Food Aboard the Noordam

What's a cruise without the food? Ahh, the mountainous, tasty, delicious supply of unending food! On this cruise I made a point to take lots of photos of the different foods we tried. You don't really think about the food when you're eating it but after the cruise, you play the 'remember the one thing we ate...' game. So lots of photos help to remember that one thing.

The photo above is of my sister, Nicole, and myself in the main dining room on the final evening. This is a must for anyone aboard. Not to spoil the surprise, but the kitchen and dining room staff have a special event planned that takes place around dessert time, and this time we made sure we were there because it's a lot of fun.

On this cruise, as with anytime I travel, I try to be a bit adventurous. I will try any new food once before I decide whether I'd eat it again or not. There's not much I won't try. Well, that was until this cruise. I think I found my limit! My first adventure food: Quail!

The description sounded divine with visions of spinach and feta stuffed quail. I think I was thinking 'cornish hen'. Then these little legs arrived on my plate. Oh, my. Ohhhh, my my my. Not to discredit the kitchen staff because it was prepared and arranged nicely. I think I almost fainted when my dinner plate came though! I took a deep breathe and talked myself into making it through this meal. After all, I'm the one who ordered the quail.

Quickly I was scanning my head trying to think of what a quail looks like...before it ended up on my plate. We didn't have wi-fi purchased on board so I couldn't indulge in my natural reflex to hit up Google images. Pigeon? Is that what quails looked like? Oh my gosh. I made a mental note to hit the library after dinner once things had digested to check up on this. So I dove in, quickly, and ate the quail. The stuffing was delicious. The quail? Well, it was dark meat. Not bad. But it was quail. In conclusion I can say I ate the quail, although it won't be my first order next time. I can cross that off my bucket list. (It still makes me queasy just looking at this photo...)

Now to move on to more appetizing options...

My sister Nicole, was smarter than I was. She ate steak. Just about every night that we dined in the main dining room. Smart girl. Her's was amazing!

I had an incredible appetizer on the last 'International' evening of spring rolls. Ooo, I would soooo order this again!
The spring rolls were really light and the dipping sauce had a nice amount of kick to it. Delicious!

Nicole ordered an amazing apple-cranberry brie phyllo appetizer too:

And I tried Baked Alaska for the first time:
And who can resist chocolate cake - YUM:
I would also recommend the Flourless Chocolate Cake. I've had it on both cruises, and made it at home a few times and it's amazing! The Lido has great food too. I spent a lot of time at the ice cream station where I would break up fresh chocolate chip cookies into my ice cream and mix them together. This was a sometimes-twice daily occurrence! Also, outside on the Lido the little grill in the corner made amazing turkey burgers with sweet potato fries. There's never a short supply of satisfying food options aboard!

11-Day Southern Caribbean Cruise Aboard the ms Noordam

It seems I couldn't be kept away from my second Holland America cruise for too long, as we recently just returned from an amazing 11-day vacation aboard the ms Noordam in the Southern Caribbean! Here, I'm pictured with our ship docked in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Our ports of call included St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, Martinique, St. Thomas and the amazing Holland America private island of Half Moon Cay.

Going on this cruise only solidified why I choose Holland America to sail with. The staff is incredibly friendly and so efficient and helpful. The food is amazing and the ports of call offered great optional shore excursions with a varied collection of activities to see and do.

I'll post some more photos soon, but I need to keep packing because we're off to Cuba next week! Another first!