Food from a Nautical Sense (Final)

What do you think of when you hear a steel beach picnic? Workers on steel beam barbequing at 600 feet next to the Jersey shore? Most people think of 300 lbs. Pittsburg Steelers offensive lineman walking on the beach eating a foot long wearing a thong. Sorry for putting the mental image into your thought process for today. Somebody’s got to do it, might as well be me. Every branch of the service has a special way of describing the food that is cooked and presented at chow time. Let’s say its goes back to the wooden ship days standing around the scuttle and hearing from the mouth of “Cookie” the ships cook “What’s for chow in the aft galley”? He replies “Sliders and rollers on dry bread with a side of tater salad”, be honest with you I had to throw in a little southern accent into it. To a well salted seadog like myself,so I could say this sounds like a pretty good meal from a Nautical Sense. Floating on bird farm for six months, hitting ports like Hong Kong, to Hobart Australia, and I have had the opportunity to sample the a vast amounts of food from the civilian side to Uncle Sam’s traveling catering truck.

Wait don’t pull out the nautical dictionary out yet, to put things into a better perspective, I will break it down as I go along. We are all taught at birth to learn what ever language to communicate with our family with. This is no different, in boot camp we spend hours learning new terminology to communicate with, like starboard, aft and I will just throw in fantail just to complicate things. Sliders and rollers are hamburgers and hot dogs. So why do we call it that? Remember the ship rolls from side to side…get it? I won’t spend any more time on this, let’s move on. Everybody is in rush to get somewhere quickly and the U.S. Navy is no different, if you had over 4000 people to serve on a bird farm I mean aircraft carrier things move a lot quicker. So buckle down drop your main sail and let’s go traveling.

I love the expression from the guys coming back from chow, you ask what they had for chow and they would reply “Some type of meat and cream sauce with lima beans”. I would rush right down there and get me a healthy serving but I would apply the no name brand steak sauce to give the meal a lustrous taste. Be honest with you, I was in no rush to stand in line for 40 minutes for Lima beans. Today’s navy you see a percentage of Filipinos that are cooks, a lot of them are not U.S. citizens. Back in the forty’s the Filipino’s and blacks were segregated from the whites aboard navy ships and the main jobs were in the galley and officers mess. I have to admit the food was marvelous it varied from pork, beef, or chicken sometimes sweet taste or a ginger spicy flavor; it always covered steam rice.

Speaking of the Filipino’s, back in the eighties before the naval base closed, I got the chance to sample the food and the beer. The Lumpia is just like an egg roll but better, a different flavor. Throw in a bottle of San Miguel beer and life couldn’t be any better. You would have street vendors making the food right in front of you or they would have it laid out , just be weary of the monkey on the stick or some type of meat…laughing as I write this. One thing you just don’t see any dogs are cats running around. I wonder why? The other thing is there are no health and warning signs on the side of the vendor’s street cart. The menu it’s not written in the American language, so has we say in the food critics magazine bone appetite.

Hong Kong and Singapore where a little different, you could actually see a cat or dog hanging from the window at the local deli. The menu is just the same I couldn’t read it. I did ask where there was a McDonald's and to my amazement there was one down the street in Hong Kong. The question presents itself, what meat is McDonald's using? To finish this quest for hunger, I ended upside down in Hobart Australia with a menu was full of food I just didn’t think you could not eat; for instance kangaroo, or emu. Life is full of surprises when you are asked how you want your joey burger cooked.

I do apologize for earlier for putting the image of some guy that weighs 300 pounds wearing a thong but all things must come to an end. In certain situations we did not see land or pull into ports, rule of thumb; ninety days are more at sea, we were allowed a beer day, do not get overly excited about this, it was only two cans. To go with this, the ship moved all the planes forward. Out came the barbeques and the coolers; throw in some inflatable pools and music and this is what we call a steel beach picnic. I still have not found a cook called “Cookie” and I do not miss the cooking from my fellow sailors. I do miss stopping in the exotic ports and trying some type of meat.