictures you put on your blogs, send back home, or take with friends. Those are the best smiles.

Don’t let me catch you giving the Dining Room staff the ‘eyeball’ or I will ask the Captain to put you on trash duty with the food service department (and you thought a few dead Weevils were bad? At least they don’t smell!)

We basically had to start ahead of time in order to get a ‘jump start’ on dinner. One fryer was used for fish, and the other for chips…these fryers do not have the capacity of the ones on the Anastasis, but they are newer.

* As you have probably noticed Monday slipped by without nary a mention of ‘African Food Night’ and that was because it was so close on the heels of the Easter Brunch and activities…so it will pick up again Monday after next as it is only every 2 weeks. And to give local procurement a break on the plantains since they struggle trying to fill any big demand we have here locally.

* Last weeks menu was a little loose and unpredictable due to my own sickness, I still feel a bit weak but most of my symptoms and fever have quit returning. The good Dr. Wolfgang (which I like to say because it reminds me of a great Chef, you may have heard of him? Wolfgang Puck? Ok, well…) checked me out and had blood tests run so we know it was NOT Malaria but a Virile Infection due to pass in time.

* Peter (THE BIG BOSS) is ‘cooking up’ (pun intended) something new for you to possibly participate in and…nah, not going to give you that much info at this point. Something interactive is coming up in the Food Service Department.

* Pasta is whittling down, which means MORE COUSCOUS YEAH!!! (which is a pasta of sorts, and its Weevil free!) Ok, so maybe that doesn’t really make you happy? Well here is the short version: We are working on cleaning up stores, moving things into new spots, making way for more ‘weevil friendly’ products to be stored in colder areas so they won’t return to visit (which means we will have to keep frozen storage to a minimum for meats, its all a give and take)…and the current stock of pasta which is only mildly infested is almost used up. Done. Finished. Almost. Yeah, thought you might be happy about that.

We planned and experimented with slow cooking a ‘dry air’ or coddled/poached egg ‘if you will’ for you this morning for brunch.  We pre-tested it and the process worked.  The process is not really new, just new here…its another one of my lovely food science things that I make everybody in the galley participate in.

I started the warmers in the dining room early at about 65 degrees Celsius, Tim went down to start the eggs in 2 inch pans and turn the temperature down to 60 degrees Celsius.  That was at 8:45am, warmers were on, and hot.

Now about 10am Peter came up stairs to tell us the eggs were completely raw!  What? HOW?

I guess that will remain a mystery…somebody turned both warmers off probably almost immediately after we left the eggs in there, yes, both sides.

So who was it?  Was it sabotage? (certainly not, right?) Was it dining room staff? (they’ll never admit it now) Or could it have been the duty officer when he comes thru and tends to turn things off? (certainly they would not come thru and do that on Easter Morning Brunch!)

Ahhh, such is life.  Maybe we will try it again one day for a regular breakfast…oh they looked so good peaking up at us like a daisy the day we tested them, cooked so slow the whites where solid but not rubbery, the yolk shiny like the sun a vibrant yellow orange…

We might have been able to recoup a loss but unfortunately our clock stopped at 9:25 and we were putting along thinking all was making good time and we could pull off some more eggs in time…but no, it was really about 9:55am!  I wear a watch but I hadn’t really looked at it since I sent Tim down to put eggs in the warmers.

And just when I thought I could live with myself, one of my Hollandaise Sauce ‘broke’ (separated) and I was afraid it would be took for cheese sauce (and I think it was).

So I thank you all for your standing ovation and hope you thoroughly enjoyed yourselves on the Lord’s day, celebrating Jesus Resurrection.

Well I thought I might give you a little insight into the Lasagna just in case you might have a few questions rumbling around in the back of your head.

We don’t currently have any ricotta or cottage cheese to use in our lasagna so I use a bechamel sauce with parmesan cheese added. Also we use the standard Mozzarella cheese.

Sometimes the ‘white’ layer tends to disappear altogether when cooking the lasagana except for maybe seeing some stretchy white stuff here and there. You would probably be interested to know the classic lasagna has ricotta and bechamel sauce for the ‘white’ part and later people used what they liked best like cottage cheese. I prefer ricotta, but alas there is none of either.

Hope you enjoy anyway…and zuchini was in the veggie one that was offered.

[to all the faithfull people that eat what we serve, the ones that compliment & encourage the food service crew even when they hated the menu, the ones that carry on with life even if the food wasn't what they wanted that day or the next...keep it up!  and disregard this post]

I have tried to be political correct, humble, organization conscience, and a little removed when maintaining this blog…it really is my own personal blog that is linked to the AFM intranet for those of you who enjoy being able to actually look at a dinner(supper) menu for the week.

But today multiple complaints were aired about food running out at 12:30 for lunch today…to which I say is UNTRUE!  Really I don’t want to beat this dead topic into the ground but it is way past the limit of times it should have ever happened.

Hot food is never guaranteed for lunch, and I covered this quite well in an earlier post.  And because there is food you may not personally want to eat, does not by any means translate to being out of food.  If we have a lot of leftovers, then you have a lot of hot food for lunch.

AT 1pm, after the food was down in the dining room for 1 1/2 hours I received rice, snow peas, and soup back from the dining room.  Cold cuts and cheese were out for lunch along with options from salads, and the minimum of peanut butter and bread is always out!  And that my friend is what I have been conveying to crew since Mercy Ships has set this standard (it has been the same practice on the CBM, ANA, & here on the AFM).  The only place that it may be different is at the IOC.

I have also noticed that the dining room staff are the recipients of most of the complaints & criticism.  This is unfair to them and it is not right.

Please adjust the condition of your heart to the reason you came to serve and move forward from there…so somebody else can get to the peanut butter!

I have had quite a few comments about yogurt but here is a general reminder:

Yogurt is like oatmeal, if its done it will be a volunteer that will have to work around our limitations. I know maybe you have been in our kitchen/galley…if you have, you see our galley is even smaller than the ANA with more people to feed.

Last I heard someone was supposed to take over for the last person who was making it volunteer-ely (if that’s a word) doing it on the weekend out of the way of the cooking teams & dining room working hours.

Also, we (galley/dining room) are not in charge of any part of it and can not be pulled away from our work hours to assist you, every working person in food services is precious and their time during work is precious…if you would like to be that volunteer you need to contact a previous volunteer that can show you how to make it, take care of it, and overall be totally responsible for it within the basic guidelines AND permissions for galley and dining room use.(because the wamers that are used for the yogurt are in the dining room).

Otherwise you are free to enjoy our yogurt cups that we supply from time to time…no it may not have that ‘fresh made’ yogurt nutritional health, but it does taste good every now and then when you really start missing that yogurt taste!

I have had the report back that some of the meatballs were pink in the center…alright, fair enough.  But let me give you a little bit of education and science behind some of the things and preparation we do.  (because it didn’t bother some people)

The meatballs were first boiled for 20 to 30 minutes to quickly set the shape of the semi-ball form (we don’t have the luxury or time of making them machine produced perfect orbs, I am sure you already know that so we will move along) and additionally to boil off and leave behind meat juice ‘residue’ and fats.

Then the meatballs are cooked at about 325F or 160C (roundabout proximation) for about an hour.  This tightens up the structure of the meatball as well as colors it with a better roasting brown (thats a color for you to request at the paint store, roasted brown meatball - it works well with a burnt caramel, or creme brulee on the molding and trim).  In addition to this it completely cooks the meatball.  Then I check the temperature for at minimum for 160F (71C).  Then it is held in the warmer/oven for an additional half four or more before being served on the line.  Sometimes meat can be fully cooked and still appear pink, this is true with smoked meats especially.

Another example is science that most people will not accept because their upbringing or knowledge will not allow them to…that is that meat can be cooked to a varied (depends on kind and cut of meat) temperature for a certain length of time and not be well done, BUT STILL has been cooked to the appropriate specs allowed by government regulations.  Which is the standard that most of the world goes by that has these health governing agencies in their country.  Some exceptions are of course fowl, more specifically (in our situation) turkey and chicken which internally should/has to be 165F or 74C.  Most of my specs are drawn from the food and drug administration.  Here is a link if you are interested in this: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fttmeat.html or here http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/MeatTemperatureChart.htm 

But of course, you and I both know I couldn’t have or didn’t check every meatball. (laughing)  Just a few in different batches.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pasta!  Some of you may want to argue when I get done with this section but putting butter or oil in the pasta water doesn’t really do what you think it does…I say its 50/50 (and food science backs me up with plenty of experimental statistics to prove it) and the experts say its 0% that oil or butter in the water actually helps the pasta not to stick together in the water.  Its one of those old traditions that was handed down and taught to everyone so long its hard to change the mindset.

From my experience and all the food science books I have ever read all you need is the proper amount of water per pound of pasta, a high enough temperature for cooking it, and salt in the water (for taste, not the silly change the degree in the water explanation, because even if it did what use is 1 or 2 degrees difference?).  Thats it. 

I have talked to Italians, Chinese (because supposedly they had the pasta before Italians but I won’t be in that argument) and worked for a ‘boat load’of chefs that all agree, water and salt.  Here on the ship I cook the pasta without watching it all the time.  A few stirs here and there, my pasta comes out beautifully time and time again…and when I teach it to others they have the same experience, no oils or butters.  No sticking.

So what does the oil do?  In the water it will attach itself to the pasta but not consistently because of the moving boiling water.  And then when it does it ’seals’ the pasta so to speak.  What is the outcome of this?  Ever had that plate of pasta bolegnese or spaghetti and meatballs only to have watery sauce in the bottom of that plate?  Yep thats what it did, locked the sauce out of soaking into the pasta.

Now, all that being said…I add olive oil (when available, its extra virgin ‘the good stuff’ right now) after the pasta is in the pan, yes it still locks out some of the sauce from attaching itself to the pasta but this is the compromise:  When you are at home and want to add the pasta straight into the sauce or vise versa and eat it right away I would never use an oil or butter directly on the pasta, because the fresh cooked pasta will suck it up like a child and a milkshake…BUT when you are feeding 400 plus people that little drizzle of olive oil mixed with the remaining wetness of the noodle keeps the pasta from sticking together in big clumps while it sits on the line.  So a compromise is made for the best.

I will only add additional oils or butters (besides the drizzle) if I am applying some herbs or flavors to  the pasta…otherwise, NO I do not.  Although our cooking teams may decide to cook things differently this is my standard.

Here on the ship we have a smaller galley for individuals and families that want to cook their own food.  As an inheritance of small tools & devices from the ‘cleaning out’ of that area I have acquired a kitchen ‘tool’ that has been a mystery so far… (you can click on the pictures to see them bigger)

I asked (by email) a good friend Bob A Hunger Artist what did he make of the picture I sent him to which he sent out an email requesting the help of several of his food-centric friends.  In addition to this, he also posted this on his blog (which by the way gets way more traffic than my site does, by ‘food’ people at that!) and right away (or at last count) the first original post garnered 28 comments, mostly suggestions and humorous cracks.

Then Stephen The Foodist & Scotty Cooking In Theory & Practice also picked up the story…and later at Scotty’s request I produced another picture for him and Bob that suggests the proper ‘right side up’ look of the tool.

Stephen went so far as to inquire of the English (can’t remember exact office) about the registered number posted on the tool…and we are currently awaiting an answer on that!  And for those of you who are curious this is the only and exact writing on it:  REGD 911032 made in England.

So a final answer has not been forthcoming, and I am still enquiring from people here on board the ship since I have at least 30 nationalities represented on board at any one time…

Irritating as it may be (to us) it may be that this tool was really useless or does not work adequately, or maybe its not even made anymore?  Which would explain why none of us know what it is, because we only remember the ‘good stuff’, the stuff that works.  And maybe sometimes the stuff that works so bad or was such a terrible idea that you can’t forget it! (laughing)

A big ‘thank you’ to Bob at A Hunger Artist for kicking things off!  As well as The Foodist & Cooking In Theory & Practice for also helping out…BUT we are still looking for an answer out there!

Do you know what it is?