On Another blog I found this short post about weight gain on the ship and how well everyone gets fed and it was refreshing to read because I often don't feel that sentiment. But I wanted to go a step further because food is a touchy subject on the ship. Everybody has their own opinion on what needs are, and what wants are, and what they think 'they' are entitled.
I am in a cache 22 (as some may call it).
I feel the need, my duty to do the best I can with what I have...so that in turn produces good food and usually helps increase the abundance when you know how to use all the products and produce more options...
But on the other hand it creates an expectation that breeds complaints and anger when some feel they don't get what they 'deserve', which is nothing...whoever figured out that the crew fees pay for their food OBVIOUSLY has never fed themselves and cleaned up after their selves for 3 dollars a day or could find somebody that would do it for that little...(its more realistic to say that your crew fees pays for 'other' things).
That is the approximate food budget alloted for an adult - somewhere between $3 to $3.50 a day (last I checked or was told), NOT A MEAL, a day...
Another funny thing is people complain about eating healthy and eating right, then they try to blame it on the ship and food service...We create good food options with what we can obtain and prepare, from there its the crews JOB to pick whats best for them, and to control their own will for eating in moderation. This responsibility is not ours, or Food Service.
[OH, by the way, usually peanut butter and a hazelnut chocolate spread (nutella or nusco) is out at every meal, BUT even though you may think the nuts are good protein the sugar in the peanut butter is outrageous, AND the first 3 ingredients of the 'Nutella/Nusco' substance is SUGAR, VEGETABLE OIL, & FAT so keep that Hazelnut addiction going, you'll have to eat a lot to get at the less than 10% a jar nut intake]
It even becomes stressful for my wife to be in line to eat dinner because she over hears the people around her criticize the food while she's standing in line with them. Her instinct is to let them know that her husband works hard to put good tasting food out there for them. She wants to defend me. Now thats a GREAT wife!
Its very difficult to field and deny special requests from people who come to Food Service and it takes up a lot of valuable time to have to explain over and over again why things can't be done, and/or reminding them its the rules. It doesn't sit well with people who think their situation is a unique or special one.
Basically what we are looking at between 830am - 1130am (with break) there is 2 hours and 45 minutes to get lunch ready for 400+ people. Between 1:00pm - 4:45 (with 15minute break and minimum 30 minute trash time) we are looking at 3 hours to get dinner ready for 400+ people. Then after that, our crews go back to the galley/kitchen/dining room and clean up the aftermath of feeding people this many meals a day.
Now thats a struggle. And then add 400 individual judges to the food panel...
I keep convincing myself I must at least be a halfway decent human being or I would serve (weevil) rice & beans, and boiled meats & pink sausages till everyone would come back to their senses...but I haven't been able to bring myself to punish the few complainers by punishing the many who don't.
Jitta
This is Jitta. She has been nick-named Jitta bug. I wrote about her last week. She was back in the recovery room after her dressing change in the OR today. We love her.
Ultra High Temp
How do we keep dairy products, better yet, what do we buy and how do we keep enough of it to feed our crew?
Most of our dairy products don't even need to be kept in a cooler, reefer, or refrigerator. Nope. Its called Ultra High Temp products and after you get used to them, they do quite well.
We buy them by the pallets: Sour Cream, Whole Milk, 2% Milk, cooking cream (with about 2 or 3 version of fat content), whipping cream, etc... Of course our cheese still needs to be refrigerated but that frees up a lot of space until you need it. And refrigerator space is regarded as a vary valuable commodity. Yes, these products taste better or work better once they are chilled, but you can keep them in dry storage on pallets and move them into refrigeration a little at a time.
You probably wouldn't believe the milk we go thru just as an additive to coffee and/or tea...So why refrigerate it just for it to be heated back up? Why use chilled dairy products to build sauces that go out hot? No reason, room temperature is good enough.
Here's a picture of a few of the items:
Most of our dairy products don't even need to be kept in a cooler, reefer, or refrigerator. Nope. Its called Ultra High Temp products and after you get used to them, they do quite well.
We buy them by the pallets: Sour Cream, Whole Milk, 2% Milk, cooking cream (with about 2 or 3 version of fat content), whipping cream, etc... Of course our cheese still needs to be refrigerated but that frees up a lot of space until you need it. And refrigerator space is regarded as a vary valuable commodity. Yes, these products taste better or work better once they are chilled, but you can keep them in dry storage on pallets and move them into refrigeration a little at a time.
You probably wouldn't believe the milk we go thru just as an additive to coffee and/or tea...So why refrigerate it just for it to be heated back up? Why use chilled dairy products to build sauces that go out hot? No reason, room temperature is good enough.
Here's a picture of a few of the items:
Nasty Taco Sauce
Some people who don't know any better will buy this taco sauce and think, 'Man those Americans eat the nastiest stuff' (because I have only seen this stuff in Europe). This IS NOT anything similar to our Taco Sauce except maybe that it has some tomato product in it. On another ship I worked on they ruined 'Mexican Night' by putting this stuff out. Everyone would come along and heap it up on their delicious nachos, tacos, burritos, enchiladas...or whatever, and then it would just ruin the taste of the dish.
On this ship, we specifically asked for NONE of this, but somehow they managed to squeeze it on our container again. But thankfully it's not that much and we just put it out at mealtimes as a 'condiment' not taco sauce.
Maybe you are thinking, 'What's so bad about it?' well let's just look inside the ingredients list and see...
First, it starts off like a simple syrup, sugar first then water. Then, uh-oh, it looks like we are starting to build a sweet BBQ sauce (vinegar, tomato paste, paprika, salt). And then...what the heck is all this stuff? I can make taco sauce from stewed tomatoes out of a can tastier and with way fewer ingredients than this, and certainly NOT using all those particular ingredients.
What's even funnier is that further down the label it says,
'Pictures do not reflect ingredients of this product'
(emphasis mine).
They seriously need to quit insulting people worldwide by calling it 'taco sauce'.
Blah...
Good Catch
Today was incredibly busy in Recovery Room. I came in at 10 am and it was already busy. Wendy and I had 4 patients already in and out before our boss Maria came in at 12.
Christian a young boy who we were told is deaf and blind (later we were told that he had cataract surgery last year and now he can see, but it sure didn't seem like it) came in after a nasal oral fistula repair (a hole between is mouth and his nose). When he woke up from anaesthesia he was flailing all over the place. We got his mom to come in and what followed was priceless. She grabbed his hands and put them on her face and put his face up to her neck. She said that the only way he can tell that it is actually her is by her smell and touch. I felt like I was watching the most amazing connection between a mother and son. She is so loving and patient with him as he is inconsolable except by her. Once Christian woke up and was slightly calmed down he went back to the ward.
Later we received Anthony who had surgery on his jaw. At first Anthony was bleeding just a little from his mouth. Then it was more and more. Then we were constantly suctioning. We went into the OR and told Dr. Gary and he came out, took a look, gave us some tips on how to stop the bleeding and went back into the OR and started another surgery. I went to a staff meeting and came back and Wendy was still suctioning poor Anthony. He was awake the whole time and very cooperative. I took over the suction duty again and tried to stop the bleeding with no success.
I went back into the OR and interrupted Dr. Gary during surgery to tell him I was concerned. God bless that wonderful man. He quickly came to Anthony's bedside and looked inside his mouth and saw a sub-lingual hematoma (a collection of blood underneath the tongue a that pushes the tongue back that closes off the airway... bad). He said "Girls, good catch. If we would have waited another 30 minutes his airway could have closed off." I don't think he could have said anything nicer to us. We adore him. For him to give us a verbal pat on the back made it worth it today.
While all of this was going on we had another guy that came back from the OR with a blood pressure of 55/21. His normal is 120/70. Needless to say we were quite busy.
Christian a young boy who we were told is deaf and blind (later we were told that he had cataract surgery last year and now he can see, but it sure didn't seem like it) came in after a nasal oral fistula repair (a hole between is mouth and his nose). When he woke up from anaesthesia he was flailing all over the place. We got his mom to come in and what followed was priceless. She grabbed his hands and put them on her face and put his face up to her neck. She said that the only way he can tell that it is actually her is by her smell and touch. I felt like I was watching the most amazing connection between a mother and son. She is so loving and patient with him as he is inconsolable except by her. Once Christian woke up and was slightly calmed down he went back to the ward.
Later we received Anthony who had surgery on his jaw. At first Anthony was bleeding just a little from his mouth. Then it was more and more. Then we were constantly suctioning. We went into the OR and told Dr. Gary and he came out, took a look, gave us some tips on how to stop the bleeding and went back into the OR and started another surgery. I went to a staff meeting and came back and Wendy was still suctioning poor Anthony. He was awake the whole time and very cooperative. I took over the suction duty again and tried to stop the bleeding with no success.
I went back into the OR and interrupted Dr. Gary during surgery to tell him I was concerned. God bless that wonderful man. He quickly came to Anthony's bedside and looked inside his mouth and saw a sub-lingual hematoma (a collection of blood underneath the tongue a that pushes the tongue back that closes off the airway... bad). He said "Girls, good catch. If we would have waited another 30 minutes his airway could have closed off." I don't think he could have said anything nicer to us. We adore him. For him to give us a verbal pat on the back made it worth it today.
While all of this was going on we had another guy that came back from the OR with a blood pressure of 55/21. His normal is 120/70. Needless to say we were quite busy.
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