For Divers that Like to Eat. Who has the best food?

[Julieofthesea]

Oh Man, I'm getting hungry!

 

[Sorrows]

Oh Man, I'm getting hungry!

Me, too! I confess that the quality of food is very important to me--particularly on a dive trip when I am hungry all the time AND I can pretty much eat everything I want and still lose a few pounds. To say the food isn't important is like saying sleep isn't important--you cannot enjoy the diving if you don't have your basic needs met first!

 

[Lorenzoid]

There is a reason why some liveaboards tout that they offer gourmet fare. There is demand for it!

 

[photog]

As a food-loving diver, it seems to me that the difficulty is not so much that liveaboards and resorts can't hire excellent chefs but that many clients--maybe even a majority--are perfectly happy with boring food. For example, my wife and I LOVE Indonesian food, yet getting the chef on a liveaboard or resort to prepare it the way we're used to eating it in the warungs is sometimes like pulling teeth. However, I suppose I can sympathize with those who prefer their comfort food of bacon and eggs to burping up sambal underwater. My wife and I once found ourselves at a small resort where the only other guests were a group from Texas, and we discovered that they were regulars at that resort and had specifically requested the food prepared as it was (boring American food, as far as my wife and I were concerned). .

Are we talking gourmet food that sounds good on a menu and looks amazing, or about food that actually tastes good? I've worked (building websites for specialty travel agents) and traveled a lot, often eating at top resorts, often at low end resorts, on liveaboards in various budget ranges. Some of the resorts that tout gourmet cuisine served, IMO, inedible meals. Sounded great, looked awesome, tasted horrible.

"Many clients--maybe even a majority--are perfectly happy with boring food". That seems to be the case all around us here in the USA. People are standing in queues for what we consider tasteless food served in large quantities.

I organize trips in Indonesia by LOB now and ask guests what sort of food they want on their trip, then tailor the menu to the guests comments. But have to say there is always someone who can't eat anything that isn't completely bland or isn't something they eat at home. Sometimes I have the chef make good food for the majority and this bland food on the side. Most of the people who join my trips have been to Indonesia before and love Indonesian food. So that's the majority of what we serve. Last Oct/Nov we had the best food I've had in any resort or LOB I've visited in Indonesia - as good as or better than my favorite Indonesian restaurants . Chef had worked at restaurants in Bali. I had him making special dishes, even shopping for stuff we don't usually get on the ship. The majority of people raved about the food, but of course there were a few who couldn't or wouldn't eat any of the good stuff :shocked2:. So we had to keep the options open for some. I'm hoping this chef signs on for next season, but until we get on the ship, we never know for sure. Crew can and do quit the day the ship departs!

 

[theduckguru]

I'm doing research for an article about divers who like to eat. Are there any foodie/epicureans out there that have had awesome diving on a liveaboard AND fabulous food?

When you are on a liveaboard and in the water 4-5 hours a day, good food becomes excellent food rather quickly. Equally, poor food becomes terrible just as fast.

 

[Sorrows]

Are we talking gourmet food that sounds good on a menu and looks amazing, or about food that actually tastes good? I've worked (building websites for specialty travel agents) and traveled a lot, often eating at top resorts, often at low end resorts, on liveaboards in various budget ranges. Some of the resorts that tout gourmet cuisine served, IMO, inedible meals. Sounded great, looked awesome, tasted horrible.

Very true, and I think most of us would agree that if it is a choice between home/comfort cooking that is GOOD versus so-called gourmet food that is NOT GOOD, we'd take the home cooking every time. Particularly on a dive trip when everybody is so hungry! Years ago, we were at Little Cayman Resort for Christmas week. They had a pastry chef there who turned out beautiful and intricate concoctions that uniformly were tasteless and BAD. Even my teenaged son stopped eating dessert. (!!!) Seriously, a boxed cake would have had more flavor. Wouldn't it be better to make the dishes within your abilities--I don't know, bread pudding or something like that--than these supposed "European-inspired" fantasies?

Going even further back in time, we were once in a Club Med-owned resort in Mexico near one of the ruins (they were called Villas Arqueologicos--so that shows you were the emphasis lay; not a typical Club Med at all) Anyway, a group of French guests complained loudly about the quality of the so-called French dishes the Mexican chefs were preparing. (And they were right, btw) I finally got so fed up with them I asked them why the hell they came to Mexico if they wanted to eat French food? I mean, you may have the best food in the world, but if you can't go without it for a week of vacation, why not just say at home?

I absolutely do not want to eat burgers, etc. while in an exotic locale and I think most divers--who are, by definition, more adventurous than your average person, would prefer the local cuisine. OTOH, I confess that as much as I love spicy and Indonesian cuisine, I can't take it in authentic doses like the locals. I would think there are few Westerners who can. And while I am in confession mode, I admit that while I have accustomed myself to fried rice for breakfast, I can't do the heavy duty stuff first thing in the morning. Just give me a scrambled egg on toast and some yogurt, please. Also, the minute I get sick, the adventurous spirit goes out the window. And so many people seem to suffer from dodgy stomachs/digestion problems when they travel (not just Westerners, btw) that perhaps they deserve more pity than censure?

Good luck in getting your #1 chef back, photog--he sounds like a precious jewel!

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . .
I absolutely do not want to eat burgers, etc. while in an exotic locale and I think most divers--who are, by definition, more adventurous than your average person, would prefer the local cuisine. OTOH, I confess that as much as I love spicy and Indonesian cuisine, I can't take it in authentic doses like the locals. I would think there are few Westerners who can. And while I am in confession mode, I admit that while I have accustomed myself to fried rice for breakfast, I can't do the heavy duty stuff first thing in the morning. Just give me a scrambled egg on toast and some yogurt, please. Also, the minute I get sick, the adventurous spirit goes out the window. And so many people seem to suffer from dodgy stomachs/digestion problems when they travel (not just Westerners, btw) that perhaps they deserve more pity than censure?
Good luck in getting your #1 chef back, photog--he sounds like a precious jewel!

Not having a stomach for, say, Indonesian breakfast food says to me that you just need to spend more time in Indonesia

Actually, I don't find Indonesian food all that spicy. Fried rice, fried noodles--not spicy at all unless you put sambal on them on your plate.

Okay, I try to resist "censure" of anybody. But I am one of those inveterate travelers who feels cheated if he's served American/European food in Asia as the default. (And as far as Mexican food goes, many Americans fully embrace the stuff, such that a taco for breakfast is hardly foreign at all anymore.) I'd rather be served local food as the default and have to make a special request if I want American/European food. It makes more sense to do this--at least at a resort/liveaboard that truly gets a diverse cross-section of divers from around the world. Heck, I don't even eat cereal, yogurt, eggs, toast, bacon, etc. for breakfast when I'm home, because I've gotten so spoiled by food I've sampled elsewhere that I've adopted it when I'm home. But I do understand people's need for "comfort food," whatever that may mean for them. This brings up a question. If cereal, yogurt, eggs, toast, bacon, etc., is the default comfort food breakfast at dive resorts/liveaboards, then what do divers who hale from, say, Japan, China, Korea, etc., say about this? Maybe a Japanese diver would say this kind of stuff gives them "digestion problems" just as much as Indonesian food might give them digestion problems. (Pure speculation here for the purpose of stirring the pot!)

 

[KeithG]

I'm doing research for an article about divers who like to eat. Are there any foodie/epicureans out there that have had awesome diving on a liveaboard AND fabulous food?

Not even close to fabulous food. Lots of food yes. Great food - nope. But in my experience the majority of divers rave over food that I consider just okay. It's hearty and filling, but not creative or interesting.

As a foodie, the basic requirement for fabulous food is fresh ingredients. All of the live aboards I have been on depended heavily on their freezers. This included the fish and lobster. Each trip it takes me a few mouthfuls of steak to figure out what is wrong - oh yah - this has been frozen.

Our first live board did feature a chef and he was very creative ( beef Wellington, rack of lamb) but since then we have had cooks who tend to grind out the same recipes each week, every week.

In PNG we did get a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables that were bartered from the locals. I was amazed at the number of different types of bananas available. But it did become mundane by the end of the second week due to the limited selection of available ingredients.

In order to ensure consistent and adequate food supply, live aboards are forced to take on frozen supplies. They can not pop down to the market each morning to see what is available. They also face the challenge of generally having a very limited selection of food available from their local suppliers.

Show me a live aboard that serves beef cheeks or Osso buco or beef carpaccio and then you will grab my interest.

 

[mlsantos]

Back in the day and im talking about 2 to three years back i was pretty amazed by the food on the ocean hunter boats in palau. They make a point to serve all organic food made from some of the best ingredients you can get on that island. The menu is diverse and the chef has a pretty good arsenal of international cuisine... offcourse for 5k on a 7 day trip your bound to expect it...

 

[jmsenger]

I'm doing research for an article about divers who like to eat. Are there any foodie/epicureans out there that have had awesome diving on a liveaboard AND fabulous food?

The Carpe Vita Explorer in the Maldives offers great diving and very tasty food too. The cooks are from Sri Lanka and make some of the best curries I've ever had.