Dance, Duds & Dim Sum

Okay, it was Shumai, but that doesn’t alliterate.

Dance...

A dance and instrumental troupe from Manila came on board Sunday to perform in our Star Theatre. It doesn’t photograph well but was very entertaining, combining the Spanish culture that pervaded Manila for three centuries with native Filipino music and costumes.

Duds...

While I had no intention of purchasing a bespoke man’s suit, I went to the Hong Kong tailors’ talk anyway, out of curiosity. My mother’s mother left school after 8th grade to become a seamstress, starting work in the alterations department at McCurdy’s Department Store in Rochester, NY. When she was old enough, she became a high school sewing teacher and taught until she was 72. She could make a suit, I’m sure, but she never taught my mother or me to sew. We taught ourselves, with middling results. The speakers claimed Hong Kong tailoring is the best... but they admit that the best woolen fabric, with ‘Super’ ratings, comes from Italy. About a dozen men clustered around them after their presentation — were they making appointments to visit Stateroom 4004 to pick their fabric and be measured?

Food...

While we were in Cooking School today in ‘The Kitchen Table’ you’ve seen in photos, Viking’s resident chamber trio came into the real galley to serenade the real cooks. That’s the kind of thing this company and its people do.

Chef Wayan explaining which mushrooms to use in the Clay Pot Carmelized Chicken... Shitake, Oyster and Enoki. The little pouches in the tray are Shanghai Style Pork & Shrimp Shumai. Their taste was not harmed by my pathetic pouch-making skills.

Shumai...

Chef’s tools in their own little pocket on his sleeve. One thing I like about the cuisine on board: the meat is never overcooked... the beef and the lamb are always rare.

Clay Pot Chicken...

Not Pumpkin Tang Yuan, the pumpkin-and-peanut-butter-filled dumplings we made. They were unphotogenic and didn’t taste nearly as good as this delicious chocolate cake, Chef’s birthday surprise for one of our Vikings. We all wondered why the wine steward had come in with champagne... #

My new friend Helen, originally from Singapore. She attends Cooking School almost every day and tells us all where we can find equivalent spices and pastes when we can’t shop in Asia. The answer? Try Amazon!#