Day 11 Tuesday 24 March 2009 – At Sea

Last night dinner at the Lotus Restaurant was really different for Deb and me. It was an Asian Tasting menu. There were 5 courses and we each got a small taste of everything that was on the menu. The waiter was very careful to enquire whether we were allergic to any food, or didn’t like any particular food before starting to serve us.
The first course was cold appetisers – scallop with caviar, tuna, and vegetable sushi – with small quantities of a different flavoured “salad” with each. Accompaniments of Wasabi, Chili sauce and Soy sauce came with this.
Second course was a crab and prawn soup with coconut foam, which was slightly spicy – and very delicious.
Third course was hot appetisers – beef spring rolls – we had decided not to have any pork, so didn’t get the pork spring rolls.
Fourth course was main course – jumbo prawns (2), Indonesian noodles, satay chicken, braised beef.
Fifth course was desert – Crème brulee flavoured with wasabee, coconut icecream, and to clean the palate – fresh fruit salad with Midori.
Of course we ate everything – it was delicious.
This morning we had our usual start to the day – up walking around on deck for 6 laps before breakfast. It was interesting to note that there were security staff on deck on watch for the first time. Last night the Captain advised that as we were heading into the waters noted for pirates, we would have extra security precautions in place. There is a naval guard following and in front of our ship, and air force cover overhead. We heard the jets while we were doing our walk. It is nice to know that we are being well protected. Pity they are still having trouble controlling the Norovirus. People are not reporting their diarrhoea, which of course spreads it further through the ship.