Food OnBoard

In the reviews of this trip I see consistent comments about the food not being good. We have booked this trip for next year and am wondering if Tauck doing anything to address this?

Comments

  • edited February 2019
    janeod wrote:
    In the reviews of this trip I see consistent comments about the food not being good. We have booked this trip for next year and am wondering if Tauck doing anything to address this?

    Tauck and maybe still Arthur Tauck, Jr. read all the reviews. They don't own the ship, Ponant does, so changes may not be instantaneous. It seems like most of the negative comments were from August 2018, so maybe a new cook/kitchen crew, new husbanding agent, kitchen equipment issues, etc. were the cause. Another thing that can often affect the appearance, taste, and even "thoughts" of food is the sea state and how passengers react. Even a mild case of seasickness can really impact your enjoyment of food. You may not be sick enough to yak, but it is easy to lose your appetite and taste. For the ladies, it can be like how food or certain foods affect you when you are pregnant.

    Without going back to compare the weather and departure dates, and the number of negative comments about food (4 in August 2018) I suspect it might just be a new cook.

    Also, this is one of Ponant's smallest ships so you don't have the staff that larger ships have. I was surprised at the comments about the size of the cabins- some people didn't do their research, and obviously spent too much time in their cabin when they should have been on deck or touring! : )
  • Another thing to remember about food reviews/comments is that food is an incredibly subjective thing! Two years ago we were on L’Austral where I thought the food was fine (lots of choices) and my husband did not care for it. Another consideration is that it seems to be in our nature to vocalize negative comments rather than positive ones.
  • edited November 2018
    Even at my favorite restaurant there are selections I like a lot, and others I don’t. I don’t book these trips for the food.
    That being said our one trip on Ponant, Le Soleal the food was quite good. We will be on Le Champlain in January and Le Ponant in 2020. We will be on Wind Surf in July, where we have been seven times, and the food is quite good.

    P.S. I suspect post number one is SPAM or some other website critique. I don’t give anyone’s first post that is negative any validity. Most people want to share their positive experiences. If I did not like the omelet, I normally keep that information to myself. I order somethibng else the next time.
  • edited November 2018
    I don’t go on these tours for the food or the hotels butit appears that lots of people do. I put the place, the scenery the culture at the top of my wants.
  • I’ve found that food in a ‘building’ is normally better than food on a ‘boat’, and food on a ‘boat’ is normally better than food on an ‘airplane’ ... thank God! (;-)
  • Sealord wrote:
    I’ve found that food in a ‘building’ is normally better than food on a ‘boat’, and food on a ‘boat’ is normally better than food on an ‘airplane’ ... thank God! (;-)

    Concur on airline food being bottom of the heap, but a mix on hotel vs boat. Some unforgettably great meals on both, but also things I'd never bother ordering again. One advantage of the boat (and the longer stay on board) is you learn what you like and don't like. Changing hotels every 2 days is a learning experience especially wrt breakfast.

    I've also found on the river ships that each chef has strong and weak points. The first one didn't have many desserts but that was ok because everything else was more than enough. The second had fabulous soups and entrees, but her desserts and ice cream were odd. Last guy had marginal soup, but everything else excellent. Breakfast is pretty standard on all Tauck river cruises - the only high points for us being whether chocolate croissants are on the menu that day. I don't need breakfast to be an gastronomic adventure.

    Of course I'm assuming you aren't including food aboard USN or RN ships.
  • I agree that some ship meals can be terrific. We have had many, but I don’t think any were better than our favorite ‘land’ based restaurants. If in San Francisco, try the Buckeye Road House just north of the GG Bridge. I know Joe Montana likes it cuz I’ve seen him there. As far as USN boat meals are concerned, we ate pretty well. It was far better than airline ‘food’, and certainly better than the cafeteria food on most ships. The officer’s mess normally purchased their own food when I was in the Navy ... and it was not free ... we paid for it.
  • edited November 2018
    I really do love food, but really as long as it is hygienically prepared and edible, it’s not my priority on a tour although with Tauck prices I would hope it would be pretty good. I’ve eaten at some of the ‘best restaurants’ but really who eats like that all the time. We eat great food cooked by ourselves at home, we know what is in it and how it is made, we know we washed our hands and didn’t sneeze or drop it on the floor. When I went to London on my own two years ago I wanted to see as much as I could that I hadn’t seen before, so I bought myself great sandwiches from Marks and Spencer so I didn’t spend all my time when I could be site seeing sitting and waiting for food in a restaurant. Then I hit the sites again until I could walk no further, got myself another sandwich, and a naughty dessert and headed for my hotel, threw off my shoes, lazed on the bed and watched all those lovely TV shows that you have to wait to see on PBS here. I had a thoroughly great time. Once again, where I am is the thing. When we were on our last Tauck tour we were in the Nationals Parks, it was beautiful, but people moaned about the food, well we were on the Park Lodges, they are not known for great food but I would rather be there in the best places for seeing the beautiful landscapes.
  • Sealord wrote:
    I agree that some ship meals can be terrific. We have had many, but I don’t think any were better than our favorite ‘land’ based restaurants. If in San Francisco, try the Buckeye Road House just north of the GG Bridge. I know Joe Montana likes it cuz I’ve seen him there. As far as USN boat meals are concerned, we ate pretty well. It was far better than airline ‘food’, and certainly better than the cafeteria food on most ships. The officer’s mess normally purchased their own food when I was in the Navy ... and it was not free ... we paid for it.

    Interesting re USN ship board meals. I knew the submariners were noted for good food, but asked my husband (retired Supply Officer) and he confirmed that on bigger ships the officer's and chief mess had their own kitchen and could pay more for better food. I'm afraid most of my personal knowledge is limited to OCS where the food was distinctly marginal.
  • British wrote:
    I really do love food, but really as long as it is hygienically prepared and edible, it’s not my priority on a tour although with Tauck prices I would hope it would be pretty good. I’ve eaten at some of the ‘best restaurants’ but really who eats like that all the time. We eat great food cooked by ourselves at home, we know what is in it and how it is made, we know we washed our hands and didn’t sneeze or drop it on the floor. When I went to London on my own two years ago I wanted to see as much as I could that I hadn’t seen before, so I bought myself great sandwiches from Marks and Spencer so I didn’t spend all my time when I could be site seeing sitting and waiting for food in a restaurant. Then I hit the sites again until I could walk no further, got myself another sandwich, and a naughty dessert and headed for my hotel, threw off my shoes, lazed on the bed and watched all those lovely TV shows that you have to wait to see on PBS here. I had a thoroughly great time. Once again, where I am is the thing. When we were on our last Tauck tour we were in the Nationals Parks, it was beautiful, but people moaned about the food, well we were on the Park Lodges, they are not known for great food but I would rather be there in the best places for seeing the beautiful landscapes.

    Concur that the view/location is the most important and during the day would prefer to spend my time seeing rather than eating a long meal. I get that the french like these long drawn out meals even for lunch, but if I only have a few days to see a place I'd rather be seeing and doing.

    However, when in a foreign country I'm also interested in tasting the local cuisine. Prior to the trip I do research on the local cuisine and while on it I make it a point of trying things that are outside my norm. Getting ready for Danube/Rhine next year I'm currently reading up on Hungarian cooking and just bought some paprika at the local Penzey's to experiment with some recipes.

  • We went September 2018 and the food was wonderful on the
    Ponat. Actually everything was wonderful!
  • Claudia -- definitely buy some different types of paprika when you are in Hungary. It's wonderful! (I am a Penzey's shopper too.)
  • judy05 wrote:
    Claudia -- definitely buy some different types of paprika when you are in Hungary. It's wonderful! (I am a Penzey's shopper too.)

    That's my plan. Is the Great Market a good place or should I look elsewhere?
  • Hi Claudia! We were in Hungary on the Warsaw/Budapest/Vienna/Prague tour years ago and I don't remember where we bought the paprika. If I remember correctly -- our TD told us where to buy.
  • https://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/essential-ingredients/whats-the-difference-between-sweet-hot-and-smoky-paprika
    This is a great link to understanding the different types of Paprika. I remember buying some in the great hall market place. Food area was great but the upstairs we found it was the same crafts you can find anywhere and not worth the longer walk to get there. You can buy the tourist paprika just about anywhere, but the above article explains things nicely. I was forever making Hungarian goulash in the seventies, it went with obligatory Black Forest gateaux at dinner parties. Seems funny now.
  • Thanx British. I got the sweet and half-sharp hungarian from Penzeys. May have to go back and get the Spanish Smoked. Seems similar to chipotle that we use a fair amount of in our neck of the woods.

    Black Forest Gateaux..... The other part of my food researching for this trip is all the different Viennese cakes and pastries.
  • I was on the Danube river cruise a couple of years ago and the food was great. However, when I was docked at lunch or dinner time, I got off the boat and found a wonderful local restaurant. I want to experience what locals do. It's easy to do -they all speak English. Look for restaurants an line. For example -" Restaurants in Strasbourg" So much info is available.
    Also, Tauck tells you how long the boat will be docked. So easy - you can do it. Really expands your trip. Enjoy
  • We are planning this Northbound trip for the summer of 2021. Continued comments about the food, the boat, the service, the air possibilities, and the stops along the way would be appreciated.
  • I googled the question - "best place to buy paprika in Budapest" and got a fascinating answer from back in 2013. Not sure if the link will work but here it is.

    https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g274887-i263-k6709983-Paprika_Best_Place_to_buy-Budapest_Central_Hungary.html

    There was a gentleman who wrote a long answer and broke it into - do you just want a souvenir, are you a serious cook or are you a foodie and he provided different answers for each category. For the first, yes pretty much anywhere will do including the great market.

    For the next group, he said " it would be difficult these days to find a Hungarian home cook (or most restaurant cooks for that matter) who uses dry powdered paprika as the base for their dishes. There are paprika pastes available, and small jars of hot paprika condiment (like Eros Pista), and you can see several in pretty much every supermarket. Everyone has his or her own favorite, and there are gulyas bases in tubes as well, and porkolt bases, and you could go wild and buy a whole bunch and bring them all home and do a tasting report. These have two great benefits: for the casual cook they eliminate the easy possibility of burning the paprika when adding it; and, on the other hand, they eliminate as well the possibility of not properly getting its flavor to blossom when added.

    Went into more about why this is as well as adding a later post for foodies that read more like a wine snobs level of detail.

    Think I'll look for the paste.

  • Hope you got the paste, Claudia

  • This is an old thread. But yes I got paste in a tube and came home with lots of powder including presents from the TDs.

  • Old threads contain a lot of “old”, great and informative information gathered over many years, and sometimes is more telling than anything else. Thanks!

  • Yes there is lots of useful info. Though some things change - especially in this post covid world. But the older threads are a good starting place.

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