Alaska Cruise: Pt. 9: Last dinner!

Last dinner on the cruise! After being at sea for two days, we were excited to be back on land soon, but we also wanted to savor our last chance to try so many different foods. Bring it!

Owen got the Avocado Boat with seafood in a lime cilantro vinagrette. Avocado and seafood, can't go wrong. The avocado was nicely ripe. Not too much seafood but not bad for an appetizer.

I got the Vol au Vent a la Reine - A flaky puff pastry case filled with chicken and mushroom in sauce supreme - this was awesome. I wish I could have one right now. The inside was kinda like pot pie, if you made it with Campbell's Cream of mushroom soup. The flaky outside was very well done, not undercooked like the other pastry dinner items we had on other nights.


Justin got some Floridian Oranges Steeped in Grand Marnier and Mint - The mint was kind of weird, as it tinted the oranges a bit green, but an orange is an orange. Albeit, a decent orange, since we had access to that amazing fruit on the cruise.


I was curious about what this was - "A Classic Philadelphia Pepper Pot" - It's just spicy minestrone. The mystery is solved. This was just okay.


Another prime rib night - "Texas Prime Rib with Creamed Horseradish - Roast beef with natural juice, grilled roma tomato, corn on the cob and baked idaho potato" - this is my "medium rare" cut. This is definitely NOT medium rare. I only ate half of this. This cruise does not know how to use salt on meat. Disappointing, to say the least. The baked potato, solid and good as always. Didn't eat my corn on the cob, but it seemed a bit oversteamed.


Owen loves turkey - given the choice, he'd eat turkey at almost every meal. So, seeing this on the menu, he instantly ordered it..."Young Tom Turkey and all the trimmings - Whole Roasted with Bread Fruit stuffing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce and glazed sweet potatoes" - Owen was in heaven. Thanksgiving came early for him. After I took this picture, they also added cranberry sauce, which really sealed the deal.


Justin and I decided to get this plate to share - "Sea Scallops Mediterranean Fashion - Served over Ratatouille of Eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, kalamata black olives, capers and fresh herbs" - I sneaked a few of the scallops, it was alright, but I think the mediterranian sauce was a bit off. It made the scallops almost...bitter tasting.


Dessert time! First up, a Honey and vanilla ice cream cake thing. I tasted it, it was okay. Not horribly memorable.


I got this strawberry mousse, the sugar free choice of the evening. The taste of this is described in one word: pink. It tasted like the color pink. Nothing really much of substance, that fakey sugary taste. This was really disgusting.

More mousse, but much better than that horrible sugar free crap. Vanilla and Chocolate Mousse, with chocolate shavings on top, it was really rich and tasty, especially as a contrast to the pink nastiness that I had just tasted.

The Princess Chocolate Heart dessert, one of the options that you could have every night. More of the same texture of the mousse, except a bit more cakey.

A splurge on the last night of the cruise, Owen decided on getting a chocolate sundae, with chocolate ice cream and fudge. This is a combination you pretty much can't mess up for him.

That's pretty much the end of the cruise! We had another sitdown breakfast before leaving the ship, but it was pretty much what we had last time we had the sitdown breakfast. What an eating marathon. I think I'm done with cruises for a bit, but it was great to catch up with family, and see Alaska! Now back to our regularly scheduled program of food blogging around LA!

Alaska Cruise: Pt. 8: Dinner, because there's nothing else to do

Another sea day, and we had to dress up in formalwear to boot. So I wasn't too happy about that (being in fancy clothes just isn't my style.), but we were excited because it was lobster tail night. Ooo! Exciting! But of course, we ate other stuff first...

Special rolls! The roll in the center was especially good, it was more like a flaky cheesy seeded croissant than a roll. Tasty, wish there were more of them in the breadbasket.

One of the appetizers was "Twice baked goat cheese souffle, garlic sabayon" - Owen got this. I tried a bite, it was a bit dry, and very much like a biscuit sitting on top of cheesy gravy.


I got the "Tian of crab, scallop and shrimp, duo of caviar, papaya coulis". The tian was inedible, just terrible tasting, bland and gross, bad texture. The caviar was yummy, so I carefully scraped them off the yuckfest which was the tian. The scallops were okay, kinda small and not too flavorful, but good chew.


The soup that Owen ordered was the "Double chicken broth with vermicelli and scallions" - Owen loved this, it's basically a hearty flavorful chicken noodle soup.


Just to try it, I got the "Iced pineapple and banana soup with rum", it's okay, but just not my bag. After two sips I was pretty much done with the flavor, kinda like a mai tai with ice cream melted in it.


Charisse got the "Golden fresh fruit collection flavored with kirschwasser." Oh, consistently delicious and sweet fruit. I miss it so.


And now, what some of us had been waiting the whole cruise for - the "Lobster tail and King Prawns - Served with a Turmeric Fennel Emulsion, accompanied with wilted romaine lettuce, whipped potatoes."As good as that all sounds (and looks), this dish overall was very disappointing. The lobster tail meat was not sweet. The shrimps were great though, really meaty and had the flavor I was hoping for in the lobster. The mashed potatoes were filler.


Owen, not always being a fan of the shellfish foods, got the "Beef Wellington - Perigourdine Sauce - Puff pastry wrapped tenderloin of beef in a black truffle madeira demi glace, market fresh vegetables and duchess potatoes". Potatoes were gross and dry, puff pastry was undercooked, but the beef was good! This was the main course to get that night. The broccoli was good too.


Tonight's dessert was the Baked Alaska! The waiters paraded around the dining room, each with a huge, flaming Baked Alaska...isn't it pretty?

Here's a cross section - chocolate, vanilla and strawberry were the flavors of the innards of the ice cream, atop cake, and all covered with meringue.

And then to make it even better, they covered each piece in that delicious dark chocolate sauce. It made it even better!

Rolling on down to the last of these Alaska posts! Stay tuned!

Alaska Cruise Pt. 7 - Breakfast! and Lunch! And Dinner!

Finally, we got up early enough to have breakfast in the dining room, as Derek was leaving the cruise early. We wanted to have one last meal alltogether, so we obliged by cutting our much needed sleep short.

This breakfast was kind of awkward, because our waitstaff was pretty lame - check this - when the waitress going around, asking if we wanted coffee...we said, "No", right? But then when the lady taking our orders went around taking our orders, and we asked for juice, the waitress got all huffy and angry, and said, "The other waitress was taking your drink order, why didn't you go through her?" Totally confusing, and unnecessary. How were we supposed to know that we were supposed to ask for our drinks when someone asks if we want coffee?

Anyhow.

Another round of salmon, anyone?

Derek and I shared this lox plate, as we wanted to try their regular breakfast items as well. Delicious and generous portion, as usual.

This is what I ordered as my main breakfast, the poached eggs plate. This was a serious awesome plate of breakfast. Check out those bacon slices! That's like, a whole side of pig! The eggs were delicious and perfectly formed - how do they do that? I liked how they were sitting on perfectly toasted toast. The only thing that was disappointing was the hash brown patty, which was not crispy and way too dense.

Owen ordered a combination of blueberry pancakes and a "rasher"of bacon. Owen's bacon was really good, I like crispier bacon, so he ended up switching a few of my pieces for his. He really liked his pancakes but the waitstaff was really slow in locating the syrup, Owen was done with one of his pancakes by the time they found some for him.

This was the special of the day, a scramble of smoked salmon on top of eggs, with the disappointing hash brown patty. This was disappointing for Derek, as the eggs were kinda gross and not the way he liked them (I avoided scrambled eggs on this cruise completely - I knew I'd be disappointed, I like my eggs a bit more runny and less...overcooked.)

Later that day, after going on our excursion (zip lining! totally awesome! I would suggest anyone to try it, so fun!) we were walking around Ketchikan, and saw a small greasy spoon diner called the Pioneer Cafe. Well, I haven't met a diner that I didn't want to go into, so Owen and I sat down and ordered a few things. The older lady who waited on us was very nice and had that awesome attitude that comes with being in a diner most of your life - like how she throws in "hon" into her speech. But what we ordered was kind of awesome!

I got a reindeer hot dog, with fries. This was superb! I was totally not expecting it to taste this good, but it was seriously good, a good amount of spice and kick, grilled perfectly, on a hoagie Columbo style bun, and good fries. Also, what was great was their yellow mustard - a bunch of that, and a bite of the hot dog, and I was totally happy.

Owen got a chicken club sandwich. When it arrived, I admit, I was skeptical, and figured Owen would be completely disgusted and not eat it. But he tried it, and was thouroghly surprised! It was really tasty! Even the american yellow cheese was really good, as it melted onto the crispy chicken, which was super moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

This came with Owen's sandwich - a side salad, diner style, with iceberg lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms. Blue cheese dressing came on the side.

Here's a closeup of the reindeer hot dog. Check those grill marks! And if you squint closely enough, you can see parts of Dasher or Dancer...kidding, kidding. This was some good reindeer hot dog though. Reindeer are very tasty.

Then back on the ship again, and dinner in the dining room. First the appetizers...

I started off with"Smoked wild sockeye salmon with condiments and brown bread" - I can't get enough of salmon on this cruise. Delicious as always, and maybe it's just me, but smoked sockeye salmon tasted EVEN BETTER than the other smoked salmons I had on this cruise, but maybe it's just because they called it that? I don't know, all I know is that I love smoked salmon. There was a nice little touch of already cream cheesed brown bread slices.


Next up, "Cook Indlet crab cakes and green asparagus spears, with whole grain mustard and puff pastry crown" - this was disgusting. Inedible, I only took one small bite. Even the puff pastry looks like a pac man mouth that has spit out this untasty crab cake. The crab cake was heavy, like a hockey puck, and hardly tasted of crab and way too much filler. I ate one spear of the asparagus, which was limp and dying. Complete failure.


"Pioneer Lentil soup with caribou sausage, cheese croutons" - this is the soup my brother got. The caribou sausage sounded kinda good, as did the cheese croutons, but the taste that I had just tasted of heavy lentils. Thick and overly filling.


The soup that I got was the "Diced root vegetables in clear oxtail broth" - this had a good beefy oxtail flavor and was still light. I liked it a lot, actually.


Now to the main course..."Supreme of Chicken a la Kiev - Breaded and pan fried breast filet with garlic herb butter, julienne of red beets, pea pods and parsley potatoes". This was good! Owen got this and I wish I had gotten it instead of what I got. Emma, our waitress, called it "High end KFC". That was a pretty good assessment of this dish. The chicken breast was moist and tender, the sugar snap peas were pretty overcooked and dried out. A decent dish overall.


This was one of the more anticipated main courses of the cruise, but totally disappointed me...the "Alaskan King Crab Legs with Melted butter - Split and steamed, served with New Red potatoes and sugar snap peas" - this was pretty bad, actually. The meat was tasteless, no flavor anywhere, even the butter didn't mask the mushy unappealing crabmeat. More of those overcooked snap peas and steamed red potatoes, which were the best thing of this plate. At least I didn't eat too much that night.


Bananas Foster was the dessert they were making tableside, so I got that. The bananas were too overdrowned in the sauce, and didn't crisp up, which is what they're supposed to do, right? Definitely mediocre, and more of that melted soup they're trying to pass off as vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate cake slice for Owen. He liked it, but what is not to like about chocolate cake?

This was the second best sorbet on the cruise, which was BLUEBERRY flavored. The combination of the icy texture with real blueberries thrown into the mix was perfect. I really liked this and wish I could have more.

Melted ice cream soup. What the heck.

This was also disappointing, the crepes. Leah ordered this, and said it tasted like egg and cheese omelet. They didn't sweeten this dessert enough.

Almost there! I promise! Only sea days are left at this point, so we're winding down...

Alaska Cruise Pt. 6: French Themed evening

French dinner night on the cruise! Little French flags adorned the dining table, and we were excited to look over our dinner choices - French cuisine is also so fun for me to try, as I don't partake of it very often.

First up to bat...

"Strasbourg Duck Liver Pate, flavored with vintage port and served with warm toasted brioche" - this was pretty decent, although I am still not really accustomed to liver flavor. This was mild though. The brioche was really tasty. My brother ended up eating half of the portion of the pate, . The red jelly thing was tasteless and I wondered why it was even on the plate.


Another fruit plate, excellent as usual, and a good assortment this time around too. Kiwi fruits weren't always available in the usual fruit salad mix at the buffet, so it was a good treat.


This was Charisse's escargot plate. I didn't get these myself, because it would have been a bit too intense, plus, I'm not the biggest fan of snails myself. These, however, smelled really good - doesn't anything smell pretty decent, cooked in butter and garlic? - and were done pretty well. I tried one - it tasted and had the consistency of an earthy mushroom. The sauce was very good with these, and after she was done with the snails, she used some bread to sop up some of the delicious buttery sauce.

Justin got Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder - A Hearty Soup flavored with Spring Onion Vermouth and Cayenne" - I only tried a spoonful of this, it was just okay.


For my soup, I got the Onion Soup Gratin - A Traditional French onion soup baked with Emmenthal Cheese" - This was pretty delicious as it was mostly cheese and bread. The soup itself was pretty great though. Lots of cooked down onions, a broth that was rich and deep with flavor - this was a winner.


In keeping with the French theme, I got Crispy Duck a l'Orange - Roast Ducking Glazed with an Orange Curacao Sauce, Accompanied by Briased Red Cabbage and macaire potatoes" - this was ok, the duck was pretty dry and not "crispy" at all, the potatoes were good, the green beans were okay, the red cabbage was gross.


Owen got the Rack of Lamb Dijonnaise - Roasted Rib Chops Coated in Mustard and Bread crubs with brussels sprouts and roasted garlic mashed potatoes" Owen really liked this, as it was lamb, and decently cooked, i.e. not horribly overdone. Owen hates brussel spouts so he didn't eat any of those.

This was the peach sorbet, it was okay but definitely not as good as the black cherry sorbet. However, it was refreshing, and good for cleaning the palate after all that rich food.

Justin got the apple cake, which had a lot of cooked down apples over a tart crust. I liked the design of the apple that they had drawn on the plate before they placed the apple cake over it.

This was the sugar free option of the night, puff pastry swans. This was disgusting. Tasteless, not sweet, just...not good.

This mint chip ice cream was pretty good, I got one taste of it, as Owen ate the rest of it.

Stay with me, everyone...getting there to the end of these Alaska posts...