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At Sea - Part 10
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
Another day of rest.
This morning we were at sea again. While most people see it as a day of rest, Margherita saw it as a day of activity.
We were off to a late breakfast. Then off was to the gym. Then was a walk around the deck. Then we saw the Chef who said hello reminiscing about our adventures. Then it was back to the dining room for the galley buffet, a buffet right in the galley as the name implies. Finally there was a lecture on the economy by the British ambassador fellow I mentioned earlier. We stayed for one more lecture and finally, it was time to get ready for dinner.
Okay, you’ll notice that it was all written as one paragraph and that’s how it felt.
"But honey, wasn’t the galley buffet nice? You know how they had the food out and you could watch them cook?" I said this while Margherita was getting ready.
"Come on, get ready for dinner." She said anxiously and confused.
See, Margherita was anxious because tonight was the captain’s dinner. It was a really formal occasion where the women wear the kind of jewelry they only can afford to wear to captain’s dinners. However, we weren’t going to that dinner. This lead to her anxiety.
Silversea has a third alternative dining room called, "La Salletta" which coincidently means "the little dining room." Everybody was raving about this restaurant, but every time we checked, it seemed to have items we had never heard of.
This further increased our curiosity, as I was already mesmerized by the meals at Silversea to begin with. Everything was perfectly made, and on this trip it was a great combination of gourmet, yet normal. Not gourmet-odd like monkey brains or gourmet-not worth it, like a well ripen apple just fallen from a small tree. It was like a steak, but really well done, from a cow that might not have deserved to die, but was a damn good cow and made a damn good steak.
Anyway, La Saletta was supposed to be better than even this. As one passenger so aptly put it, "Saletta is to the main dining room as a New York restaurant is to McDonalds."
We walked in and slowly started to see the reasons. Margherita said that she noticed the china was nicer and the menu was printed on better paper. I’m still shocked that she notices such details.
I just noticed that the rolls were hot and freshly baked. It turns out that they have a kitchen staff dedicated just to this handful of tables.
And since it’s a handful of tables, the dining room is much quieter, more intimate and much more romantic.
Well, until they served the Oxtail Jelle’. I mean seriously, it’s gelatin made from a bull’s tail. Honestly, now, why the hell would you do that? Who thought to himself, "Hey, lets cut off that tail over there and make gelatin out of it. I’ll bet that Bill Cosby will be so jealous."
The rest of the meal was much more normal, including an incredible salad and the best damn steak I’ve ever had. A great salad in a normal restaurant might have all of the elements of a great salad, but this salad in La Saletta had every leaf of the lettuce cut perfectly. Yeah, really, every one. Not one brown spot.
The steak was a perfect cut of meat. And when I said medium well, it came out textbook medium well.
Finally, they had specialty coffee made from freshly ground beans of your choice from all over the world, Jamaican Blue Mountain, Ethiopian, whatever you liked. They ground and brewed it at your table.
San Jose - Part 1
San Jose - Part 2
Silversea's Silver Wind - Part 1
Day at Sea - Part 2
Panama Canal/Gatun Lake - Part 3
San Blas Island - Part 4
Cartagena, Colombia - Part 5
Day at Sea - Part 6
Aruba - Part 7
Curacao - Part 8
Bonaire - Part 9
At Sea - Part 10
St. Georges, Grenada - Part 11
Barbados - Part 12
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