C writes:
“Further to your post yesterday of that delightful sausage roll, I would like to share with you a selection of meals that I have been served during the past year of regular inpatient stays in St. Vincent’s University Hospital. I’d like to see Broadsheet readers digest these. I definitely had difficulty with some of them. Just to note though, the chicken & ham pie, while it looks horrific, was enjoyable to eat.”
Previously: There’s Nothing Like A Nice Dinner
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Dude my belly is grumbling and that all looks pretty damn tasty to me right now!
Good simple food. What do you expect?
+1
seems ungrateful alright, when considering cutbacks and the amount of people they would need to feed.
All look lovely, but I’m concerned for the amount of butter you are eating.
The butter is only visible as the food was too cold to melt it!
They don’t look that bad tbf
What is the first one? Rice and something dry? The rest look like dinners I’ve been raised on, with the added cafeteria scoop of mashed potato for added classiness. Except the last one, we never got anything as fancy as a roast mainly just variations of mince dinners.
The first one was billed as “risotto”, but turned out to be rice and mushroom, fried until it was drier than a bucket of sand. (I got a double portion as it seems nobody else on the ward ordered it)
The last one wasn’t actually the worst, if you look beyond the slightly sad looking carrots and the roast potato that was actually just a hollow batter shell.
It reminds me of that scene in the Lost Boys were the bloke thought he was eating rice, he looked at it again, and it was maggots.
I had the same thought…. they’re maggots michael :)
Me too, I thought it was the contents of Captain Birdseye’s bait box.
If you took photos of the dinners I made with a camera phone, I doubt they’d look that appealing either – yet they are pretty good imo. You’re in hospital, getting (the equivalent of)home cooked dinners, not a restaurant.
Also, since food blogging – we seem to expect a lot from the appearance of our food on a plate. Nonsense.
Yes, I was in hospital. I didn’t have a camera and lighting equipment with me!
And, no, I wouldn’t expect restaurant quality food, but it seems overcooked everything is standard, which gets depressing after a while.
that’s not a hospital issue, that’s just Ireland
Nothing wrong with those. It’s your Instagram filter that’s all wrong.
It’s the tasting of them is the difficult bit. How they look doesn’t matter, as long as they taste decent.
Take the pie as an example. It looked nasty, but tasted lovely. Getting food that tastes good is half the battle.
I know C, I was jesting.
I agree – nutrition content is important here plus energy in the form of carbs, protein etc.
Only ever spent 5 days in a hospital and had no complaints with the food.
Disappointingly, the ole chicken nuggets and chips garbage still gets rolled out to kids – be they in a hospital, at a play centre or in a restaurant.
I know you were, but I get worked up as it is something I’ve become passionate about since experiencing so much of it!
Plus it makes people depressed and they eat less.
I know it’s ridiculous but make food look prettier and people eat more which reduces waste and saves money. It seems like it would be simpler to just tell people to eat more but we just don’t work like that.
Or at home.
I was in hospital a while back, with a kid who was being treated for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
The kids food was that crap looking, (and tasting). He kept on insisting that I take him to the staff restaurant, for regular food, at fiver a pop or whatever it was.
They look pretty nice.
Is that macaroni cheese with a scoop of spud and some brussels sprouts?
Horrendous, but I’d lash into it no bother.
LOL Macaroni cheese. I thought it was butter beans au gratin. Should have gone to Specsavers etc.
Jaysus, I’m starvin now…
Is it just me or do the portions look to be on the small side? I don’t think I’d be satisfied after a fair few of them and I’m only little
Some of them are larger than normal portions too (it pays to be nice to the on ward staff)
No one has ever made a chicken and ham pie that looks in any way decent – but oh holy jayzus are they tasty. Not a patch on a Stephen’s day Turkey & ham version though, mind.
Salivating.
Good to see the Irish of a certain age have not aspired to higher standards and engage in the misery porn of ‘shure it done me graaand after a hard daaays work on’de farm’. Looks like shite, but functional in a compositional sense is all that can be said about these offerings…
+1
was just thinking looking at these: total turn off for me, but my Dad would love most of these
Are you complaining? Check meals served at Polish hospitals: https://www.facebook.com/szpitalnyposilek/photos/pb.705986469443040.-2207520000.1417175089./833834823324870/?type=3&theater
God this really is the stupidest argument going. Will people ever stop using it?
I spent a night in a public hospital in the Russian provinces once, i got a jam jar (before it was hipster cool) of black tea with a slice of dark bread perched on top to nibble on, and some kind of cold creamy condensed milk & noodle dish for breakfast (which I didn’t eat).
As fun a story as this is, it has no bearing on what is given in Ireland to eat, as we are different country with very different economic circumstances.
fit for a 3rd world country.
Ah now… f*ck this, this is getting out of hand. I demand that all Michelin * restaurants in the country be closed down and the contents and staff be moved to our hospital kitchens. Nothing else will be good enough.
You’re missing the point. Just because a Michelin starred chef has gotten involved does not mean that suddenly every hospital should be serving Michelin star quality food. That is just not possible. Is it wrong, though, for someone who is unwell to ask for just a little care to go into what is being served to them? Properly cooked, and not hideously overboiled vegetables would be a great start.
again, the overboilded verg mainly a wider Irish problem, especially amongst older population
Christ t’night, there can be that much wrong with ya if your taken snaps of your grub
agree, must be one of those facebooker types who post pictures of what they are having when they are out!
food looks ok though!
They’re the worst, and I think this guy might indeed be one of them. They should feck off over to Instagram if they want to take photos of their food instead of clogging up my newsfeed, and now Broadsheet. And yes, the food looks simple, tasty and healthy. What does he expect in hospital? Mexican foods and curries so people can be running to the toilet in the middle of the night.
Regardless of all the dishes looking atrocious, you’d think at the bare minimum hospital food would have to be nutritionally sound, eating that shite evry day while sedentary in hospital sounds like hell, might as well call the local takeaway
Irish hospitals. The Peig of health.
It looks like it’s cooked from the scratch, not processed stuff. I wouldn’t have a problem eating any of them. Some people eat worse at home.
yeah,much better than yesterdays example.still no fruit,desert,cheese etc.
This is all cooked (or boiled) fresh on the premises not by professional restaurant chefs but just above minimum wage cooks and kitchen assistants. For what it is, a lot of veg and a bit protein, it’s fine. You are ion hospital to recuperate not dine out at the Shelbourne.
I dont know a lot of people who would turn their noses up at good plain simple food like that even if it was a bit cold. Damit, I really was a plate of mash after seeing some of those dishes.
I hear Spain does a lovely risotto this time of the year.
do you mean paella?
sorry you are probably too good plain and simple to know that
Actually, I meant نيجرو bujt thank you for being a runt who did not read the OPs comments on what “Dish no.1” was presented as.
Why does everyone seem to think that the HSE is choosing between this and five star cuisine? There’s a solution that’s in between the two, and in fact a lot closer to what we have now than to Michelin food (which can easily be just as unsuitable).
False dichotomies all over the shop on this topic.
how can people get better eating that rubbish. Good home cooked food doesn’t look like that.
Good home cooked food is normally for a household not exceeding 10. This is mass catering. Go into any pub carvery and a roast beef dinner won’t look any different than the last pic (minus the bucket-load of stuffing).
I’d happily shove all of those in te me.