Rating the Vegetables

I've been on a new rig for the past 2+ weeks now, so it's clearly time to give my appraisal for the quality of their vegetable service.

Unlike past rigs, this one varies greatly from day to day in the presentation and variety of the greenery for consumption. When I first arrived here the galley crew at the time was immediately awarded a C- in my mind: sufficient, but only just. They had a bowl of iceberg lettuce, some diced tomatoes and peeled, thin-sliced cucumbers out with lunch. Those same bowls were trapped under a giant protective plastic lid at dinner which was accessible, but very awkward to open and serve. Their cooked vegetables were few and far between, and anything remotely green was served with hunks of ham stewed in it and dripping in grease or butter.

Then about 5 days after my arrival there was a crew change and an entirely new galley crew arrived. Their grade was immediately raised to a B- or even a B+ out of sheer relief for the fact that they chopped their tomatoes and cucumbers into much more salad-friendly sizes. Their cooked vegetables are also less greasy, and I even got to eat broccoli one day that wasn't dripping in butter. Not to mention the time that the salad bar had a bowl full of baby spinach! Heaven!

But then they do awful things like set out a tossed salad with too much dressing and grated cheese with lunch. THE DRESSING AND GRATED CHEESE WERE TOSSED WITH THE SALAD -- THERE IS NO ESCAPING THEM! I ate a small half-bowl of that before I gave up trying to pick the dripping slivers of cheese off the lettuce, and judging by the fullness of the salad bowl at the next meal I'm sure I was the only one to even try eating it. There are about 40 men on this rig, and their idea of a vegetable seems to be a baked potato filled with sour cream and "Parkay" butter substitute.

In fact, I seem to be the only person on this rig that consistently eats from the sad little salad bar we have here. As the key demographic, I'm almost tempted to leave my suggestions for better preparing the salad to my preferences.

So the verdict is: C. This rig gets a solid C average for quantity, variety, and overall preparation of vegetables. To be more specific, I would have to say that this particular galley crew gets a C+, and the other crew that was here when I first arrived gets a C-.

And despite my best efforts at cultural learning, I still don't understand why people think it's necessary to peel the cucumbers.