Marinated Artichokes

We are back in Baltimore, our home port for the Caribbean Season. As usual turn around days are hectic for everybody, but exciting at the same time. We have around 1800 guest leaving the ship after having had a great vacation (the weather was great, the ports beautiful and the beach BBQ stunning) and then after the ship gets cleaned from top to bottom, another 1800 guest are joining us, looking forward to a nice vacation. This time we will be out for 12 days doing the Eastern Caribbean with ports like St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Johns and St. Maarten........looks like we are visiting all the Saints in the Caribbean!

Anyway, this time in Baltimore we had to go out and get some special dishes for the ship, we have a Tapas station in one of our outlets and need to get more plates....not an easy thing in Baltimore. We were driving around for quite a while till we found everything and instead of just popping out for a short while it became a mission and a half, but we got what we needed, now we can continue doing our Tapas which are serve with live music, it is either our String Quartet that plays or we have a great Piano player

So my question to all the people in Baltimore, where can I find a really fantastic Kitchen Equipment store that has a great variety of China ware????? Help me here, please.

I still haven't gone to explore Baltimore, but what I could see so far is that it is a beautiful City, close to Washington DC. Two of my chefs went out to visit family and went all the way to see the White House....what an amazing experience I hope one day I can get there too!

So talking about Tapas, I got another Tapas Recipe, again, nice and simple, but very tasty

Marinated Artichokes

Ingredients

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) Artichoke quarters (Tinned)

30 g (1 oz) Shallots

15 g (0.5 oz) Garlic

A little bit Tarragon

A little bit Oregano

Kosher salt

White pepper

Olive Oil

Preparation

Drain artichokes

Chop herbs finely

Mix all ingredients carefully

Season to taste

Marinate over night

Sailing and working on one of the most beautiful Cruise Ships

Yes I am bad, I have not written in one month and feel bad about that. I have been busy but just need to make a little more time to write. So what I will do now as well is just to tell you where I am and what I do, then of course still the recipes, but I want to tell you a little bit about the life at sea.

As you know, I am working on the beautiful Celebrity Mercury, a wonderful ship and we have every cruise around 1800 guests. Nowadays that is considered small, but yes we are still producing over 9000 meals a day. The great thing is that we make everything fresh, this is nice for a chef as we love to work with fresh products.

We are sailing out of Baltimore and then doing trips to the Caribbean, usually between 9 and 12 days. I love this length of cruise as one has everything, a couple of relaxing days at sea, then some islands and then some relaxing days again. So I will tell you a little more about the where abouts and what one can do on the ship and of course what we do on the ship. Ship life is very interesting and there is never a dull moment.

So anyway, we are sailing into Baltimore once again, a lovely city just a stone throw away from the port. I will sit down and tell you more in the next Blog. As for now, I am off to bed, there was a talent show  this morning, then  we did a cooking show, just after that we had something called an Officers Picnic where the officers stand behind the buffet and serve the guests, a lot of fun. Then we had a Cruise Critics Lunch, specially for all the guest who are part of this Blog Site. We usually do a lovely lunch always ending with a nice and scrumptious Chocolate Souffle....yes there will be a recipe of it....sometimes, you need to keep on reading.

So I see you all soon again

Cheers!!!

Charleston, South Caroline

OK, I just have to write a little travel blog about Charleston in South Carolina. It is the first time that I am here and I have to be honest, I didn’t expect much. So to my great surprise, Charleston is a beautiful city with so much history and historical building, just amazing. I think Charleston is the perfect place to spend a coupe of relaxing days, take in the Southern charm of this city, have some very fine meals and rnjoy life.

After being on board for far too long without going out (all my mistake) I was really looking forward to explore Charleston a bit and wow, it is amazing. It is a very romantic old town with little alleys, loads of trees and plenty of little restaurants, pubs and bars. Everything is beautifully renovated and all one wants to do is sipping on a Latte, have a Croissant and sit in one of the beautiful cafes.

I think Charleston is a paradise for art lovers, so many galleries and as well for photographers. There are plenty of picture opportunities so one is absolutely in heaven.

It is Halloween at the moment and...one cannot see it when strolling through the old town, it is just so picture perfect, one can really feel the history in these walls. The weather is a lot warmer than just 2 days ago in Baltimore, so everybody enjoys the warm days, especially so late in the year. It is just perfect to relax a bit in the park close to the ship. So Charleston really has surprised me and I have to say that it is a great and beautiful city.