Cooking school

As I’ve said before the sea days are busy. Besides the mundane tasks like laundry and answering email there is also the option of cooking school. Dale and I opted to go to the Mauritian class where the menu was slanted towards Indian cuisine, which we love. The ship has a beautiful facility where 12 students at a time work together with the chef to prepare a three course meal — and then eat it after some amazingly artful “plating” by the kitchen staff. I told the chef that he really ought to offer a course on just the plating techniques. And, after having said that I realized that I didn’t get any pictures of the presentation. Duhh!

Dale and another guest are working on the chopped, grain-based, salad which eventually got combined in a half coconut shell with a fish salad.

You learn some new technique at cooking school but mostly you just have fun and get a great meal.

As we left the ship the next morning we saw the packages ready to go to the Madagascar Red Cross. The passengers all donated clothing, shoes and toiletries which they didn’t want to take back home and were happy to leave in this needy country. In Mozambique, where we are headed, and where the recent devastating cyclone did horrendous damage to the north of where we are going, the ship will offload $50,000 worth of supplies from the ship’s stores. Viking has a very giving attitude in many ways; with it’s crew, its passengers and the worlds that they visit.