The Global Grandma: Going to Restaurants Too Often... Japan, Celebrity Millennium cruise.

Going to Restaurants Too Often...

From the series, "Japan, or An American Retiree's Extreme Vacation."

Think I'm done writing about food? No, I'm not. It's like the cruise buffet: you start eating, try so many different dishes you can't count them, and just when you think you're full, you find something you like and go back for more. Then they bring out something new, how can you not try it? Then there's tea (you can't drink that without a pastry, can you?!), and then you remember "healthy eating" and add some fruit... That's me with my food story. I thought I had said everything, but no, I still need to add something about the restaurant, can't forget about that.

So, the three of us are sailing around Japan on the Celebrity Millennium cruise ship (if you haven't read the previous stories). The three of us are me, Meire (who I worked with for sixteen years at a Montessori education center before I retired), and her cousin Rosely.

There are several restaurants on the cruise ship. Two of them are "free." (That is, they're included in the overall cost of the cruise. Nothing is free in life! Don't be fooled.) So, today we'll be talking about dinners in the cruise restaurant.

Do you go to restaurants often? (Oops, I asked a question as if I don't know the answer, it just slipped out, sorry.) Well, neither do I. Of course, I can afford to "celebrate" a birthday or just go out, but you know, it's sad to go alone, and I can't gather my friends in one place; fate has scattered them all over the world...

Stop, let's get back to the positive. We do meet up with friends (with some, it's true, on WhatsApp or we chat online, we live in the 21st century!), and now we're remembering the cruise where we could have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the restaurant!

The only thing was, the buffet was practically right next to our cabin, and the buffet had more choices... So, the only time we went to the restaurant was for dinner. But every day, or rather, every evening for all twelve days of the cruise, we put on our evening dresses and...

What happened in the restaurants is the subject of my story.

Every day, the menu always included escargot, shrimp cocktail, and Caesar salad as appetizers. The soups and a few other appetizers changed daily and were never repeated throughout the cruise. The same went for the main courses: the traditional Celebrity cruise staples—roasted salmon, roasted chicken breast, and roasted New York Sirloin steak—were always available to order, while five or six other dishes were new each day.

Here's a look at one of our dinners: creamy pumpkin soup...

... escargot, chilled shrimp cocktail ...

(This time, the shrimp were too small... See how quickly you get used to a good thing? You start getting picky and grumbling! The shrimp weren't big enough for me, you see, they didn't suit my size preference...)

...Roasted salmon with vegetables, followed by a choice of dessert.

The soup wasn't a huge bowl, the appetizers were small, and the fish was a modest piece. Yet I was full even before the dessert menu arrived. Still, I couldn't resist the pistachio pastry.

(Would you have said no? Would you have worried about your waistline?)

Here's another dinner: French onion soup with cheese...

...an appetizer of red fish with a complicated and fantastic name that I don't remember, but it was absolutely delicious...

... Peking duck with rice...

... a pastry... Ah, what a beauty!

After returning, I called my son and told him about the food on the cruise... We both love cruises, we both love to eat, and at home (at home! sic!), we try to stick to healthy eating.

So, I'm telling him about it and ask, "Tell me, what food was missing on the cruise?" "Mom, there was no sauerkraut!" "There wasn't, but there was pickled cabbage and there was kimchi." "There was no red caviar!" "There was! Maybe only five little roe, but there was!"

Here, I'll enlarge this photo for you.

In the middle, it lies, covered by a leaf. Even black caviar (not the expensive kind, of course) was used as a garnish for one of the dishes.

By the way, while checking what I wrote, I had doubts about whether to write 'было кимчи' (was, neuter gender) or 'была кимчи' (was, feminine gender). I wrote 'было,' but then my memory suddenly suggested: 'На столе лежала кольраби' (The kohlrabi lay on the table, feminine gender), because 'кольраби' is an indeclinable noun, and it's a type of cabbage, which is feminine. But 'кимчи' is also a type of cabbage.

{A Note on Russian Grammar

The author's internal struggle over the correct grammatical gender for the word "кимчи" - kimchi highlights a fascinating aspect of Russian grammar. In Russian, nouns have a gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter. This affects how verbs and adjectives agree with them.}

I couldn't decide on my own, so I had a long and very meaningful conversation with an artificial intelligence about exceptions in the Russian language and why 'кимчи' is an 'exception to the exceptions'! The AI instantly spewed out rules, exceptions to the rules, and those very 'exceptions to the exceptions,' respectfully, but with a subtle, almost imperceptible awareness of its superiority... I really wanted to secretly give it the finger and tell it that as a native speaker, I'll write however I want! I held back. After all, I am a teacher of Russian language and literature, as my husband says, even if it's in the past and I'm retired.

To my amazement, my initial writing was intuitively correct. That's how it is—you're just writing about dinners in a restaurant, and you end up reviewing rules and delving into corners of grammar that you can't find in textbooks...

By the way, about ducks. (Well, here's another 'by the way'!) Duck with apples and duck with cabbage were my mom's signature dishes. On all my travels, if there's an opportunity, I try duck. For me, it's like a quality test for a restaurant. This cruise was no exception.

Besides the Peking duck, I also tried duck with hoisin sauce at the buffet."

On the plates, it looked like this: a mountain of salad and a duck leg with rice. The salad still looked colorful, but the leg... The taste, however, was no worse than a restaurant's. (Really, there's no difference in how the food is cooked between the restaurant and the buffet—the difference is in the presentation.) If I had just put that duck in the middle of the plate, drizzled it with sauce, tossed on a couple of cherry tomatoes, and garnished it with a basil leaf...

That's why we go to restaurants—for the sheer beauty of the plating.

When even simple bread is served like this...

Oh, I wrote "simple" bread, but they had three different kinds, just like the butter—which also came in three types: plain whipped, garlic, and cheese.

And in the restaurant, there was a dish of duck prosciutto with "ordinary" barley! (There I go again, saying "ordinary," but I can't cook barley that deliciously. And don't tell me it's just laziness. To cook like that, you have to learn. A love of cooking and a bit of talent don't hurt, either.)

Here is that lunch with the duck.

That was the duck prosciutto: a few small, thinly sliced pieces of cured duck over about half a cup of barley. To say it was delicious is an understatement. They really surprised me.

Each of us quickly found a favorite dish at the restaurant. For me, it was the seafood.

For Rosely, it was the escargot.

For Meire, it was the steak.

(Oh, I, who photographs everything and everyone, didn't take a picture of Meire with her steak! We'll just have to meet on another cruise—it's not right, we have pictures of us, but no photo of her with what she loved! That's not good.)

I'll have to find something else.

On cruises, there's a special dinner where all the passengers get their photos taken as a memento. On the Celebrity Millennium, this is Lobster Night (usually the second-to-last dinner). It's the final "Night of Glamour," when guests, dressed in evening gowns and suits, gather for a formal dinner. Though, the idea of formal attire is understood differently these days; Hollywood glamor, which I love so much in old films, is a thing of the distant past.

We were no exception when it came to "taking and having our photos taken" (especially me). Here's our Lobster Night:

It's funny how things in life work out: for me, seafood is a huge treat; if I have a choice, that's what I'll pick.

But Rosely doesn't eat them. At all. When practically every passenger on the cruise ordered lobster (there were over 2,400 of us, and some ordered more than one—just imagine how many lobsters we ate that night alone!), Rosaly was the exception, ordering the Peking duck instead.

But the lobster wasn't the main thing! The most important thing is to enjoy your food. All kinds of food.

I purposely saved the photos from the buffet. I intentionally didn't include them in the first story.

There was something at the buffet that was similar to "Glamour Night," but you didn't have to wear formal dresses. The buffet had a seafood day!

Yes, there were no white tablecloths, and waiters didn't serve us, but look how beautifully the hall was decorated!

What lobster tails were sticking out of the fruit bouquets!

Want a lobster? Go right ahead!

This is what it looked like.

Not enough lobster for you? Want some shrimp? — Go ahead!

And there was a line, I think about five or six people, I even took a picture of it.

I can calmly remember everything I ate on the cruise and look at the photos—except for this one lunch. My mouth is watering... And that's not even mentioning the view outside the window...

I saved the menu from another dinner, not as a souvenir, but for my own culinary education. When I read the menu in the restaurant, I only understood the meaning of individual words. I figured I'd get home and translate it into Russian to make it easier. Here are both versions for you (I used an automatic translation program here).

Wild Mushroom Vol-Au-Vent (Ragout of Wild Mushrooms, Thyme, Truffle Cream Sauce)

Волован с лесными грибами (Рагу из лесных грибов с тимьяном и трюфельно-сливочным соусом)

Traditional Steak Tartare. (Marinated Capers, Red onion, Arugula)

Традиционный тартар из стейка. (Маринованные каперсы, красный лук, руккола)

Classic Cnataubriand. (Turned Potatoes, Glazed Haricots Verts, Shiraz Braised Shallots, Choice of Bernaise or Madeira Sause)

Классический шатобриан. (Картофель запеченный, фасоль в глазури, тушеный шалот в соусе Шираз, соус Бернез или Мадера на выбор)

Well, first, that translation isn't quite accurate, and second, did it actually make anything clear for you? Really?

Here's how I repeated my order in Russian: "Vol-au-vents, please, tartare, and of course, the Chateaubriand!" The best part? Out of all that, I only understood one word: Chateaubriand.

François-René de Chateaubriand—a French writer from the early 19th century, a Romanticist, a century I love so much. (What did I read? I don't remember... Just remember his name. And still, they taught us well, if a name can stick in my memory for fifty years.)

I had to educate myself. Vol-au-vents turned out to be little puff pastry cases. Tartare was finely minced, high-quality raw beef. And Chateaubriand is a term referring to a specific cut of meat and a way of preparing it—a high-quality dish named after a famous writer. (Just like the famous diplomat Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov, a lieutenant general and aide-de-camp to Alexander I, who remained in "history" thanks to the popular dish named in his honor: Beef Stroganoff. The irony of fate.)

A Literary Aside

As I write the names of these dishes, I feel just like Konstantin Levin, "a lover of cabbage soup and kasha," for whom Stiva Oblonsky orders dinner at the Hotel England restaurant. That's the part where the waiter for Stiva "had the pleasure of repeating the entire order from the menu: 'Soupe printanière, turbot sauce Beaumarchais, poularde a l'estragon, macédoine de fruits...'" (Of course, I don't remember this. I'm quoting from online sources. I don't need to remind you where the quote is from, but in case a younger person who didn't grow up in the Soviet era wanders in, they might not know. Plus, I'm writing this story with an English translation, so Oblonsky and Levin are characters from Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina.)

The Details

There's so much more I could tell you, because Haricots verts literally translates from French as "green beans." However, the term refers to a specific type of green bean that's different from the more common varieties you'd find at a regular grocery store.

Turned Potatoes are not just baked potatoes, but "pommes de terre tournées" in French. This is when potatoes (or other root vegetables like carrots or turnips) are cut into specific, identical, oblong pieces with seven equal sides. "This gives them a distinct, elegant, almost barrel-like shape."

Seven sides! Home cooks, can you imagine?! Oh, this high-end French cuisine...

Thankfully, I didn't write down the French name of the chocolate pastry.

Everything good comes to an end. For some reason, it happens faster than a bad thing does. Here's our last dinner.

And look at the simplicity of it: cubes of boiled beets with feta cheese and spinach leaves, drizzled with a sweet sauce.

I fry fish like this myself, no problem.

And I've baked an upside-down apple pie many times; I could even make one with pineapple, just like this.

But all of that together? On a white tablecloth? And getting dressed up for dinner? Yeah, I can't do it... Forget about it... as we used to say in our youth.

And why would I need to?!

That's why it's so nice to remember the white tablecloths, the table setting, and the presentation of the dishes. The moment you finish, your plate is immediately cleared and the next course is brought to you.

To be honest, the cruise restaurant isn't really about the food. It's about having a good time. You have to get dressed up and put on a little makeup to go to the restaurant.

(As you can see, that's not me, but Meire!)

Don't feel like it? Then don't put on makeup! I'm not thinking about what others want, but what I want to do for myself.

You get dressed, put on some makeup, and you're off to dinner in the company of beautifully dressed people...

Darn it, I'm in trouble—I forgot to bring my favorite black evening dress! I look a little bit slimmer in it, it's such a shame!

Is a white polka dot skirt too young for me?

When I was at the right age for a skirt like that, I didn't have the money, and skirts like that weren't even for sale. When the skirts and money appeared, the age was gone. Or rather, the age had come.

If I'm almost seventy, am I not supposed to feel like a woman?! Just you wait! You'll never see the day! (I'm not talking to you, sorry.)

I'm even going to find myself a dress the color of red salmon, a kind of pinkish-orange! As one of my friends, Elena Vasilyevna, used to say (her favorite color is salmon, besides classic white and gray; may she live a long life—she's turning ninety in a couple of weeks!): "We need to refresh ourselves at our age, refresh!"

I recommend it to you, too. At any age!

A restaurant on a cruise isn't really about the food; it's about the feelings! The feeling of being a woman, the feeling of being alive, and of course, the food that goes along with it...

Delic-i-ous...

My dear girls! My fellow travelers! Let's remember our cruise with kind words and raise our glasses (even if just in our minds) to the idea that it all should happen again! To a new cruise!

P.S.

On the last day, during dinner, the chefs, waiters, and kitchen staff all walk through the restaurant...

And everyone in the hall greets them with gratitude for their work! A wonderful tradition.

***

I'm sitting here thinking, should I make Fish Wellington? Or maybe Beeff Stroganofff or Chateaubriand? (I know, I know how to spell them! I'm a native Russian speaker! It's just how I wanted to write it!)

I'm joking, I'm joking!!

Although, who knows...

P.P.S.

The Global Grandma

Friday, November 14, 2025

Going to Restaurants Too Often... Japan, Celebrity Millennium cruise.

A Literary Aside

The Details

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