Does amtrak serve real food, like "real" cream for coffee, &#3

[gmushial]

The only way you will get real maple syrup anywhere is if you order it from LL Bean and take it with you. Even the honey in those little packets are fake honey. I don't think they replaced ketchup with fake ones with mostly chemicals and 0% tomatoes yet.

But what Costco sells by the pint isn't bad... not A+, not the very best... but quite passable (probably C+ grade compared what one might find in backwoods Vermont, NH or Maine). [btw the hole in the wall diner next to the DaysInn in NW LNK (just down US-6 from the Amtrak station), served real maple syrup with their $4.50 stack of pancakes - the wife was pleasantly shocked, and enjoyed every minute thereof ... the rest of the breakfast truly a cut above also, and all for $13 for two people ... have eaten there the last handful of times in LNK - Heather runs a heck of a show: unpretentious, just quality through and through - comes highly recommended... doesn't look like much (she puts the money into the food), but your stomach will thank you. ]

I actually prefer Grade B maple syrup to Grade A. It is thicker and darker than Grade A. It is hard to find Grade B, I have had luck buying it in country stores in New England.

The only way you will get real maple syrup anywhere is if you order it from LL Bean and take it with you. Even the honey in those little packets are fake honey. I don't think they replaced ketchup with fake ones with mostly chemicals and 0% tomatoes yet.

But what Costco sells by the pint isn't bad... not A+, not the very best... but quite passable (probably C+ grade compared what one might find in backwoods Vermont, NH or Maine). [btw the hole in the wall diner next to the DaysInn in NW LNK (just down US-6 from the Amtrak station), served real maple syrup with their $4.50 stack of pancakes - the wife was pleasantly shocked, and enjoyed every minute thereof ... the rest of the breakfast truly a cut above also, and all for $13 for two people ... have eaten there the last handful of times in LNK - Heather runs a heck of a show: unpretentious, just quality through and through - comes highly recommended... doesn't look like much (she puts the money into the food), but your stomach will thank you. ]

As a kid my dad ordered real maple syrup from LL Bean. My brother and I did not like it at all. We both went for the Aunt Jemima fake stuff. I can't really explain it but something about the real stuff just didn't taste right. (Probably the lack of HFCS)

Grade B is the best. Thick dark maple-flavored stuff. You'll only get it in maple syrup country though. (I know where to get it in Ithaca.)

or you can ride "the canadian" which serves real maple syrup. most of its offerings are freshly made(some from scratch)on the train

I love it... but try explaining such (as a New England boy that somehow got lost on the west coast) to the RDD locals... I've given up - they think maple syrup is brown sugar in warm water.

And "the Canadian" was even better when CP and CN competed for customers - CP in my mind always came out on top [actually, the customer always came out on top].

 

[gmushial]

I guess I can almost remember the days when the buffalo steak I am eating for dinner was just shot this morning from the mail car

Bruce-SSR

One would know it was range fed - one could literally see such... but I like my meat: beef, buffalo, elk etc aged more than 8 hours ;-) Though the veges from the garden, about 5 seconds unfresh is about right, ie, time to pick and stuff into the mouth: tomatoes, okra, etc; likewise the plums that are coming in now, or the cherries last month.

 

[Ispolkom]

I actually prefer Grade B maple syrup to Grade A. It is thicker and darker than Grade A. It is hard to find Grade B, I have had luck buying it in country stores in New England.

A woman after my own heart. Maple syrup grading is based on how light colored and lightly flavored it is. That makes sense, I guess, for back in the days when you might use it as a general sweetener. If you want the maple flavor, though, Grade B is the way to go. I used to depend on my uncle in Barre, Vermont, for my supply. Now it's hit or miss at the farmers' markets.

 

[Bob Dylan]

New England Maple Syrup is OK for those that don't know better and settle for average, but the Real Primo Stuff comes from North of the Border in Canada, they even have the Maple Leaf on their flag eh!!

And I agree that CP provided a First Class Travel Experience whether it was by ship, rail or air! CN was sort of like Avis used to advertise, "we're #2!" In comparison!

 

[oregon pioneer]

I get grade "B" maple syrup at my local health food store in the middle of nowhere, eastern Oregon (distributed by United Natural Foods or Azure Standard). I grew up in Vermont, so that's what I like. They often call the stuff I like "Grade A Dark Amber" these days, just another way of saying it's darker and more flavorful. And yes, Jim, what I get is usually from Canada.

All maple syrup is cooked to the same thickness (as specified by weight per gallon, or boiling temperature at syrup stage). If it's too thin, it ferments, and if it's too thick, it crystallizes.

I have gotten maple syrup right from the farms many times. Some of my Vermont relatives are aghast at my habit of mixing it 50/50 with clover honey, because I like the heavier consistency of the mixture. Hubby jokes that I will be arrested for adulterating maple syrup (a crime in the State of Vermont). :giggle:

 

[amamba]

Now I want maple syrup. As a kid my

Mother would give us bowls of snow with maple syrup. It was a yummy treat after playing outside!

I'm sadly all out of grade B. I'll have to go in search of some.

 

[gmushial]

I have to agree with the formal grading standard having to do with lightness of color and flavor [you're forcing me to dig deeply into ancient gray cells]... and I was conflating those formal terms with our household terms (in talking about what was coming from the sugar house that/each year: looks like we have an A year ; looks like we have a B- year :-( etc): where grade A had an ambrosia, a heavenly, like flavor; where by the time one got down to C there were obvious hints of off flavors (defects). What Costco sells is clearly C grade by that standard... but even so, it's a whole lot better, actually not even in the same universe brown sugar plus warm water, or worse, the industrial chemical versions.

 

[ehbowen]

I grew up eating Aunt Jemima and Log Cabin...and sometimes straight Karo when we were out of the more usual stuff. Then one day I attended a pancake breakfast at a little church in Michigan and the pastor showed up with a gallon can of real maple syrup from upstate. It was the best stuff I had ever put in my mouth. While I'll eat what's provided by a host or a restaurant, I've never chosen the fake stuff over the real thing since.

 

[FormerOBS]

Some of the above is absolutely true. Some is news to me. Of course, I worked on a train that had a unique menu, so some of the things I took for granted may not be universally true. On my train, we didn't serve eggs at all. I do know that the eggs served on the Capitol Limited when I started many years ago were NOT fake, and I'm not aware that there has been a change in that. As for maple syrup, there aren't many stationary restaurants that serve it, so I wouldn't expect it on a train. We always served butter --- the real stuff --- at dinner. We served margarine at breakfast, but had the butter available on request. That's because the spread tended to remain on the table without refrigeration for a longer time in the morning. Ultra-pasteurized half & half was always available in the sleepers and lounge cars because it was always hard to keep it refrigerated, and ultra-pasteurized doesn't need refrigeration. In the diner, we used half & half which was supplied in quart containers and poured into cream pitchers before each seating. Cream cheese for the Sarah Lee breakfast bagels was Philadelphia brand or the equivalent.

Milk for breakfast cereal or for drinking was always real 2% milk. In the past few years, we've also been carrying soy milk (usually Silk brand) for those who want or need it. This was initiated by one of our onboard service Chiefs, and may not be commonly found on other trains.

Salads came from a pre-packaged salad mix --- an institutional-sized package of the same type of mixture you could get at the market. The dressings were Paul Newman brand: essentially the same thing you would buy at the market, but in individual packets.

Meat entrees came to us in frozen form. The fish and chicken were often pre-breaded, and that sometimes resulted in a high sodium content. The beef had minimal additives, although it was sometimes marinated for tenderness before it came to us. Vegetables came frozen, very much like any frozen vegetables. Rice was Uncle Ben's brand; mashed potatoes were instant. When we had baked potatoes, they were the real thing, served with sour cream and real butter.

Your main problem with the desserts will be calorie count. Ready-Whip was often (not always) available for the dessert. Sometimes people would say they didn't want the 15 extra calories. I always thought that was strange since the dessert under the Ready-Whip was already over 800 calories and it said so right on the menu! It never seemed to me that the extra fifteen would make much difference. My favorite dessert was always the cheesecake with strawberry or raspberry topping.

In short, you can find land restaurants where you can get a much more healthful meal, and you'll find restaurant where the fare is much worse. I guess it's a balancing act.

Since I retired about a month ago, some of these things could have changed.

 

[Paul CHI]

Here's one of my least favorite Amtrak prepackaged items, stolen from another thread: the "Heinz Breakfast Syrup." Despite the prominent maple leaf on the lid, you'll notice that there's no maple syrup in their maple-flavored syrup:

I would expect fake syrup with a $3.00 styrofoam pack of pancakes at fast food places. I would expect real maple syrup on a $9 plate of pancakes at a sit-down restaurant.

Pet peeve. Awful stuff.

 

[Paul CHI]

For food a cut above, take the Via Canadian.

 

[jis]

I never take a train just for good food. If I am looking for good food I find a good restaurant. VIA Canadian unfortunately does not go anywhere that I need to or want to go in the near future

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[andersone]

don't you have to have the former railroad French toast to have syrup?

 

[George Harris]

Salads came from a pre-packaged salad mix --- an institutional-sized package of the same type of mixture you could get at the market. The dressings were Paul Newman brand: essentially the same thing you would buy at the market, but in individual packets.

A point to note: Paul Newman salad dressings DO NOT any of them have MSG. Since my wife has an issue with MSG we have gotten to where we always read ingredients. whne it comes to salad dressings, we now buy nothing but Paul Newman. If you are MSG sensitive or need to watch your sodium, be sure to read the ingredient labels on salad dressings and canned soups. Canned soups are particularly bad for MSG. Almost all canned soups contain MSG and many of them contain a lot of it.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Those packets of Paul Newman are GREAT for kicking some extra life into the Baked Potato or Veggie Medley. The Parmesan and Roasted Garlic seems to be the rarest to find in the Diner and I have actually "called out" and traded to find that elusive Treasure

 

[justinslot]

They've been serving a turkey shank special on the last few trains I've been on and I don't care if it's processed all to heck it is perfect, meat-falling-off-the-bone turkey.

 

[William W.]

They've been serving a turkey shank special on the last few trains I've been on and I don't care if it's processed all to heck it is perfect, meat-falling-off-the-bone turkey.

Unfortunately, I think they've eliminated the "Chef Marketplace Special" dinner offerings from the latest menus. I'm sure it's because of budget cuts. It's too bad, those offerings added some variety to the menus. In fact, just from looking at every LD train menu, all of the menus appear to be pretty much identical, as far as offerings go. I guess it makes sense from a business perspective to have more uniformity, but for regular LD train riders, the menu will probably get boring after a while. I'm definitely going to miss the opportunity to try the regional offerings that the used to offer on certain trains.

 

[Silver Star rider]

Those packets of Paul Newman are GREAT for kicking some extra life into the Baked Potato or Veggie Medley. The Parmesan and Roasted Garlic seems to be the rarest to find in the Diner and I have actually "called out" and traded to find that elusive Treasure

I sometimes have problems finding a flavor I like, so I use the old standby of ketchup and mayo

Bruce-SSR

 

[Joezeppy412]

Here's one of my least favorite Amtrak prepackaged items, stolen from another thread: the "Heinz Breakfast Syrup." Despite the prominent maple leaf on the lid, you'll notice that there's no maple syrup in their maple-flavored syrup:

I would expect fake syrup with a $3.00 styrofoam pack of pancakes at fast food places. I would expect real maple syrup on a $9 plate of pancakes at a sit-down restaurant.

I would bet you're not getting more than a few percent real maple syrup in most pancake places in the US today, outside of maybe Vermont.
http://www.labelwatch.com/prod_results.php?pid=183007

 

[caravanman]

Interesting that the most popular thread on AU is about food!

Just a thought... If the Heinz breakfst syrup (yuk!) contains no maple ingedients, it would be quite interesting to know which "natural" flavors are in the mix?

Mr Greatcats mentions on his trip report to Norway about the high price of food... Lower priced food on both sides of the pond can often be far from it's wholesome best

Brown rice, lightly cooked fresh veg, and a square or two of rich dark chocolate would be my idea of a good lunch! (plus a nice cuppa tea!)

Ed