The Food Follies Continue

26 September 2014

Friday

Today's observation centers on the food served at the facility. In an effort to get me to be more participatory with the program here, the new dietician has offered that a weekly set of menus be copied and sent to my room. I, in turn, am to circle the items that would like to have, then send the menu back to the kitchen. There was a tone to this message that this protocol would take care of my concerns. This plan only sidles up to proximity of the issue. Using more closely focused attention will note that the protocol as stated assumes that I would submit to the choices offered, when in fact there are only two entrees given for each meal, the main entree and an alternate. Some days the main entree might be macaroni and cheese (macaroni noodles are full of gluten), the alternate might be something equally unappealing like a fish sandwich. (the bread bun that holds the fish is also full of gluten)For me this is a no choice, choice.

To deal with this disparity I also add the right to cross out specific menu choices in addition to the circling of the choices preferred. This sort of has been working . Tuesday lunch was served with the accompanying meal ticket, an item found on every meal served. Even though I had circled the inclusion of minestrone soup, there was no soup on the tray. The kitchen had written on the ticket, apparently as a check list. Notice the mention of soup on the ticket. Not wanting to continue rolling over every time the food is messed up, I added my comment about the missing soup. (note how my handwriting has really deteriorated due to the MS)

When a company named Sodexo took over the kitchen production last summer, it was announced to the residents in a facility wide meeting that fresh fruit was always going to be the fruit type offered. Once in a while there is fresh fruit provided. Usually it is limited to one or two chunks of cantaloupe or honeydew melons, a fresh red grape or two, a chunk of orange that has been sliced from the rind by knife so it looks unlike any previously eaten before. There are peaches, pears and applesauce routinely provided. The peaches and pears are always serves diced in syrup, which is anything but standard fresh fruit production in my book.

I find it interesting that on the menus fruit is always listed as the fruit in a sliced form. This is how the fresh fruit, sliced peaches appears on Thursday's dinner. Someday I hope to see the amazing trees that produce this uniquely grown fruit.

To show that the food follies continue to be played, I would like to mention one more anomaly. Thursday's soup choice was Cream of Broccoli. It was easy to see that the soup was homemade by noticing the broccoli that inhabited my soup was not the usual tiny bit sized chunks of broccoli florets found in commercial brands. The single piece of broccoli that was in my soup bowl was huge, it barely fit in the bowl. Using a fork, I managed to spear the dinner sized piece of broccoli, dripping thick white soup stock, from the soup bowl. I guided the vegetable toward my open mouth. I had to eat the broccoli two bites at a time in succession from the fork. This gastronomic feat was accomplished with the ancillary fact that great gobs of thickened soup stock found its way onto my face and imbedded in the facial hair that decorates my countenance. I normally try to not make such a mess when eating, but on this occasion, such pleasantries were not possible.

Sorry, no pictures.