New Dining Car Menus

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

Pretty hard - I'd imagine that a deep fat dryer in a dining car bouncing around at 79 MPH is not fun to stand next to.

You could always do baked french fries.

French bakeds?

haha ya, I make them all the time, and they are pretty good and are best be served with Johnny's Seasoning Salt. While not exactly true french fries in the sense of the word, it would be a major step above the chips.

Here is an example, that I found on photobucket http://media.photobucket.com/image/steak%2...Fries020407.jpg

 

[rtabern]

My favorite new menu items are the mac & cheese they have for lunch (atleast on the Empire Builder) -- and also some sorta of sandwitch they had for lunch which was basically a grilled cheese with carmalized onions in it (on the Southwest Chief). Both were very, very tasty!! :^D

 

[jmbgeg]

My favorite new menu items are the mac & cheese they have for lunch (atleast on the Empire Builder) -- and also some sorta of sandwitch they had for lunch which was basically a grilled cheese with carmalized onions in it (on the Southwest Chief). Both were very, very tasty!! :^D

My favorite item is in the lounge car, the Sbarro meatball sandwich. Second favorite is when they have Bison meatloaf in the diner or PPC.

 

[Ryan]

Pretty hard - I'd imagine that a deep fat dryer in a dining car bouncing around at 79 MPH is not fun to stand next to.

You could always do baked french fries.

Duh, I don't know why I didn't think of that - I make those at home from time to time...

 

[Sam31452]

Not to bring back bad memories for last summer's travelers, but grilled steak was off the menu for nearly all trains with dining service (Empire Builder was a notable exception). Most passengers asking for the premium beef entree were served "flat iron bordelaise" (flat iron refers to the cut of beef and not preparation style).

Yup, not all memories of last summer are positive. I hope they fixed one of the showers I encountered in the SWC (don't remember the number of the sleeper). In General (except for the EB) I think food quality is still below the level of 1998 when I first dined in an Amtrak diner.

EDIT: Some day I'll learn to quote, I'm sorry. I quoted: (RTOlson @ Sat, Jun 5, 2010, 03:24 AM)

 

[GAT]

The duck breast in the PPC is great!

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I don't know about fine dining not being possible. First, I have had it on a few trains in my life. But more importantly, I remember back a number of years ago, (like 50-60) it used to be joked that by dinner time, the two best restaurants in New York had left town. Naturally, the Broadway Limited and Twentieth Century Limited. Hyperbole, most likely, but clearly if you could even make the joke with a straight face, I assume the fair on there was clearly fine dining.

 

[alanh]

There are gourmet food trucks -- I don't think operating on a train would be much different.

 

[RTOlson]

There are gourmet food trucks -- I don't think operating on a train would be much different.

The gourmet trucks are interesting -- is someone cooking while the vehicle is in motion? That would probably a significant difference between cooking a la train versus a truck.

 

[AAARGH!]

Last month on my 12 day / 11 train journey, I had 4 different steaks.

1. Marinated Flat Iron

2. New York Strip (very little fat and very good)

3. Sirloin - similar to the Flat Iron

4. Roast - On the Cardinal as mentioned above.

All are good in my opinion, but I like the Flat Iron the best.

 

[creddick]

My father was a ship's doctor on a passenger liner back in the 30's sailing out of Seattle to the Orient. He also rode the rails most of his life. He knew fine dining. He often told me some of the best meals he ever ate were on a train. No reason they can't do it today.

 

[Sam31452]

Just in case you don't know it:

James D. Porterfield, Dining by Rail, New York 1993.

An ecxellent cookbook containing reciepes from many railways.

 

[3rd Cook]

Pretty hard - I'd imagine that a deep fat dryer in a dining car bouncing around at 79 MPH is not fun to stand next to.

I cooked on the Great Northern Empire Builder and Western Star for two summers (1967 and 68 ) . I had a deep fat fryer which I used to cook the french fries and also chicken . It was standard equipment . Never had a problem .

 

[jay woody]

there has to be a little pride involving the chefs manning the amtrak trains. i rode trains in the 50s and 60s and you could always tell the diners that produced the great meals.

i think amtrak should capitalize on this long, lost fantasy of"dinner in the diner" where a decent clientele shows up to ride the trains on a regular basis. begining this now, on firm ground, will reap good will when the rails inevitably return.

i will be amtraking from north carolina to LA via DC and Chicago with an overnight in emeryville this august. hopefully, the diner crews will be inspired.

 

[emmy]

I have the Dining By Rail cookbook and it has a lot of very tasty receipes in it, including a full Christmas Dinner

Menu Bev.-Desert each course from a different train.I have tried some of the receipes and the family really liked them

 

[greatcats]

Didn't trains at one time have excellent quality, upscale food? Prepared in narrow, pitchinh kitchens? But I am not complaining for the most part about Amtrak food that I have been served recently. I realize it comes from a central commissary and is " cookie cutter " but the breakfasts and dishes like pasta and ribs have been quite satisfying. Lunch on the Cardinal of the " bistro sandwich " did not have much to say for it.

 

[Rail Freak]

I don't remember a meal that I thought about sending back !

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Look at Dining Car Menus on eBay and you'll be amazed how wide the selection was for each meal; there are many "brick and mortar" restaurants that cannot come close to the variety offered on a typical long distance train from the 40s, 50s or even 60s.

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Part of the reason Amtrak exists is because of those old menus and master chefs-- food service has ALWAYS been at a loss. They never made money on food service and they had even worse loss margins back then.

Trains go bankrupt, enter Amtrak, think: "How can we save money?"

 

[Montanan]

Part of the reason Amtrak exists is because of those old menus and master chefs-- food service has ALWAYS been at a loss. They never made money on food service and they had even worse loss margins back then.

Trains go bankrupt, enter Amtrak, think: "How can we save money?"

Yep. Those high-end dining cars were significant money-losers back in the day ... and it would be even worse now, thanks to increased labor costs. There's no way in the world that Amtrak's nitpicking Congressional overseers would tolerate something like that. Given the financial constraints, Amtrak does pretty well.

Another thing to remember, too: those famous old dining cars were usually only on the primary trains. Most long-distance routes also included secondary and tertiary trains that either had minimal on-board service, or even no food service at all. The first train I ever rode was Union Pacific #5, back in 1968 -- coach-only, and at mealtimes the conductor would take passenger orders and wire ahead for sandwiches from a small-town greasy-spoon. Compared to that, today's Amtrak passengers have it made.

 

[spacecadet]

Another thing to remember, too: those famous old dining cars were usually only on the primary trains. Most long-distance routes also included secondary and tertiary trains that either had minimal on-board service, or even no food service at all. The first train I ever rode was Union Pacific #5, back in 1968 -- coach-only, and at mealtimes the conductor would take passenger orders and wire ahead for sandwiches from a small-town greasy-spoon. Compared to that, today's Amtrak passengers have it made.

That's true, but I think the fact that Amtrak has cut those routes down to one train means it will always be compared to the "best" train on that route from the past. It also doesn't help that Amtrak has named a lot of their trains the same as the premier trains from the railroad that operated them previously (though they haven't done this in every case). So somebody on the California Zephyr of today has more reason to compare his/her food to the California Zephyr of 1950, just because the trains have the same name.

Of course, I doubt that a lot of people riding Amtrak today are old enough to really remember those days anyway... though I personally remember when Amtrak themselves still did most things the "old fashioned way" and made food from scratch in the dining cars, with large menus and really good restaurant quality food. Amtrak's early days really weren't much different from the private railroads' last days.

 

[GAT]

I'll continue riding Amtrak, and enjoy the food as it's served. If my French Toast, or Angus Burger isn't served EXACTLY the way I'd like it, I'll just eat it and go back to my room.

Agreed, and all I have to do to make it EXACTLY the way I like it is to bring along some real (i.e. Canadian) maple syrup for my French toast and some of my home made bittersweet chocolate sauce for the vanilla ice cream. Pig Heaven!

 

[Ispolkom]

some real (i.e. Canadian) maple syrup

Them's fightin' words. The best maple syrup is made by the students of Northfield Mt. Hermon School in western Massachusetts. Not that I turn down your Canadian maple syrup, of course...