Adventures in Gluttony

Every day that goes by without cruise food is another day when I readjust to snacking on granola bars and having frozen waffles for breakfast. To that end, I thought I'd make a list of everything worth remembering about cruise food from last week.

* Shrimp! Ask anyone who spoke to Scott in the week leading up to the cruise, and they will probably tell you he was most excited about the shrimp. That was our first stop when we first got on the ship. I occasionally enjoy shrimp, but Scott loves the little suckers. The cocktail sauce on these shrimp was pretty heavy on the horseradish - my eyes watered with every bite. Yum!

* Fresh fruit! We started almost every day at the casual buffet up on deck 9. The buffet started with giant bowls of fresh fruit. Every meal, I had fresh pineapple and watermelon, and the occasional grapefruit half (pre-sliced even!).

* The breakfast buffet also had little cream cheese balls, sized perfectly for a half bagel. There was a chive selection and a salmon selection. Both were sublime!

* Soups! Once I realized just how great the soups were, I had one almost every night. I even had delicious roasted red pepper soup and mushroom cream soup - even more exciting when you consider that I don't even like red peppers or mushrooms! They also have cold soups. I tried a cold potato-dill soup, which I might crave if I ever have my jaw wired shut. It tasted like potato salad. But cold potato soup is unnatural and I only ate about half of it. Another standout was the asparagus soup. Mmm... soup!

* Risotto! If there was risotto on the menu, it was on my plate (except for the blue cheese risotto on the vege menu one night. ick!). We had the seafood risotto at Palo, a tomato version at another dinner, and I had a spectacular asparagus risotto.

* We had some pretty great entrees while onboard. Some of my favorites were the tamarind-rubbed pork tenderloin, the sesame-seared ahi tuna, and grilled flounder with a crab-hollandaise sauce. Scott's favorites included the lobster tail, a salmon dish, and a beef tenderloin dish; the details of which escape us both.

* And of course, we can't forget about the desserts! My absolute favorite from this trip was the cappuccino cheesecake from Palo. Not only was it shaped like a cappuccino mug (complete with chocolate handle), it was the best-tasting dessert of the trip. Scott's favorite was also from Palo - he had the panna cotta. We also had an amazing peanut butter and jelly brioche pudding with peanut butter sauce, creme brulee cheesecake, chocolate lava cake, a sundae with brandied cherries, and a bunch of other sugary concoctions.

I don't know about you, but just reading all of that makes me feel full!