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Welcome to the buffet

Posted: 2015-11-09 23:29:00, Categories: Travel, Ecology, Sailing, 587 words (permalink)

Welcome to the buffet
The kitchen. Note the bars keeping the pots in place.
One of the important ingredients of any great voyage is food. No matter how much the ship rolled from side to side, the kitchen team led by the cook Eric, together with his assistants Sarah, Andy and other helpers from the crew, prepared and served us three delicious meals every day. They were even able to store some fresh fruit and vegetables until the last days when we were approaching Cape Town. The dishes were varied and healthy, including a well balanced menu for vegetarians and many home made food items, topped with friendly service. A sailing ship like Bark Europa naturally cannot match the vast buffets of a luxury cruise liner, but the food either met or exceeded our expectations in every respect.

Welcome to the buffet
Breakfast buffet with home made yoghurt.
Every day started with a breakfast buffet between 7 and 9 am, consisting of porridge, home made yoghurt, muesli, fruit pieces and fresh bread. The bread was baked every night and served with various toppings including cheese, ham, marmalades and peanut butter. Sometimes we also got eggs or other extras, and there were always juice, tea and coffee to drink.

Welcome to the buffet
Everybody waited eagerly for the fruit bowl to appear.
At 1 pm we had lunch which included the soup of the day, another dish and a bread buffet similar to that on the breakfast. Dinner was served at 7 pm, starting with the main course and followed by a short break, during which everybody was eagerly looking forward to tasting the dessert of the day. During the dinner there were water, tea and coffee to drink. Soft drinks, beer and wine were available at the bar at extra cost.

Welcome to the buffet
Food stores under the deck.
A couple of times a day small snacks were brought up to the deckhouse. To get a piece of cake or a cookie, it was essential to line up at the queue rather soon: in about ten minutes they were usually all gone. The most attractive serving of all was the fruit bowl, which appeared every two or three days. Using a combination of knowledge and gentle care, the kitchen team were able to offer even soft fruit such as peaches, plums and grapes for more than a month. During the last couple of weeks, soft fruit largely gave way to apples and oranges which keep longer, and they were in limited supply. Nevertheless, we had more fresh stuff than we thought when boarding the ship.

Welcome to the buffet
Lunch buffet on the deck on a sunny day.
The cook told us that experience from previous trips is used to estimate how much food is bought in, and will be needed at any given meal. For example during the days with landings the consumption is generally higher than during the days at sea. Whatever is left is cleverly recycled to throw away as little as possible. Leftovers of the dinner often reappeared next day at lunch, sometimes in a different form as pizza toppings or as ingredients of a dish baked in the oven. During long trips recycling is a necessity already due to limited storage capacity, but we also appreciated the ecological aspect of generating less waste.

Usually we ate inside, but occasionally when the sun came out and the sea was calm enough, the lunch was served out on the deck. The last photo shows our lunch buffet a couple of days before leaving South Georgia. That was one of our favourites, featuring three refreshing salads and crunchy pizza breads.

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