We got up early this morning, had breakfast and then headed to the Culinary Demonstration. This is usually a very popular demo so we decided to have our morning tea and coffee in the Universal Lounge so we could get a good seat. The demo was done by the head chef Jerry and the head Maître d Oscar. They were absolutely hilarious, the first demo was a pesto spaghetti, Jerry gave a good tip if you are using pesto to warm it up on a low heat so that the basil stays a bright green because a higher heat will make it turn black. Oscars tip was to tell when your pasta is done to throw it against the wall and if it sticks, it is done, he threw almost the whole pot and it didn’t stick so they just picked it up and put it back in the water to finish. The next dish was shrimp il’diablo which is shrimp with chili. Oscar asked if we liked lots of garlic and then proceeded to put in the whole bowl of garlic cloves and Jerry said he liked it very hot and put in a whole container of chili flakes. Needless to say none of us tasted the dishes. Then then brought out the head pastry chef and he and Oscar did a head to head match to make a black forest cake. Oscar’s used some of the decorations from the fruit and vegi sculptures that were on the table but just before we judged his he brought out a completed cake from under the table. It was a very funny comedy show, you could tell that they had been working together a long time. After the demo we got to tour the galley and see all the different stations throughout. There is one galley that supplies the two main dining rooms.
Dishwashers, they clean approximately 16,000 dishes a day
You can see the side of the escalator that leads to the dining room above.
After the tour we decided to go back to the room and get our
bathing suits and go and sit up on the Lido deck to watch a movie and work on
our tans. They have a big screen up on the deck where they show movies,
sporting events like the ball games throughout the day. We watched the new
Karate Kid Legends film it was really good. We have been skipping lunch because
it is just too much food. We did partake in a soft ice cream cone for a snack.
We have been going for an earlier dinner so we can make the
first theatre show as it gets filled up quickly. There are two dining rooms on
board, one that lets you make a reserve a set time for the whole trip, you get
the same table and the same waiter every night. We chose the flexible dining
room where we just walk up and we usually share a table with 8 to 10 people
every night. We like getting to meet new people and so far every person has
been enjoyable to talk to. Tonight we had spicy shrimp with crispy plantain chips for my main course that
we saw them preparing on our galley tour.
After dinner we upstairs to watch the Blue Jays game and since it was such a good game we decided to watch it until the end and catch the theatre show again on the second part of the cruise. After the game he headed back to
our cabin as we were arriving early in San Diego and wanted to get a good
sleep.
