Prior to boarding the Langseth, my expectations of the food on board were clouded with visions of elementary school cafeteria slop doled out in aluminum trays and eaten with sporks and a side of plastic bag infused with milk. Little did I know that the folks on board take their food quite seriously. The three meals prepared each day are easily the most anticipated events of a crews’ day.
The galley (a.k.a. the kitchen in land dweller speak) is manned by a cook and steward who are responsible for sustaining the morale for the 53 people on board. The mess is regularly stocked with snacks like crackers, raisins, peanuts, dried prunes (yuck!), popcorn, cold cereal, microwave pasta, deli meats and cheeses, an assortment of milks and juices, coffee, tea, ice cream, and “fresh” fruits and vegetables (which will slowly be replaced with canned fruits and vegetables as the days go by). Cookies and pastries are also available at select times during the day if one is lucky enough to get there before they’ve all been consumed.
Between snacking
times are the three glorious meals. Breakfast has the most stable menu of all
the meals with a selection of eggs, potatoes, hot cereal, pancakes, French
toast, bacon, sausage, ham, and a fruit platter that is now transitioning from
fresh to canned fruits. Lunch generally consists of a type of sandwich, soup,
French fries and/or onion rings, hot vegetables, rice, and other unpredictable
delights. Supper has been quite intriguing as of late. We’ve been blessed with
several kinds of steak, beef tenderloin, meatloaf, spaghetti, and many other varieties
of taste bud tantalizing foods. For those who sleep during dinner and require a
stomach recharge at 3am (yours truly and a good number of the crew on the
midnight to noon shift), the galley staff save plates of dinner for “breakfast”
that can be eaten during off times – I like to call this meal “brupper”, but am
having difficulty getting the name to stick.
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| Lunch at the mess with Luke, Sarah, and Tyler. |
It has been
entertaining to watch our young British colleagues become exposed to American
cuisine for the first time with foods like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
meatloaf (although they’ve been informed that it’s never as good as my mom’s –
love you mom!), French toast, sausage in patty form, and Hershey’s chocolate
syrup. It is also quite obvious that a 2,000 mile pond provides for the
generation of different mealtime habits. For example, Luke was quite disgusted that
I would dip a chocolate-chip cookie in a cold glass of milk; I shared his
disgust when he spiced his French toast (sans-syrup) with salt and pepper and ate
it like a normal piece of toast (apparently this was his first French toast
experience). I’m guessing there will be some sort of payback if we ever meet in
England sometime.
Well folks, speaking
of the devil, I’m off to the mess for a warm breakfast. I hope you enjoyed the
tour and stay tuned for the next one!
Brian Jordan
Rice University
Brian Jordan
Rice University
