I was under the impression and education of books and colleagues that minced beef was just the English term for what North Americans call ground beef.  But lately my intrigue in figuring out why my minced beef seems to be so strange to cook, stay pink in the center, and not quite taste exactly like any ground or minced beef I have ever tasted has led me to ask you, the reader, what’s in your minced beef?

Here’s what’s in mine ~

*Beef, water, (ok so far) breadcrumbs, soy, salt, fermented rice (WHAT?!), pepper

Steve, over at Round The Chuckbox Observations of Life and Faith from a Camp Cook (also linked here under culinary minds) has a wonderful blog and I think I am just going to use HIS self descriptive text for it -

For 37 years I’ve had two culinary careers — one that paid the bills and the other imagined. Growing up in Fresno in the 1960s, I attended Camp San Joaquin in Sequoia National Forest. To me the cook and his assistant had the best job. Where else could I pursuit my passion for cooking and my love of the mountains at the same time, I reasoned? With retirement nearing, ambition may soon turn to gold, Lord willing.

Great insights, personal views, and some great recipes from another ‘foodie’ & cook…check it out.

ANYWAYS, Steve asks a good question:

Hi: What do you run for breakfast and lunch (and night meals?).

Well let me explain first that the menu shown on the ‘menu’ page is always the Evening Dinner or Supper listng.

Dinner (or the Lunch meal), is usually a homemade soup, meat and cheeses cut for sandwiches, and different fresh veggies and fruits with the salad ‘bar’. Leftovers from the night before are ‘re-packaged’ as a new dish or just heated up (some foods just don’t re-package well)…if there are not a lot of ‘hot’foods left from the day before we default to the above mentioned items. Meaning that hot foods (excluding soup) are only a bonus for lunch but are not guaranteed.

Breakfast is usually ‘do it yourself’ Mon-Fri which can include several different things: several different cereals, breads, oatmeal, jams, jellies, yogurt…but also we have cold cuts, cheeses, and a few other options for teams that work off ship during the day can ‘bag’ a lunch. Although the Europeans (and others) also eat these things for breakfast. There are toasters, juice, coffee, tea, hot water…all the condiments you could think of. The set-up for this is done by the Dining Room staff/crew every day.

Saturday breakfast is usually pancake day that is ran by volunteers who come make the pancakes.

Sunday breakfast is usually the above Mon-Fri with the addition of scrambled eggs, bacon/ham/corn beef hash (pick one) and sometimes other things like surprise cinnamon rolls or things like that.

The breakfast meal is done like this because of the nature of the job. Cooks (or the whole galley crew) work from 8am to 7am (or there about, give or take an hour) just to produce all the meals during lunch and supper, then a massive clean-up of the galley at the end of the day…so a hot breakfast everyday made by our crew would pretty much be ‘out of the question’ without trying to run a morning crew which we don’t have ‘bed allotments’ for…plus its hard to have full staff when you rely on being fully volunteer.

On a further note, Saturday and Sunday you must pack your lunch at breakfast time because we do not cook lunch those two days. Saturday the galley crew still works but the first part of the day is reserved for cleaning and then on to cooking supper (evening dinner). Sunday its up early to cook a ‘hot’ breakfast, then a quick clean-up of the galley then on to church or back to bed (depends on how you feel inclined) then back again after 1pm to start dinner/supper.

May sound hectic or weird, but it works good…and has been for years.

I was reminded today by a question/comment form that was filled out, that it has been a long time since we have had Spaghetti with meat sauce or bolognese.

In an earlier post this year I talked about weevils (here and here) and how they are damaging all our grain products. They were so far advanced in the actual spaghetti noodles that it was creating gray ‘dust’ where they once fed on the whole pasta.

2 Months ago we had select pasta left.

1 Month ago we had no pasta left except for Couscous and Rice Noodles.

I wish we would hurry up and get our pasta we ordered. Its coming on a future container. I am ready for some spaghetti as well as all those other pasta shapes and dishes we will be able to once again created weevil free!

Its been a busy time here since Friday and we are still waiting on the crane to be fixed before we can haul all the trash out in bulk instead of run it all up 2 or 3 decks to the empty bins on deck 8.

We have acquired a galley person in the salads section, and a ‘loaner’ from crew services…and from time to time I can talk my old (she’s young) friend Tatyana from Brazil into doing a little galley work if she can get a babysitter!  She used to work with me on another ship years ago, but has since become a mother and has more important priorities (no, not her husband, her other child!)

We have come to an end of the pastors conference, and soon to be finished vision trips (although its just temporary till the next one comes)…as the whole crew eats African food for African Night. And later after the dining room is cleaned quickly we refill for another 60 to 75 dinner guests with a church group that came to ‘check us out’. They also are have the African Dinner.

What have all these ‘African Dinners’ consisted of? Besides West African style foods here is a more specific list:

Spicy baked/roasted chicken, with one of the following: peanut sauce, red sauce, palava sauce…

Rice / Jollof Rice

Spicy Black Eye Beans (black eyed peas, red palm oil, local peppers…)

Eggplant (skin, cube, saute with onion, garlic…later add tomato product like sauce, stewed, or past continue to cook)

Fried Plantains

Cassava/Potato Greens

The ward cook had a tasty looking dinner cooked for the patients yesterday made out of diced chicken, pumpkin, and of course a spicy tomato and red palm oil base.

This food is definitely high starch and not low fat…at least by Western standards.

SIGN SAYS: When the doors are closed please do not enter. The floors are being cleaned. Thank you!!!

Comment: It would be usefull if the staff opened them after they have finished cleaning the floors.

Fair enough, so lets say that dining room doors are closed until 8:30pm after supper/dinner and you are expected not to enter or open the doors during this time UNLESS the dining room staff leaves the doors open?

A lot of our frustration comes not from what the circumstances are, but If we change the rule, will people actually feel inclined to follow it when they don’t follow it now?

Please take into consideration that it takes awhile for the floors to actually dry after being cleaned, and it is a LOT of floor. In addition to that they have a real hard time actually keeping people out so that prolongs the cleaning period, which effects the drying time…

Patience (as in many other departments) is the key/virtue to waiting for the work to be done, and then you have to ask yourself…why do I really need in the dining room? ~ filtered water is available behind the cafe ~

JUST for fun, here are some of the top excuses for not following that particular sign/rule (which are unacceptable by the way):

1. I don’t like the way the water tastes from the other filtered source
2. I’m on night shift/or shift worker
3. I’ll only be a minute
4. I have a family
5. I am medical/nurse/doctor
6. I have a table tennis/ping pong match
7. I just want to watch the TV
8. I don’t have a kettle for hot water to make my tea

*Unless it is a life or death emergency ALL of these excuses have no reasonable bearing for not waiting the 2 hours from 6:30pm to 8:30pm before entering the dining room.

And as always if you have approval by Peter or Ken ahead of time, then yes, it will not apply to you for that period of time. HR, for example has approved time in the dining room (either by Ken or Peter or both) for the new crew on Monday nights after their arrival.

[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!