Our first full day on the Crystal Symphony is a, "day at Sea." No ports. No stops. No points of interest. This should be an easy day for me, Waste-wise. Just food, right?
We slept in a little and headed to the Trident Grill for the Late Risers Breakfast. It turns out that we needed to set our clocks ahead an hour, and breakfast is no longer being served. Time to walk over to the buffet for lunch.
I got some chicken and pork skewers, and some fresh fruit. Totally HG.
I do not live by any diet, as I think that they are all fads at best and cons at worst and it comes down to calories eaten versus calories expended. However, if I did subscribe to a diet, I would choose the Hunter Gatherer (HG) diet. I buy the theory that our bodies evolved for hundreds of thousands on the diet of a hunter gatherer, and that this is the food that our bodies are best suited for. To sum up, I do not follow any dietary rules besides trying to eat reasonably healthfully, but if I did, I would go HG. And when my meal happens to be HG, I feel an internal reward somewhere in the back of my hunting and gathering mind.
Barbie's lunch.
Yes, it is raining. As we know from the NYC visit earlier this year, you can rarely photograph falling rain, only fallen rain.
Late in the afternoon, we hit the on-board coffee house. I got a cappuccino with this sugar stick to stir in it. Of course, I never add sweetener to my coffees, but the niftiness of this sugar stick won me over.
The sky has cleared, and the rain has stopped. The sun, clouds and sky please me.
We have opted out of the main dining room and into one of the ship's specialty restaurants. Dinner tonight is at Silk Road, by Nobu.
Barbie's jalapeno yellow tail, hold the jalapeno.
Barbie's lobster spring rolls.
Mother's spicy creamy king crab.
Father and I both started with broiled miso eggplant.
I found myself quite impressed with the knives. The handle is wide so that it rests with the blade up. Unique. And thinking about it now, it keeps the blade from touching the table, ideal for a germ-a-phobe or someone who likes to keep their place mats clean.
Father's mushroom soup, uniquely in a teapot where you pour and drink the broth from a cup, and then eat the mushrooms inside the teapot.
Jeff's sushi plate; eel, soft shell crab roll, and california roll (for sharing with the parents who do not like sushi). I should have ordered 10 pieces of eel, as that is my favorite.
Barie's eel roll, which she shared. Barbie and I shared everything, even though I am telling you who ordered what.
Father's mushroom salad. His meal is essentially a war against the fungi.
Mother's kelp salad. A war against the algae?
Barbie's Nobu-Style miso black cod.
Mother's corn-fed chicken with teriyaki balsamic. It was a level of tender one rarely gets from chicken.
Father's grilled Wagyu beef rib eye on wok-fried vegetables.
Jeff's Nobu Box; a sampler of Barbie's cod, father's beef, and nobody's creamy rock shrimp.
If you thought that those dishes were a tad over-the-top, then shade your eyes from the desserts.
Mother's chilled tropical fruit plate with lychee sorbet.
Jeff's trio of creme brulées; guava, passion fruit, and sweet ginger.
Father's chocolate soufflé cake withy homemade sesame iced cream.
Sesame, coconut, and ginger cookies.
After dinner we retired to our rooms. Since the sun does not set until 10:30 PM, Barbie and I headed up to take a look before bed. I took, no joke, more than 100 pictures of what can only be called a once in a lifetime sunset. I took enough that I can show you a stop-motion film of the sun going down against the clouds of the Baltic Sea. I even shot some video. Since you do not have that kind if time, some highlights for you.
Baltic Sunset, Panorama, July 2010
Baltic Sunset, Portrait, July 2010
Baltic Sunset, Panorama, July 2010
Baltic Sunset, Seascape, July 2010
Baltic Sunset, Skyscape, July 2010
Baltic Sunset, Moments from Set, July 2010
Baltic Sunset, Last Ray of Light, July 2010
Baltic Sun Has Set, Landscape, July 2010
Baltic Sun Has Set Portrait, July 2010
Good night from the Crystal Symphony.
See you tomorrow.
The presentation of food on the Waste is always phenomenal. Better than a sunset? Up to debate, surely.
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