Desserts

[Krazy Kruizers]

We are going on our first HAL cruise in June. Does each HAL ship have different desserts?

 

Basically the desserts are the same for all ships. Exceptions will be on the longer cruises -- but even on them they repeat a lot of the desserts. Another exception -- for example -- in Alaska one year they did a different Gold Rush dessert each night -- similar to a mini Baked Alaska.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We ordered the chocolate purse on our cruise. It was terrible. The bottom of the purse was greasy and not cooked. The top of the purse was hard as a rock. Inside you could barely find the chocolate.

[mearsfansinboise]

Do they still offer the pavlova? Had this on the Volendam a year and a half ago and loved loved loved it. The lava cake in the Pinnacle Grill was also fabulous. My husband and son enjoyed very much the baked Alaska I think every night. No issues at all here....hoping that is the case come April on the O.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Do they still offer the pavlova? Had this on the Volendam a year and a half ago and loved loved loved it. The lava cake in the Pinnacle Grill was also fabulous. My husband and son enjoyed very much the baked Alaska I think every night. No issues at all here....hoping that is the case come April on the O.

 

These are the menus from our 21 days on the Noordam (Nov/Dec):

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1533408

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1533483

 

There wasn't any Pavlova on our cruises.

[cruz chic]

^^ I'm Jealous!!! :D

Me too. That is one good dessert!

[Ringready]

We just got back from teh 12/24-12/31 E-dam curise and while I wasn't blown away by the desserts I think you could find something you would like each night. I was with my family so each night we would all order a diff. dessert and try everyones and decide which ones we liked. I agree that they are not as sweet as American resteraunts generally are, but I never went to bed with a sweet craving.

 

We did have Pavlova one night, Baked Alaska (yuck) another and Yule Log for Christmas, but my favorite was the espresso cake-it was so yummy we even asked for the recipe and unfortunaty never got it!

[Taz]

I found the desserts on Zaandam this past summer to be just like the rest of the food....very pretty to look at, but largely tasteless. I lost weight on the cruise. The friend that I traveled with thought everything was fabulous and ate heartily. Neither of us were wrong, we simply taste things differently.

[Arwen]

I found the desserts on Zaandam this past summer to be just like the rest of the food....very pretty to look at, but largely tasteless. I lost weight on the cruise. The friend that I traveled with thought everything was fabulous and ate heartily. Neither of us were wrong, we simply taste things differently.

 

I agree with you. Presentation is pretty, but the taste of many foods, including the desserts was just "bleh". On our last cruise on the Rotterdam I did find one dessert I liked a lot....it was a mango strawberry mousse. They had far too many (IMHO) of sugar free desserts (hardly any gluten free ones), but this full sugar mousse was excellent. I found myself eating two of these after lunch each day in the Lido.

[SwissMyst]

30 days of desserts!! I'd have to be rolled off the ship after that! :)

 

Wait until you see what they offer at the special afternoon teas. The Dutch and the Indonesian teas have wonderful treats that you won't see anywhere else on the ship. The Dutch sausage in pastry was worth skipping dinner and filling up right there at their 'big" tea. The Indonesia crepes with a sugared filling - haunting.

 

If dessert at dinner loses any appeal, it is because i have eaten myself silly all the way through the day leading up to dinner with other very delectable HAL specialities. Not all are hits, but if you want something sweet you can get it at the end of your meal even if it is a simple ice cream sundae - how can that ever go wrong?

 

Cold, sweet and creamy - or ask for an affogato - expresso coffee poured over a dish of vanilla ice cream. :p

[centuryguy]

I found the desserts to be very good. Of course, any dessert is a good dessert as far as I'm concerned.

[m steve]

is the capacino bombe that is rarely on the menu. The ice cream is very good. We don't eat the fancy chocolate deserts but like the fruiot tarts.

[mearsfansinboise]

I found the desserts to be very good. Of course, any dessert is a good dessert as far as I'm concerned.

 

That's what I'm sayin'! I mean really, have you ever had a dessert that was bad? It's just like pizza. Even when it's not that great, it's still pretty good...:p

[sail7seas]

:o

Yes.

I have had bad desserts and bad pizza........ both on HAL.

 

Of course, I've great treats on HAL as well.

A few of my favorite ever anywhere desserts have been on HAL though I eat almost no dessert these days but I can't say I've ever really loved any of HAL pizza. Just not to my taste. Some is better than other.

[Toley]

SwissMyst,

 

Where would I find affogato? It sounds delicious. :rolleyes:

[Typhoon1]

We did have a Cappuccino Bomb on our Hawaiian cruise, it was really delicious.

 

One of my favorites. On last year's Caribbean cruise, it had a different name. Which I can't remember. I had to order a second.

[Globaliser]

Where would I find affogato?

The great thing about affogato is that you can make it yourself in virtually every restaurant even if it's not on the menu.

 

All you need is a scoop of vanilla ice cream (or other flavour, if you prefer) and a shot of espresso coffee (including decaffeinated, if you prefer). Pour the latter over the former, and you have affogato.

[SwissMyst]

The great thing about affogato is that you can make it yourself in virtually every restaurant even if it's not on the menu.

 

All you need is a scoop of vanilla ice cream (or other flavour, if you prefer) and a shot of espresso coffee (including decaffeinated, if you prefer). Pour the latter over the former, and you have affogato.

 

Wrong. When you do all of the above you have a taste of heaven! :p

[Toley]

Thanks SwissMyst and Globaliser. Affogato sounds so simple yet so delicious. I asked because I thought it was offered at a particular restaurant or bar. Can't wait to try it.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I was on the Veendam last June.

 

My comment on the comment card was that the pastry chef should go back to school. I found pretty much all of the cakes I had to be tasteless.

 

Good one! My comment was to suggest they buy the pastry chef a bottle of vanilla extract. My complaint is not that the desserts lack sweetness. I don't like overly sugary desserts. The problem on HAL is that the desserts lack flavor. Every cupcake at the cupcake tea on Veendam was the same. Ditto for the icing. The waiter even said the color of the icing was just food coloring, and didn't indicate any particular flavors.

 

One dessert on HAL that I do recommend is the Lido bread pudding. Addictive!!!!

[SwissMyst]

Thanks SwissMyst and Globaliser. Affogato sounds so simple yet so delicious. I asked because I thought it was offered at a particular restaurant or bar. Can't wait to try it.

 

Works best with really rich vanilla ice-cream only or maybe a white chocolate, which is really nothing more than white butter fat ice-cream so they can be similar. Tried it once with chocolate at a restaurant when they were out of vanilla and it just did not work.

 

There is something about the hot expresso hitting the cold ice-cream for the first part of the flavor treat and then it all kind of melts together to become a little more slushy and finally is just some very rich coffee flavored cream that we usually lap out of the glass to the very last drop.

 

The trick in the HAL dining room is to get the espresso and the dish of vanilla ice-cream served at the same time so the coffee does not get cold and the ice-cream does not get warm if they come at different times.

 

Warning: you may get hooked. Have not had it with decaf espresso but that is a good tip if the evening is late and you have problems with caffeine.

[Typhoon1]

is the capacino bombe that is rarely on the menu. The ice cream is very good.

 

The bombe was served for awhile, then seemed to have disappeared. When we saw it last year, it had a different name.