> Odd to see a big defender of the rice difference from xxcarol who spent
 > many years in the Navy?  I've had meals prepared by Navy cooks that you
 > were  lucky to even decide just what it was, let alone look for minor
 > flavor differnces.  :)

Ah but every ship I've ever been on, won the awards for best chow in it's
class of ship!  Odd but true.  Especially well deserved for the Fort McHenry
which had an open mess (meaning all enlisted ate same chow, not a separate
cooking for the CPO's but rather a conjoined galley with separate serving
lines).

On the FTM, they didnt follow the recipe cards, even when the
assesors were there except with one main, and one side per meal.  The rest
was fair game ;-)  Most ship's arent bold enough to do that but we said 'what
the heck, we aint gonna win anyway so go for it'.  Charmed the inspectors
especially when the inspectors found out tha the crew was allowed to send in
favorite recipes and help cook'em if they wanted.

So like, the standard menu said today was supposed to be veal parmesan and
the assessors knew that, and we'd stick the label of 'veal parmesan' over
that steam plate and inside would be miso butterfish on a bed of caremelized
onion and bell peppers with a sprinkle of birdseed chiles.....

I vaguely remember them laughing in the kitchen because we couldnt find the
recipe cards and had to borrow some from the Juneau.  That tells ya how often
we used them ;-)  Oh and Juneau was missing some too so they had to make a
trade deal with the Essex to send a helo over with a few missing ones.

            xxcarol
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