Secondhand reviews of Amtrak's new eastern LD food. My father, sister and brother in law recently rode the Crescent from Phila to Altanta.
My father had the beef and noodle dish. Beef was tough to chew, but otherwise okay.
Sister and brother in law had the vegitarian dish. Not very good. Salad was made with "airline lettuce" - looks good, tastes off.
They had the egg sandwich for breakfast which they said was good.
Their trains were only 20 minutes late into Atlanta. The Crescent is running better these days - I think because NS is getting their merchandise trains running closer to their slots.
Other comments. The upper berth mattress was terrible. Diner was noisy. Track is rough.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
Don, thanks for the direct report on the one night out meal service. One of the pleasures of long distance travel was the meals in the diners, often with strangers who made good conversations.
I did have a not so good experience on #6 this month--the steak was tough, and I could barely cut it, and the baked potato was not fully cooked.. Coming home, the steak was good and the potato was well cooked in both dinners.
Johnny
What? Me worry?
Amtrak has not messed with the really good stuff. It is listed under Wine, Beer & Spirits. They have, however, raised the prices. Really, $8.50 for a single serving of Woodbridge Chardonnay? That does it.
Well, maybe it’s not too bad. The first drink is on Amtrak. But I am not paying $8.50 for Woodbridge Chardonnay. After the first freebee it will be the good stuff. I am bringing my own bottle of Ripple! Or is it Thunderbird that I like? I’ll have to check my wine cellar. Not good at remembering things now that I have hit the big 80.
I am only 72, but whatever... My friends took me with them to a Detroit Tigers baseball game some years back. Sitting in the sun, I ordered a beer. $8 for one 24 ounce can, and that was 15 years ago. I don't expect train drinks to be a bargain.
Enzoamps I am only 72, but whatever... My friends took me with them to a Detroit Tigers baseball game some years back. Sitting in the sun, I ordered a beer. $8 for one 24 ounce can, and that was 15 years ago. I don't expect train drinks to be a bargain.
A single serving of Woodbridge Chardonnay for $8.50 is no bargain. Woodbridge is 1/2 step above box wines.
The same serving in the dining car on the Texas Eagle is $7.50. In the lounge car it is $6.50. And on the Heartland Flyer it is $4.
Time to book a trip on the Flyer. Boy oh boy; $4 wine. Nah, even Ripple is better than Woodbridge.
Time to check my stock of Ripple and Thunderbird. Oh, I forgot to list Mogen David in my original tongue in cheek post. How silly of me. Mogen David was a holiday staple in our household.
EnzoampsI am only 72, but whatever... My friends took me with them to a Detroit Tigers baseball game some years back. Sitting in the sun, I ordered a beer. $8 for one 24 ounce can, and that was 15 years ago. I don't expect train drinks to be a bargain.
The organization selling beer and the other concessions at your Tiger's game had to bid for the right to sell the concessions. I have no idea if the organization that is authorizing the concessions is the Tigers or some governmental stadium organization, however, the bid for the opportunity to sell concessions is a big ticket item (7 figures) for the authorizing organization. Therefore when it comes time to sell the $1 a can beer, in addition to ordinary costs and profits that would apply to any other sales outlet, concessions at such a event also have to cover the costs of 'being the winning bidder' for the oppertunity to sell in the first place.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
JPS1A single serving of Woodbridge Chardonnay for $8.50 is no bargain ... The same serving in the dining car on the Texas Eagle is $7.50. In the lounge car it is $6.50. And on the Heartland Flyer it is $4.
They should offer splits or servings from Trump Winery, and get the administration on board with the revision of the food program! Can't be worse than Woodbridge ... to a substantial cohort of potential train riders.
The first question I'd ask is why the substantial disparity in asked price? I'd be reasonably sure that apparatus to preserve 'splits' with refrigeration and nitrogen blanketing is a piddling amount per car, so it can't be that demand is low or that having to 'finish off' or discard mostly-full bottles accounts for or justifies the higher charge.
The second question is why local wineries in a given train's service area aren't solicited to provide a few bottles 'at' or near cost as promotion. That's no different from typical wine-tasting procedure ... and any foregone income is almost certainly treatable as a deductible 'marketing expense'. Hard to say who would 'lose' in that situation (except perhaps operations like Woodbridge, which I think few wine-drinkers would actually miss experiencing ...)
Why would you mention Ripple and Thunderbird ... and then Mogen David ... without invoking Mad Dog 20/20, that most classic of gettin' down wines?
They should offer splits or servings from Trump Winery, and get the administration on board with the revision of the food program! Can't be worse than Woodbridge ... at least to a substantial cohort of potential train riders.
The first question is why the substantial disparity in asked price? I'd be reasonably sure that apparatus to preserve 'splits' with refrigeration and nitrogen blanketing is a piddling amount per car, so it can't be that demand is low and 'finishing off' or discarding mostly-full bottles accounts for the higher charge.
"It's not clear sight we try to fake/But 20/20 is what we make."
Overmod The second question is why local wineries in a given train's service area aren't solicited to provide a few bottles 'at' or near cost as promotion. Why would you mention Ripple and Thunderbird ... and then Mogen David ... without invoking Mad Dog 20/20, that most classic of gettin' down wines?
Please! Soliciting local wineries for promotional items? Are you kidding? We are talking about Amtrak’s bureaucrats!
Mad Dog 20/20? Even I have some standards albeit not very high.
Boone's Apple Farm?
charlie hebdoBoone's Apple Farm?
Surely you meant 'Boone's Farm Apple'. Now hideously obsolete because the stuff is malt-based rather than even pretending winehood.
Pity they don't make a fortified version to go with Thunderbird and Night Train... there's a pretty large cohort of women that would drink such a thing.
Most of whom, alas! would likely not ride Amtrak.
(Now I'm all in favor of featuring Baltimore's enduring Natty Boh legacy, Colt 45, as an Amtrak feature potation, but that wouldn't really help a Boone's Farm malternative, would it?)
I stand corrected. All those horrible beverages.
charlie hebdoAll those horrible beverages.
Doesn't 'beverage' imply someone is actually supposed to drink it? That stuff reminds me of the diet ice cream whipped full of wax and air and tasting like cardboard, for people who need to feel virtuous but still have to have dessert, a kind of gastronomic equivalent of a hair shirt.
(Of course, we didn't mention Zima, which was kind of like the Tab of the weird alcoholic category; not even Boone's Farm got quite that awful...)
Fresca? Sinalco [actually the latter was quite good].
charlie hebdoFresca?
Slate was very clear that Zima was like Fresca with tinfoil soaking in it.
I didn't like Fresca at all when it came out (what eight-year-old likely would?), but love it now -- wish they'd make it with 'real sugar' instead of the weird stuff. I confess I go out of my way to find generic grapefruit soda. Really good stuff on a hot day - cuts the dust right off the back of the throat!
Tab, on the other hand: reminiscent to me of liquid Bakelite, perhaps with a little tasty cyclohexylsulfamic acid added for effect. Maybe it got better, not worse, after the switch to NutraSweet in the eighties; I certainly knew I wasn't going to find out firsthand.
Could yuz guys South of our border get Lonesome Charlie, Moody Blue or Baby Duck.
You cannot get Lonesome Charlie any longer but man a bottle of that in a sauna would knock you some kind of stupid.
Overmod charlie hebdo Fresca? Slate was very clear that Zima was like Fresca with tinfoil soaking in it. I didn't like Fresca at all when it came out (what eight-year-old likely would?), but love it now -- wish they'd make it with 'real sugar' instead of the weird stuff. I confess I go out of my way to find generic grapefruit soda. Really good stuff on a hot day - cuts the dust right off the back of the throat! Tab, on the other hand: reminiscent to me of liquid Bakelite, perhaps with a little tasty cyclohexylsulfamic acid added for effect. Maybe it got better, not worse, after the switch to NutraSweet in the eighties; I certainly knew I wasn't going to find out firsthand.
charlie hebdo Fresca?
I rather liked Squirt, once upon a time. In the summer, the brewer Stiegel of Austria makes a good Radler that contains a fairly light beer and both grapefruit and lemon juices.
Do you know where to get Fritz-kola or Fritz-limo in this country?
I'm sure some of the older members on this Forum remember this.
And then there is -
What happened to Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers?
Zima killed the wine cooler
Actually…it was taxation. In January 1991, Congress quintupled the excise tax on wine from $.17/gallon to $1.07/gallon. ... Zima and Smirnoff Ice reigned supreme, and major wine cooler producers like Boones Farm and Bartles & Jaymes switched to malt beverage recipes.
Overmod Do you know where to get Fritz-kola or Fritz-limo in this country?
As far a I know, the closest is in the UK.
https://images.app.goo.gl/dFhZQMseqZbsj5vLA
Meanwhile, THE most satisfying single bottle of soft drink I ever had was an Afri-Cola longneck, up at the top of a climb in Riezlern in the mid-Seventies.
The brand apparently had a NewCoke-like fiasco in the late Nineties, got back to what was supposed to be original in 2006 ... and is supposed to be available in the New York area now! 250mg/l caffeine and malic acid like SweeTarts ... it's gotta be great! Thanks for reminding me!
Meanwhile, I find references to the interesting capitalist experiment that is Premium (Premium-Cola, that is). Has anyone tasted this? (It had my beloved malic acid but now has changed to phosphoric like Coke).
Overmod Meanwhile, THE most satisfying single bottle of soft drink I ever had was an Afri-Cola longneck, up at the top of a climb in Riezlern in the mid-Seventies. The brand apparently had a NewCoke-like fiasco in the late Nineties, got back to what was supposed to be original in 2006 ... and is supposed to be available in the New York area now! 250mg/l caffeine and malic acid like SweeTarts ... it's gotta be great! Thanks for reminding me! Meanwhile, I find the interesting capitalist experiment that is Premium (Premium-Cola, that is). Has anyone tasted this? (It had my beloved malic acid but now has changed to phosphoric like Coke).
Meanwhile, I find the interesting capitalist experiment that is Premium (Premium-Cola, that is). Has anyone tasted this? (It had my beloved malic acid but now has changed to phosphoric like Coke).
They are experimenting with Orange flavored Coke in some areas of Dallas and like the Sprecher Orange Soda (Milwaukee Made...sold in Texas to HEB as well as Jakes Frozen Custard), it tastes like cough syrup with carbonated water. So far only Orange Crush has hit the true orange soda flavor.
CMStPnPThey are experimenting with Orange flavored Coke in some areas of Dallas
I've had it, and it's a mistake. I think they were trying for that Droste chocolate orange vibe... but it did not translate. Those of you that want a sample can approximate it at any of the fast-food restaurants that have those computerized Coke machines with screens to select thousands of flavor options.
I was tremendously excited when I saw we'd get orangeade-flavored ginger ale (it's a parallel to the ginger-ale-and-lemonade mixes that were already being produced, probably to capitalize on the iced-tea-and-lemonade mix craze) but only a couple of bottles' worth made that 'not so good' either. Perhaps there has been some innovation in producing 'orange-color flavoring' like that for d-limonene extraction a couple of years ago that spurred all the "natural orange cleaning-power" products. Industrial flavoring advances are commendable, but they don't necessarily imply 'drinkable'.
I hadn't realized just how good Orange Crush was until I visited my son's college and had a glass 'on tap'. Up until then I was a Sunkist customer... largely for the 'added ingredient', just as with Barq's root beer.
Veeeeery different from the taste of the stuff talked about here:
Has anyone else on the Forum had experience with the South African drink Appletizer? Basically carbonated apple-juice, not alcoholic, natural except for carbonation and no sugar added, and very good in my opinion.
daveklepperHas anyone else on the Forum had experience with the South African drink Appletizer?
No, but there's a variety of 'carbonated cider' products available here (including some packaged as imitating 'champagne' or other sparkling wine) and those are, indeed, very good. I don't usually drink them because they have a large amount of sugar, and when that sugar is fructose in apple juice I don't react very well to it. But that has little to do with their taste...
OvermodMeanwhile, THE most satisfying single bottle of soft drink I ever had was an Afri-Cola longneck, up at the top of a climb in Riezlern in the mid-Seventies. The brand apparently had a NewCoke-like fiasco in the late Nineties, got back to what was supposed to be original in 2006 ... and is supposed to be available in the New York area now! 250mg/l caffeine and malic acid like SweeTarts ... it's gotta be great!
Also in Ann Arbor.
Better and better!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.