     |
||
|
|
A Rough Guide to Onboard Catering…by Kevin Parker If, according to the old adage, an army marches on its stomach then so does the cold, wet, hungry crew of a sea-going yacht. Perhaps the words “cold and wet” are most operative – even in the ‘warm’ Scottish summer (let alone around Easter time) it can still feel near freezing while sailing around the Western Isles or anywhere around the UK. Serious consideration should be made to ensure the crew is well provisioned for; it is an age-old proven technique of avoiding mutiny and loss of crew to passing vessels…. Based upon recent nautical excursions around Skye, The Balearics, company regattas and the suchlike, the following crew endorsed ‘vittals’ should hopefully go some way to satisfy the appetites and wallets of hungry sailors. The following lists of victuals and menus are very loosely based on having around eight folk with hungry mouths onboard for a long weekend, say, from Friday to Monday with one or two runs ashore for sightseeing, greeting friendly natives and sampling their hostelries. Recently, Yotlinx organised a trip over to Skye. The Skippers of the two yachts ended up using very similar shopping lists which cost approximately the same amount – roughly £25 per head. This included breakfast on three days, lunch on three days, numerous snacks and two rather lavish evening dinners. And enough wine, beer and spirits! We were very conscientious of the fact that on previous sailing outings we returned with copious amounts of both unopened and partially eaten food. The point here is that unopened food can be liberally distributed amongst the crew; opened food is less palatable and invariably ends up as seagull fodder or dumped in a skip. It’s a good feeling walking off the boat at handover time at the end of the weekend with nothing more than a few teabags and a couple of tins of Guinness or rashers of bacon stuffed into the previously bulging Tesco bags! This is what we decided to stock up with. Precise units can be dispensed with as they are far too hard to remember! Breakfast
Lunch This can be a contentious issue. If you think your skills surpass those of Messrs Oliver, Roux, or Ramsey then bring your own truffle oil, Robochef and Le Creuset with you. If not, then just stick to ham, cheese & pickle sandwiches with some crisps, apples, pears and bananas (oranges are a pain to unpeel with freezing hands!) and yet more chemical soup. Honestly, this is all you need! Allow half a loaf per person per day of thick-cut bread – you can always make friends with the swooping seagulls afterwards if you don’t use it all.
Yet more chemical soup, tea, coffee, Kit-Kats and left-over sandwiches from lunch.
This can be a tad tricky if you have veggies and non-red meat eaters on-board. Taxing even with an Aga for a cordon-bleu chef but compounded on a boat with a poxy stove possessing two rings and feeble Calor gas. We chose to make two classics – on day one we went for a Stir Fry (more about that in a sec) and a Spag Bog on the second day. The stir-fry was chicken; the main problem is that the onboard gas cooker does not really generate the necessary heat to cook it as quickly as one would like nor is there enough space to get two generous [bear in mind we’re talking about cooking for eight] pans onto the hob. Some conjuring may be required to cook chicken on one hob followed by tofu or “three bean mix” which may be added to the stir-fry vegetables and served up with rice. The Spag Bog was similar in terms of trying to get a Bolognese sauce, mince beef, mince pork and veggie mince onto two rings while endeavouring to keep the spaghetti wonderfully al-dente…. I’m sure that everybody is fully aware of the contents of stir-fry chicken and spaghetti Bolognese so I won’t insult your integrity by suggesting ingredients. However, what does go down well with either or both of the above is a couple of bags of salad, salt, pepper (can’t guarantee to find these onboard), bottles of water and VERY IMPORTANTLY cooks matches or disposable lighters. Make sure also that you take paper kitchen towels and bottled water. The water-tanks on boats invariably have a really foul chemical taste to them and should be avoided at all costs for drinking – even when boiled for tea, coffee or soup – so allow at least three litres of bottled water per person per day. And then take some fizzy water as well. (you can always ask the charterer to give you an honest opinion on the state of the tank. It can be a pain shopping and carrying sufficient bottled water and I have recently chartered a yacht with very good quality tank water, even for drinking straight. I agree, you certainly can not guarantee this - Ed.) As an after-thought, I added this: blokes – do not expect your female companions to do the cooking or the washing up afterwards. It’s good form to divvy all these tasks up equally. Forgive me if this sounds patronising!! Maybe last but certainly not least is alcohol! Glass bottles are heavy and can be dangerous if they break so stick to cartons of wine. The amount that people consume can vary between nothing and prodigious amounts. Get too much and you’ll be called a lush. Get too little and you risk keel-hauling… You’ll need some beer and/or Guinness and/or cider and/or lager. The only way to sort this particular one out is to have a couple of crew meetings and try to gauge what people drink. The easiest cop-out is to tell everybody to take along a bottle of their favourite sprits. Just make sure you have tonic, coca-cola and orange juice onboard as well. (clearly, the 'when' and 'if' of alcohol comsumption on board is something that must be agreed with the skipper who has overall HSE responsibility for his/her crew - Ed) In summary, don’t go way overboard (mmmmh! - Ed). Stick to lots of warm drinks, bacon rolls and a filling – but healthy – evening meal. If you spend more than £25 a head for a long weekend (say, two and a bit days) then you’ll be wasting money. Do include some salad, some fruit and take the needs of your vegetarian crew-members into consideration. And, whatever you do, don’t forget the chemical soup! |
|
| Copyright ©
2008 YotLinx All Rights Reserved Web Design and Development |
||
