By Auggie Marignier
In this first instalment of Auggie Reviews, I discuss the food provided on board the Mário Ruivo by the cooks José and Carlos. I’ll start by saying that I really enjoy eating, but I know what I like to eat. If there’s a dish that I enjoy I will eat lots of it, which is why I was happy to see that meals on the ship are in the form of a self-service buffet, and also if I were to ask “Desculpe, pode ser um bife mais por favor?” (“Excuse me, can I have another steak, please?”) the answer is usually “Sim” (“Yes”)!
Nutrition aside, at sea food is essential for morale. If all there was to eat was boiled fish and dry bread this would be a loooong month, and it wouldn’t just be the rocking of the ship that I’d get sick of.
Breakfast has a mix of hot and cold foods - sausages, eggs, hams, cheeses, toast, fruit, yoghurt, cereal, tea, coffee. On dry land I like to have some orange juice in the morning, and with all the stories growing up of pirates and sailors getting scurvy because of a lack of vitamin C, orange juice seems like a good idea. But now on board I’m told that citrus fruits are bad for sea-sickness… I’ll take that risk. Either way, there’s plenty of good food for the most important meal of the day.
Soup is apparently a big thing in Portugal, even served to school kids at lunch times. Here on the Mário Ruivo there’s soup at lunch and dinner. We’ve had an excellent veg soup (I think it’s leek and potato), and a fish soup which I’m told is also delicious. For main dishes there’s always meat, carbs and veg to choose from. Meats have included roast chicken thighs, tuna steaks and roast beef, with Thursdays being reserved for a nice beef steak cooked in oil with bay leaves and garlic. Carbs usually come in the form of rice, potatoes (boiled, roasted, fired), and pasta dishes - basically all the good carbs.
As sides, there’s always lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes for salads, excellent bread rolls, and a Portuguese delicacy that seems to be bread baked with chorizo in it. Finally, throughout the day we can find some delicious yoghurt cake to snack on whenever we get a bit peckish!
All in all, great food at meal times even for picky eaters, cake throughout the day, and look forward to Thursdays! What I’m curious to see is their storage facilities. With about 40 people on board to feed (some of us probably eat for two as well!) there must be a massive freezer hidden somewhere in the bowels of the ship where critics like myself are not allowed to go…
