November 24, 2016
“What struck me the most was not any one dish, but the number of cultures represented on my plate every single meal.”
By: Karen Campbell
![]() The Australian Spirit Galley Crew |
“Food is a wonderful thing in that respect.”
My second day on board, I learned that it wasn’t just the Chief Officer and me who had embarked in Whiffen Head. Some 20-30 snow crabs showed up at our dinner! Having never tackled an entire half-crab (complete with a tasty sweet chili sauce) on my plate before, I was a little unsure how best to go about eating my meal politely and neatly in front of my hosts. I’m not sure how successful I was at that, but in retrospect, the shared experience was actually a great way to get us laughing together and therefore to break the ice. Food is a wonderful thing in that respect.
The food continued on a similar note (though nothing quite as extravagant). I sampled all sorts of vegetarian masalas, meat dishes, and overall familiar base foods prepared in ways I’d never tried before. What struck me the most was not any one dish, but the number of cultures represented on my plate every single meal. The international nature of the food always lent itself to conversation. The most common topics that kept coming up over the table covered topics such as produce and dishes from where we were all from, languages, dialects, and accents, celebrations and cultural norms, weather and climate.
The galley was all stainless steel. It was located between the officers’ and crew mess rooms and featured deep sinks and restraining bars around the large stovetop on the island to minimize risk of mishaps in rougher seas, though apparently they’re a bit of a hindrance otherwise. A set of stairs led from the galley down to the stores, where there was a large area for dry and canned foods, as well as refrigerated rooms for produce, fish, and meats.
People think it’s strange that milk comes in bags where I’m from. To me however, it was funny that the milk on board was in Hershey cartons, labeled ‘Served chilled’.







