cookin the pot

Seaworthy notes from the past....not that long ago.... Fleece does not do well on the back of a quad in Resolute bay. I found this out last night. I was going ashore to meet up with a few of the crew already there. Derm said he would drop me off by the town but first had to pick up the ol man (skipper) at the oil pump house. I was about to help skipper and bacon boy (all 300 plus) in to the boat a couple of quads pulled up. At first I thought this was a couple of locals just dropping by. Speedy quads are the everyday way to get around these parts (earlier in Pangnirtung, as I awaited the boys outside the store a quad pulled up with what looked like mom, baby and grandma crammed aboard). It turned out to be the boys from the ship. They had rented (for 20 bucks) a couple of quad for an hour. One guy decided to go back to the ship so I waved the rest down and hopped aboard. Man, the dust was something else. Resolute is nothing but gravel, dirt and bald hills t...

This just popped into my head as I was reading about rice dishes....... So I was working one day slogging on painful feet as it was hour 9 with and the line was about to begin for 2nd breakfast. Someone mentioned the other line that was to the left. Shuttered and now a holding area for dishes, staff meals and odds and ends. The Dutch chief cook began to explain that at one time both lines were open and the Dutch ate from one and the Malaysians from the other. Segregated food lines on a heavy lift platform. What was interesting was that he then detailed this by stating that when he said Dutch he meant all the whites on board and Malaysian, you guessed it non white. The Americans when they came on board one trip (I guess some years ago) decided that this was not right and viola, one line now and this is where you can still see the frustrated Dutch as they have to line up to get their food with everyone else. His words. As to the rice dishes. I was reading a co...

We think differently about food; it’s not just something you taste, it’s something you experience - at Scanway we base our business operations on that philosophy. The above statement comes from the web page of our caterer. After another day's pitiful lunch I thought it was time to look at the food as because, like being at sea, meal times are something to look forward to! Well, after 14 days holed up in a hotel, I really wanted to say that the food, the three squares a day that we had, made this trying time just a little bearable. After all, we were not allowed to leave the property, or have any food (or anything else for that matter) dropped off. I even began to pine, yes pine for a timbit, or french frie as I stared down each day at the busy drive thrus of mickie dees and timmies. My hands by the end of the first week, plastered against the 5 th story glass just wishing. I pondered what snack jiffy lube (directly across from my window, may have behind the counter! A...

I was just reading a favourite at The Guardian,, restaurant guy Jay Rayner. Writing about restaurants in these times and what exactly they mean for him as eater/critic. He points out that maybe, just maybe he became a critic due to a trip at a young age to a restaurant that still holds memory for him. So, on that point..... I remember little of restaurants as a very young child in Corner Brook, but a few stand out. First, there was Coleman's next door to nan and pop's place on Howley rd. It holds tight in my foodie head because of the one item we would go there to get as often as possible. They made loose meat hamburgers on steamed buns! I would swirl around on the stool with great anticipation, thinking the faster I went the quicker the burger would get there. One street over , well road, Caribou road in fact, on the other side of Colemans there were four Chinese restaurants and I remember one in particular because the sons of the owners loved coming...

I am stuck. In more ways than one. Stuck in general due to I was suppose to fly out thursday and it was cancelled by the airline—weather maybe but there are so many other factors at play right now. On wednesday the group email told of the cancellation and then stated that we (crew) would be flown over to Halifax at some point and then be put into a hotel for fourteen days of isolation before going to sea for five weeks work. So it goes in this strange time. So, I ponder and wonder and came back to trying to finish a few written things that have back burnered for too long. Close to a year now, this has bounced around in my head and over the course of a few attempts I will stab at it again, try to get something down. It is about the Chinese ship. Last year I went on a Chinese seismic ship for six weeks. While I have via email written about the trials and tribulations of six weeks on a ship it was mostly ranting about fellow Canadian crew, and the difficulties of working with ano...

Notes for cooking at sea….. Most of these quantities will do crews from 25 to 75. Always remember that you usually have a second choice as well as soup, salad and sandwich. That’s what I do. You have to think of , or get to know the crew as well. This can be quite challenging if, like me, you work in a fleet where you bounce around from ship to ship, crew to crew. It makes life hard. On one ship there will be tall skinny guy—who eats just about everything as if he refrained from snacking all day and save his appetite for meal times only. Could he ever pack it away! Or, three plater, the guy piles it high and eats it all, or throws most of it away. No cost to him. So as a rule always go over by 15 percent to be safe. Often more than that and this may give you a couple menu items for later on. On one ship I had two sailors from Scotland that would eat fish for every meal. EVERY MEAL. So in the morning, kippers or fishcakes. One mistake was deciding (because you ha...

found this in a SHIPTALK newsletter…funny my trips on her were startling chaotic and while enjoyable I’ll never forget the day I was asked to leave …a day sitting anchored in the muddy estuary of the Churchill river as belugas bobbed to the surface like giant fishing floats……I had just completed an interview with CBC Hull for french tv about working as a chef at sea and as I worked around the dilapidated Russian galley, broken appliances, open grated water drains backing up, this guy was asking me (and no one else as it seemed the rest of my crew had abandoned me to drink and dance all night with the Russians) what it was like……well about two hours later after feeding 100plus I was in my cabin struggling with a broken zipper on my duffel bag, duct taping it shut as I had about 5 minutes to catch the last zodiac ashore in order to get to the plane and then the bar at the Montreal airport…..it was quite funny really as I had not been paid in 2 months, had put up with ...