Text 26525, 115 rader
Skriven 2009-07-26 12:01:13 av Carol Shenkenberger (524.cooks)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson (454.cooks)
Ärende: BAD PIZZA  90725
========================
    
 >  CS> If I can politely avoid cakes and most sweets, I do.  Even if it's one
 >  CS> i 'like' I am seldom in the mood to have sweets.
 > 
 > Whether I eat cakes, etc depends on how much I have eaten before.
 > BTW, in Anglo-Australian-Kiwi talk, "sweets" normally means "dessert",
 > "tea" means "dinner" and "entree" means the dish served before the
 > "main" at lunch or tea.

My translation was always that 'tea' was a small noshe around 4pmish when
'dinner' is served at 7pm or later.  'Supper' is the term here for that later
meal.  It's interchangable though with 'dinner' for most of us.

 >  >  > Australian Navy troop transport ship "Manoora" had been voted the best
 > 
 >  >  > Breakfast: Bacon, eggs, sausages, pancakes with maple syrup, yoghurt,
 >  >  > fruit.
 > 
 >  CS> Yes and no.  Thats the issue for ours.  See, our backgrounds of eating
 >  CS> are really different so to suit the crews of the ship's I've been on,
 >  CS> you have to add Rice, Grits, Oatmeal etc.  Dried fish too, grilled to
 >  CS> warm was common on FT McHenry and ESSEX.
 > 
 > There would be cereals and toast as a matter of course, but the
 > program concentrated on what had to be prepared by the cooks.  Dried
 > fish would be most unusual, but that, and the rice, is an indication
 > that you had quite a few Filipino seamen on board your ships.  (g)

Yup!  That we did.  I think ethnically, we were about 30% philipeno on Fort
McHenry and Essex?  So yes, their food tastes were always taken into account.
Especially as they tended to be well over 50% of the cooks.  Thats related to
getting a USA clearance and being a foreign national.  Many philipenos can't
get a clearance so can't enter rates that require one.  Cook is wide open
though as are several engineering rates.

Grin, that reminds me of one funny time.  Fort Mchenry.  We'd been out quite
a long time and to make the crew happy, we setup an 'ethnic night' for
Saturday dinner.  It was different ones each week.  For those who didnt like
the choices, there was a salad bar and chili-mac ;-)  Crew got to put in for
'what ethnic' they wanted (only rule was no duplication over the 5-6 weeks we
did this).  As i recall:  Cajun night, Greek night, Southern (with emphasis
on southern African American favorites), New England Boiled Dinner, and
Irish.  I think there was a 6th one but forgot what we selected.  Only that
none of them were 'asian' as we had that all the time.

It was funny to watch a bunch of filipeno cooks pour through books on how to
make 'southern fried chicken with black eyed peas, turnip greens, and
cornbread'.  They fell in love with Cajun right away and ever after we'd see
things creap in that were related to that cuisine.

In fact the best cajun I've ever had was not in New Orleans, but floating
around the equator on the way back from Darwin.  It's also fast and easy to
fix relatively so we'd see it alot in homeport Sasebo for lunch.

 >  CS> us'uns love our chili-mac too.
 > 
 > That is one USAn dish which I have never seen on an Australian table.

Hehe but you've had it before perhaps on a trip here?  It's not haute cuisine
I grant you but done well, it's just plain simple good stuff.  I'll be making
some today I bet.  I have 6 small heirloom tomatoes, 3 small heirloom
green/red bell peppers (as they age, they start to go red on the vine and
taste a little sweeter).  Add 1.5 lb of ground beef, various seasonings, and
a can of ro-tel chiles in tomatoes, then pour it all over cooked elbow pasta.
I'll add onions and such as seems handy as I go along.

(reminder to self, clean cast iron pan first as we made salmon last night and
the grease will be fishy which won't match).

 >  >  CS> lamb though.  USA folks arent used to it and it's expensive outside
 >  >  CS> your area.
 >  > Australians are used to eating lamb, and many demand it.

Probably a bit like us and Catfish.  It's a 'gotta have' now and again.

 > US style chili, although not unknown, is rare here.

Hehehehe!  I do not recall seeing it there at all.  Hadnt noticed until you
mentioned it though.

 >  CS> Did hey have soups as well?  If so, what types do you recall from the
 >  CS> show?
 > 
 > Soups would be the normal starter to dinner.  The most common would be
 > tomato, pumpkin, chicken, chicken and sweetcorn, mulligatawni.

All but the pumpkin would be normal here.  Pumpkin would occur but not that
often and yes, in your case it's also squash related vice the pure sort of
'only 1 thing is a pumpkin, and it's orange and seen at halloween'.

 >  CS> Yup, or just a good ol' roast beef joint.
 > 
 > Usual roasts would be lamb, beef or pork, with veggies.

Omit the lamb and it's the same.

 > The catering manager is probably the most important officer on the
 > ship, in the eyes of the crew!  S/he is responsible for morale, and
 > has to maintain a happy ship.  That point was made by several crew
 > members interviewed on that program.

Yes, and it's true.  The entire morale of the crew can be tracked by the
quality of the cooking.

 >  CS> Anyways, the ship sounds like they got good chow!  I'd snuffle up to
 >  CS> it for sure!
 > 
 > Me too.  That crew looked well fed, but not over-fed.

Most Navy folks now are trimming down in all countries.  Used to be we tended
to be bigger than the rest of the populace, but now we aren't (at least in
the USA).
             xxcarol
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