Article: Amtrak FC Dishes

[OBS]

Or maybe a lasagna. I LOVE reheated lasagna, so it wouldn't even have to be super fresh. Leftover lasagna is the best.

They served Stouffers vegetarian lasagna for YEARS and YEARS.....LOL....People were so sick of it....

 

[Angela1117]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I kind of wish they'd offer pizza. They could fancy it up and offer Margherita Pizza or something like that. I'd also like a baked mac & cheese.

Basically, I want to order off the kids' menu, but in adult portions.

STRONGLY AGREED!

And a third!

And a fourth!

 

[Me]

I wish they'd offer bahn mi sandwiches. Dim sum. Lox and bagels with a side of beet borsht. Masala dosas. Kyoto-style kaiseki meals. Bush tucker.

 

[SarahZ]

Or maybe a lasagna. I LOVE reheated lasagna, so it wouldn't even have to be super fresh. Leftover lasagna is the best.

They served Stouffers vegetarian lasagna for YEARS and YEARS.....LOL....People were so sick of it....

That's because Stouffers lasagna sucks. I meant a real lasagna that they could flash freeze and then reheat for dinner.

 

[GG-1]

I wish they'd offer bahn mi sandwiches. Dim sum. Lox and bagels with a side of beet borsht. Masala dosas. Kyoto-style kaiseki meals. Bush tucker.

:giggle: You have an International Appetite :wub:

Aloha

 

[AlanB]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I kind of wish they'd offer pizza. They could fancy it up and offer Margherita Pizza or something like that. I'd also like a baked mac & cheese.
Basically, I want to order off the kids' menu, but in adult portions.

There was a period of time where they did offer pizza in the dining car. Lasted maybe a year or so.

 

[amamba]

I had an amazing Mac and cheese for lunch on the EB last year. They said it came from a famous cheese shop in Seattle.

 

[dart330]

That would be Beecher's. http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com/

I have seen that dish offered recently as well, done with Penne noodles.

 

[gary]

What I find hard to understand is why they seem to run out of the popular food items on long distance trains. Why can't they just order a larger quantity. Seems they should be able to transfer any remaining items onto the next out bound train.

Gary

 

[rrdude]

Might cost more for all that plastic, but add in the dishwashers pay and benefits package. That going to change the balance.

However, and the regular posters kno my stand on this rant, that extra dishwasher also can prep-cook, and clean up. If u consider that Amtrak has to buy plastic plates, side plates, bowls, cups, and glasses, every time a customer walks into the diner, again-and-again again-and-again again-and-again , NEVER STOPPING, I think the one-time costs of the china makes sense.

Throw in the it's-the-correct-thing-to-do-environmentally, and u have a no brainer.

IMHO, it's "easier" for Amtrak to hide the recurring inventory costs, than to explain or justify add'l labor. The net sum may be zero, or even favor adding an employee to wash dishes, prep veggies, help cook, etc., etc., BUT, that add'l employee does NOT look good on P & L statement.

So Sorcha, next time u see Amtrak "tout their 'Green' horn" on FB, or web page, or ANYwhere, call them to task!

I have yet to see them respond to any of my "You are not as 'Green' as you claim to be" posts.......

 

[the_traveler]

What I find hard to understand is why they seem to run out of the popular food items on long distance trains. Why can't they just order a larger quantity. Seems they should be able to transfer any remaining items onto the next out bound train.

They can't. Health department regulations say they must dispose of any unused foods at the end of the run. So if you normally carry 100 of "X" and 50 of "Y", but you run out of "Y", if you carry more of "Y" you may end up disposing some of "Y" and "X" also. Remember that a train only has a finite storage space, If more of "Y" is carried, it means less of "X" has to be carried!

 

[AlanB]

What I find hard to understand is why they seem to run out of the popular food items on long distance trains. Why can't they just order a larger quantity. Seems they should be able to transfer any remaining items onto the next out bound train.

They can't. Health department regulations say they must dispose of any unused foods at the end of the run. So if you normally carry 100 of "X" and 50 of "Y", but you run out of "Y", if you carry more of "Y" you may end up disposing some of "Y" and "X" also. Remember that a train only has a finite storage space, If more of "Y" is carried, it means less of "X" has to be carried!

I don't believe that is true at all. They do have to worry about the expiration dates of the various items, but I'm not aware of any rules that require them to simply throw things away at the end of a run. Amtrak of course also needs to worry about the cost of buying too much and putting it on the train. This is further complicated by the fact that you never really know for sure just which items are going to be the hottest seller on the train. You might sell 20 chicken dinners on one run and 40 on the next. Yes, they know that some are more popular than others and try to populate the choices appropriately.

But since you don't know for sure what's going to sell and what won't sell by the end of the run, and they have to start making the food for the return trip long before the train gets into the final stop, you have to commit in advance to the new order. So you can't plan on having X left over to send back out. If you do, you have more meals, if you don't well then you may run out if they guessed wrong.

And for the two night runs, one does have to watch the space side of things as there is only just so much room in the freezers & fridge.

 

[OBS]

What I find hard to understand is why they seem to run out of the popular food items on long distance trains. Why can't they just order a larger quantity. Seems they should be able to transfer any remaining items onto the next out bound train.

They can't. Health department regulations say they must dispose of any unused foods at the end of the run. So if you normally carry 100 of "X" and 50 of "Y", but you run out of "Y", if you carry more of "Y" you may end up disposing some of "Y" and "X" also. Remember that a train only has a finite storage space, If more of "Y" is carried, it means less of "X" has to be carried!

I don't believe that is true at all. They do have to worry about the expiration dates of the various items, but I'm not aware of any rules that require them to simply throw things away at the end of a run. Amtrak of course also needs to worry about the cost of buying too much and putting it on the train. This is further complicated by the fact that you never really know for sure just which items are going to be the hottest seller on the train. You might sell 20 chicken dinners on one run and 40 on the next. Yes, they know that some are more popular than others and try to populate the choices appropriately.

But since you don't know for sure what's going to sell and what won't sell by the end of the run, and they have to start making the food for the return trip long before the train gets into the final stop, you have to commit in advance to the new order. So you can't plan on having X left over to send back out. If you do, you have more meals, if you don't well then you may run out if they guessed wrong.

And for the two night runs, one does have to watch the space side of things as there is only just so much room in the freezers & fridge.

Alan is correct. If the food has been opened and/or cooked, it must be disposed of. If still sealed in package and within date, can be reissued and served. Yes, refrig/freezer space is a constraint as well.

 

[Anderson]

Storage space is a real issue on some of the longer off-corridor runs such as the Adirondack (which is in a particularly bad spot due to the sheer mass of endpoint traffic); IIRC, the long Empire runs also suffer from the same issues.

 

[rrdude]

I will say this, when the Superliners were introduced, we couldn't believe how much more storage space we had ava to us, compared to the old Santa Fe high-levels, or, obviously, the single-level diners. There is just "more" of everything in the Superliner kitchen.

However, they must need A LOT of space for all the plastic-ware that they have to use. Pre-Plastic-Daze, the kitchens had "a place for everything, and everything in it's place". (Think of a galley on a boat)

I'd make a guess that very few people who frequent this board have actually seen the inside, or lower-level of a Superliner kitchen. Alan, that might make a popular component of any "shop tour" u have planned for the next Gathering. (If any)

Lord knows they have enuff Superliner diners on hand in Chicago!

 

[AlanB]

Storage space is a real issue on some of the longer off-corridor runs such as the Adirondack (which is in a particularly bad spot due to the sheer mass of endpoint traffic); IIRC, the long Empire runs also suffer from the same issues.

Actually the Adirondack's problem is more related to poor planning by the commissary it would seem. The Maple Leaf on the other hand does have an issue, in that the LSA departing in Niagara must leave one fridge & one freezer open for the VIA Rail LSA to use. Now granted, in theory one should be able to sell enough stuff on the run to Canada to achieve that goal, but it does make planning a bit more difficult.

However, as the LSA who worked the cafe the last time I rode the Leaf proved, it is possible for them to request extra food and sell it. On prior trips on the Leaf, it was the norm that by the time the train Rochester going east most of the popular items were out of stock. But on my last trip, knowing it was a holiday weekend, the LSA requested extra food. As a result of her smart thinking, instead of running out of pizza in Buffalo like normal, she sold the last one just after leaving Albany. And the same with many other items, she didn't start running out of most things until we were on the run down the Hudson. Not only did she have many happy customers, she raked in considerably more revenue for Amtrak on that trip.

My prior trip to the one last year, I had a breakfast sandwich for dinner around Albany because the LSA had run out of everything else. And that seems to be the norm for the leaf, they run out of most things around lunch time, leaving nothing for dinner.

But if the Leaf, with the worry of needing space for the VIA Rail people can actually carry enough food as proved by this thoughtful LSA, can carry enough food for a sold out train then the Adirondack can do the same too. This issue comes back to smart management in the commissary, which would appear not to be happening. Right now, unless one is lucky enough to hit a proactive LSA, you're going to run out of food.

 

[OBS]

Unfortunately, the issue isn't smart management by the commissary. They only supply the quantities. The numbers (or pars) are generated by Amtrak, I believe handled by the service manager for the train, and/or the F&B dept. It is questionable, IMHO, how much effort is actually made to monitor those pars, as opposed to relying upon the LSA to use his/her judgement and experience for ordering adequate additional quantities of food/beverages.

 

[gmushial]

Or maybe a lasagna. I LOVE reheated lasagna, so it wouldn't even have to be super fresh. Leftover lasagna is the best.

Yes yes yes (w/re Lasagna, and allowed to sit and let the flavors mix, mingle and migrate) - fresh Lasagna tends to have a noodle taste + sauce + goodies taste... after it's been siting for 24 hrs the noodles lose a lot of their durum taste and pick up the other richer flavors and aromatics... so much better that way. Now if one could just find a Lasagna that was worth eating, other than having to make it oneself (which is always ok, though time consuming)...

 

[AlanB]

Unfortunately, the issue isn't smart management by the commissary. They only supply the quantities. The numbers (or pars) are generated by Amtrak, I believe handled by the service manager for the train, and/or the F&B dept. It is questionable, IMHO, how much effort is actually made to monitor those pars, as opposed to relying upon the LSA to use his/her judgement and experience for ordering adequate additional quantities of food/beverages.

Ah! Ok, thanks for that info. Wasn't sure just how it worked.

But I do applaud that one LSA's thinking & planning ahead, and I told her so onboard the train. Tipped her extra too, both for that and because she held out a bottle of Chardonnay for me until after ALB.

 

[Anderson]

Honestly, it probably wouldn't hurt Amtrak to get a few cafes modified for more storage space, even at the cost of a table or two. Either that or some sort of supplementary vending machine option in one or more coaches seem necessary...one cafe just doesn't have the storage space for a 10-car train running 6+ hours, after all.

 

[rrdude]

Honestly, it probably wouldn't hurt Amtrak to get a few cafes modified for more storage space, even at the cost of a table or two. Either that or some sort of supplementary vending machine option in one or more coaches seem necessary...one cafe just doesn't have the storage space for a 10-car train running 6+ hours, after all.

Not a Bad idea, seeing as how the LSA usually spreads out his/her personal "gear" on a 4-top table anyway, prhibiting pax frm using it. They shoud retrofit half of the overhead luggage racks in the cafe car too, enclosing them for locked, secure storage.

 

[Anderson]

Honestly, it probably wouldn't hurt Amtrak to get a few cafes modified for more storage space, even at the cost of a table or two. Either that or some sort of supplementary vending machine option in one or more coaches seem necessary...one cafe just doesn't have the storage space for a 10-car train running 6+ hours, after all.

Not a Bad idea, seeing as how the LSA usually spreads out his/her personal "gear" on a 4-top table anyway, prhibiting pax frm using it. They shoud retrofit half of the overhead luggage racks in the cafe car too, enclosing them for locked, secure storage.

That's probably the best idea I've heard on this front, since you could easily use that space for dry storage, and probably modify one or two partitions therein to hold refrigerated/frozen space, and move things around at the "breaks" in sales at WAS, NYP, and/or ALB.

 

[benjibear]

I don't have an issue with the diners. I actually did like the cheasecake. It didn't look like cheasecake but it was good.

My big issue is the cafe car. Frozen microwave crap is terrible. Like someone said, they should at food trucks, but also fair/carnival food and conveniance stores for ideas. You can get a roller grill for hot dogs and get rid of all the microwave crap and it would be an impovement. I am sure they could fix a roller grill for the swaying of a train. A convenction oven would also be good. It would alow them to make pizza and my conveniance store even makes burgers in theirs.

 

[rrdude]

I don't have an issue with the diners. I actually did like the cheasecake. It didn't look like cheasecake but it was good.
My big issue is the cafe car. Frozen microwave crap is terrible. Like someone said, they should at food trucks, but also fair/carnival food and conveniance stores for ideas. You can get a roller grill for hot dogs and get rid of all the microwave crap and it would be an impovement. I am sure they could fix a roller grill for the swaying of a train. A convenction oven would also be good. It would alow them to make pizza and my conveniance store even makes burgers in theirs.

To my knowledge, at least in the way-back machine when I worked, every cafe car DID have BOTH a convection oven and a microwave. They even experimented with hybrid ovens. (Don't kno results of that....)

Problem used to be, in the LSA's preparation of the "meal". Like hot dogs, or burgers, if you remove the meat, with tongs, and zap it first, then replace in bun, and fini zapping it, you have a MUCH more edible product.

Problem is, with line of people the length of the car, it's too ez to just zap the whole thing