to those protesting about the dearth of hot chocolate, tea, or other drinks on AMTRAK, you're members of a large club. For years I protested the lack of Coca Cola products rather than that Pepsi bellywash. No Cream Soda, no Celery tonic, no San Pelligrino, ad nauseam. Now we have Coca Cola aboard, and Pepsi fans are gathering pitch torches and hay forks.
I guess the same could be said about falafel, chicken paprikash, chop suey, lutefisk, gefiltefish, proper chili (No Beans, please), sauerkraut, and perhaps whale blubber.
In the past, AMTRAK did a pretty good job of supplying popular fast foods as well as diner entrees. AMTRAK is not set up to be a specialty kitchen addressing the great numbers of food preferences, popularity was a big factor, along with ease of prep and serving.
I would love to see the food service return to Heritage diners, white jackets, linen and silverware, but like my Grandfather who dies in 1975, he isn't coming back either.
However, returning to civilized dining, table service, entree selection and a well stocked snack bar like we had just a couple of years ago is doable and very much needed.
The big coffee urn in the sleepers was OK in the mornings, and although good for a short time, it got really bad as the day went on. It was a pain to clean and refresh, and did waste a log of coffee.
Individual freshly "brewed" portions of everything from coffee to chocolate to hot tea even iced tea are available with several types of machines. Even Starbucks' burned coffee is available in cups and pods.
No, these machine brewers' product may bruise the taste buds of the true <insert beverage here> snob, they taste pretty good when it's the only thing available. I read the diatribe agains pod coffee in an earlier posting. Sure, freshly ground beans immediately brewed "in the proper manner" - what is that? - are better. But then restaurants grinding bans and immediately brewing coffee are few and far between. We are talking about mass production here, not gourmet dining.
So if you can't get through the day without your Oolong or chai or Frappucino - whatever, it's pretty easy to make your own with just a little preparation.
As a matter of fact, we take our favorite coffees to the local TexMex restaurant who runs them through the machine for us. And doesn't give us a bunch of equine scatology about "FDA" regulations. Would be nice if they would nuke something for you - even for a nominal charge. They won't even warm a baby's bottle.
"Flex Dining", my baby pink butt. Even a Stauffers or Swanson's nuked TV dinner would be an upgrade.
