April 6, 2007

All at sea

Cornichon is taking time off from the boulevards in favor of a Holland America cruise aboard the ms Zaandam. A wine cruise, to be sure. Wines of Washington, in fact: Chateau Ste. Michelle, Hedges, Gordon, l'Ecole No. 41 all ably represented.

First time aboard a cruise ship! It's a floating village: 1,400 guests, 600 crew. Two city blocks long, 10 decks, 18 elevators, restaurants, cafés, bars, pools, meeting rooms, casino (poker, blackjack, slots), shops, theater, tennis court, gym, spa, more bars.

Sommelier Fernando Bacsa w CMS white.JPG John Sarich.JPG

Above: Zaandam sommelier Fernando Bacsa presents CMS White, Chateau Ste. Michelle culinary director John Sarich. Below: Crab timbale at dinner, crab with avocado at culinary demo. Coincidence, coincidence!

Crab appetizer.JPG Crab timbale by Sarich.JPG

Before all else, lifeboat drill. Might seem like waste of time, but this morning's news brings word of a Greek cruise ship sinking (sinking!!) in the Mediterranean and an unfortunate "incident" involving another cruise ship out of Florida. Gulp and double gulp! Well, gotta go: still some bars to discover on this seagoing boulevard.

RH at lifeboat drill.JPG
Queasy at the prospect of abandoning ship.

Posted by Ronald Holden at April 6, 2007 12:20 PM
Comments

Hi Ronald, what a dreadful job you have !!!
but it's also true that the ship might sink !...
Aimerais-tu vivre dangereusement ?!.

Posted by: Sabine F. Bodet at April 7, 2007 12:14 AM

If your port of call is LaHarve, go to the restaurant closest to the docks. Years ago, I boarded the SS.France there and enjoyed that eatery. As I recall, it had a menu of 20+ pages; the snails and crab cakes were "dope" (that's teen speak for wonderful). Dr. Joe

Posted by: Dr. Joe at April 6, 2007 4:37 PM