Month: February 2025

Shipboard Dining Lives Up to Its Reputation

~ Ken Mirvis ~ Leave a comment

A fish lover’s perfect breakfast

An opening digression: Foodie vs Gourmet vs Gourmand
I’ve spent some time thinking about blogging about the ship’s food … which, by the way, is superb.

I love food and eating, so being on a ship with great food is a treat. But I wanted to frame the experience in some uniquely personal way. I’m a “foodie,” I thought. But I balked. I am not sure what a “foodie” is. I like to drink, but that doesn’t make me an alky; I like to drink in moderation, and some alcoholic drinks, like hard lemonade, make no sense to me at all. I like wine, but that doesn’t make me either a connoisseur or a wino; I like drinking wine regardless of whether or not it is very good, and drinking too much of it makes me feel like crap. I like really good, well-prepared food, but flavor always wins out over other variables, like quality; the best meal we ate in Bergen was a grilled sausage from a street vendor. I just like food and flavors and the experience of eating. I love cooking, but I think that is mostly because I love eating. So, does any of that make me a “foodie”?

I went to the expert: Google. I am definitely not a “gourmet” because the foods I love do not have to be of any particular quality or prepared in any certain way, and I certainly do not have a discerning palate. (I know people who can distinguish between types of salt. Not me!!!) Just because something doesn’t taste the way a particular dish is supposed to taste doesn’t mean it is not delicious.

That leaves a choice between “gourmand” or “foodie.” Gourmands, I learned, love food and eating, but err on the side of gluttony. While I assuredly have the capacity to overeat, being a glutton just doesn’t resonate. I guess that leaves “foodie.”

The best Google definition I found describes a foodie as “an amateur who loves food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.” (Like my daughters, I love reading cookbooks!) I’m going with “foodie,” so this description of shipboard food is from the perspective of a foodie, not a gourmet or a gourmand (even though the quantities can be obscene at times.)

Shipboard Fish Feasting
The least interesting, least fun meal of the day on the MS Nordkapp is the evening meal … which (sorry to be boring) leads to yet another semantic distinction. “Dinner” is the big meal of the day, regardless of whether it happens in the evening or midday. “Supper” is a lighter meal than “dinner.” So, the least interesting, least fun meal of the day on board is “supper.” Breakfast and lunch kick butt!

“Supper” on the ship is a sit-down experience with a waiter and a choice of three starters, three entrees, and three desserts. Our waiter, Elias, quickly learned that I always asked for two entrees, not because I am interested in the quantity, but because I cannot pass up an available taste!

The food at supper is just fine, but nothing exciting. What makes breakfast and lunch exciting is the variety! Fresh fruit, cured meats, pate, cheeses, breads, pastries, eggs, bacon, side dishes, desserts, all abound. Some of that selection, like the cheeses, excites me; the breads, pastries, and desserts spark little to no interest (though I do suffer through an occasional bowl of custard smothered in fruit compote). But the high point of breakfast and lunch is the superabundance of seafood!

Before this trip, I knew I loved seafood. I had no clue I loved it as much as I do. With almost every meal, we have a couple of kinds of baked salmon, 3 or 4 kinds of smoked salmon, 3 kinds of sprat (a sardine-like Norwegian fish), 4 different kinds of herring, a few different mackerel, occasional platters of cod, haddock, or halibut, and intermittent crab, shrimp, mussels, and fish cakes. A fish lover’s paradise!

I find myself thinking of my maternal grandfather, a man who died when I was one and who I never knew. My mother told me many stories of his love of fish for breakfast, especially eggs and smoked kippered herring. I remember my “smoked kippers phase” and my “sardine phase” as a child. I couldn’t get enough of them; my mother indulged me and had a chance to re-experience the appetites of her father.

Hey Grandpa Joe, I am sorry I never knew you, but I am so happy I inherited your seafood-loving gene. And I am so happy to be on this ship where I can exercise those muscles like they have never been exercised before!

An Appreciation of the Staff
The Nordkapp began its journey north from Bergen at 8:30 p.m. (20:30 in European time). We boarded mid-afternoon and settled into our cabin. Dinner the first night was a buffet (my favorite).

A bearded young man in a chef’s hat managed the buffet’s serving area. “Are you the chef?” I asked. “I am one of them,” he replied. “Do you think I can tour the kitchen area,” I countered. “Maybe so,” he replied, “I’ll ask my boss.” 

Alas, the boss said “no” because of concerns about hygiene, but a terrific on-board friendship emerged. We’ve giggled, told stories, teased each other, spent part of an afternoon talking about things to do in Oslo, and become friends. Most importantly, Paul has not been just a fun shipmate. He became a bit of a savior.

This adventure has been spectacular in every way except one. The ship line’s IT provider has decided that my personal website and email URL – TheWritingCo.com – is suspected malware, so I cannot use email in my usual ways, and I cannot transfer pictures from my iphone to my computer without going through a long, tedious process. The IT provider has been 100% unresponsive. I’m pissed!!!

Paul volunteered a brilliant solution. He has a personal hotspot connected to his cell phone. I can sign onto wifi through his hotspot, and everything works perfectly. Without Paul, this blog entry would never have been posted. What a good guy!

Having fun with kitchen staff is not limited to Paul. The entire staff has been great. The servers, the table cleaners, the cooks all keep the ship lively, and they have wonderfully diverse personalities. Anna, one of the breakfast buffet tenders, greets me every morning with a sincere “Good morning” and a melt-all-of-your-defenses-away smile. Elias, our evening table server, is a super-nice young man who triggers my inner teacher, coach, and mentor. He just isn’t sure what he wants to do with his life, and he isn’t terribly keen on the idea of higher ed. Henrik is an old pro who ensures that the dining room has been vacated when it’s time for passengers to leave so the crew can finish their work. At first glance, he appears to be serious and no nonsense … then he pulls out his yellow card and red card á la soccer officials to inform passengers about the severity of their infractions. He is a no-nonsense sort who is totally hilarious and super friendly. The list goes on. There’s Jonathan, the French chef who delights in being around food; Marcel, who is insanely pleasant; and Lisbeth, the dining room manager who, like Henrik, manages to combine an aura of super seriousness with an ability to be insanely friendly, pleasant, and authentic.

It is amazing how much attentive professionals can enhance the quality of a dining experience! Thank you all!

Lisbeth, the dining room big boss

Elias, our server and all-around good guy

Reindeer and Cod. More perfection

Jonathan, the aspiring (and super nice) French chef

Henrik, waving his warning card

Sampling delicious blue mussels on deck, well above the Arctic Circle

Paul. THE BEST!!!!!! And someone I hope we stay in touch with for the duration.

An Homage to Dirty Laundry

~ Ken Mirvis ~ 1 Comment

Northern Lights through an iPhone


Background
I am writing this post from cabin #321 aboard the MS Nordkapp, one of the Hurtigruten Line’s Coastal Express ships that sails from Bergen, Norway to Kirkenes, at the Russian border, and back to Bergen. A few important things happen on the journey: we cross the Arctic Circle and sail past “Nordkapp,” the North Cape, just north Honningsvag, the northernmost city in Europe. (Last year, FYI, we went to Sandy Hook, the northernmost point in New Jersey. We also went to Key West, the southernmost point in the continental US, and we’ve been to Anchor Point Alaska, the westernmost highway in the U.S. But now I am just bragging. Those places have nothing to do with Norway or dirty laundry.)

To escape the frigid cold of the northeast, we wanted to do something new. Rebecca had taken a cruise before and was lukewarm on the experience. I had never been on a cruise ship and had little desire. So, we did the only logical thing, we booked a cruise to sail to the Arctic in search of Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. (Stay tuned. I am rapidly falling in love with my iphone camera!)

Back to Dirty Laundry
We have so many reasons to be close to home, not the least of which is that grandson Elliott celebrated his 7th birthday in our absence. We missed celebrating with him. Plus, when we arrived at the ship, they gave everyone a wifi password and ID. Everything worked except my personal email. I hope to get this post announced as we travel. We’ll see.

We are cruising on a ship, but Hurtigruten ain’t Carnival! Instead of casinos and entertainment centers, our ship is more of a coastal Norwegian ferry, carrying cargo and cars and passengers making their way up the coast. We have lectures about the local culture and sights and tastings of local food. Nature provides most of our entertainment. Instead of a few thousand people on board, we have a few hundred. The crew lets us know of a Northern Lights sighting, but it’s up to us to get clad for winter weather and onto deck to see it.

Being a little homesick on a trip like this doesn’t feel too weird. We are a long way from anything familiar. It’s really cold out. When we make our turn to head back south, we will be three kilometers from the Russian border at the northernmost tip of Europe. We are north of any Norwegian train lines. We don’t know a soul. We don’t know the language. The mountains are stark. The sea is treacherous.

Thank goodness for dirty laundry.

We planned all of our packing around doing laundry. We’re gone for 20 days. We started the trip with a day of travel and three days in Bergen; we end the trip with three days in Oslo and another day of travel. If we did laundry on the first full day of cruising, we would need 5 sets of shirts and underwear. (Trousers can go a lot longer between washings.) If we wash on the first day of our cruise, sometime in the middle, and on the last day, we have clean clothes the entire time. I checked with Hurtigruten about on-board laundry. They have five or six washers and dryers for passengers. (That is about as up-scale as Hurtigruten gets. We stop in 33 different ports, once going north and once going south for a total of 65 stops, most of them lasting for 10 or 15 minutes; we get off and wander once a day … on most days. This is a work-horse of a ship. Thank goodness we can wash our own clothes for just $3 a load … and they provide the soap!)

Yesterday was laundry day #1. Rebecca did not feel 100%, so I did the washing, drying, and folding. It was unbelievably satisfying. Washing our clothes helped me realize that even though we are almost 4,000 miles from home in a strange land with a hostile climate, we have the anchor of OUR clothes still needing to be washed and folded. Doing the laundry gave me a sense of stability and predictability. It provided a moment of knowing that despite all that is different, things are really pretty much the same.