I have had far worse than flex meals. I think many people find the whole concept of it offensive knowing what food on trains can be which I get but they really aren't anywhere near as bad at least from my experience as many people make them out to be. And again - to me my most recent flex meal is pretty equivalent to what I got on Alaska First Class as well as what they serve on Acela first class. Especially now that they're plating it on the Lake Shore Limited and not just serving it in the container.
Sorry. Not what I experience on the Crescent, the Eagle, CONO or the CHI-WAS trains.
Slopping everything into a round foil container, under/over cooking it in a convection oven, then leaving it on a table along with a dried out roll of indeterminate age, plastic tools wrapped in a paper napkin, some bitter white leaves of lettuce (?) with a cherry tomato in a plastic cup does not a First Class AMTRAK meal make. It certainly does nor resemble that portrayed in the brochures with the cutesy little carriers.
I lived for days on more pleasing MREs after hurricanes (we kept them in the satellite trucks).
"Plating" FLEX ? Please. It's still garbage.
The seafood entrees stink. Smells bad. Has the odor of Low Tide at Perth Amboy. Or 4 hours after closing at Long John Silver's or the seafood counter of any Albertson's.
The "Beef' entree consists of a few chunks of mystery meat floating in an indeterminate liquid with mushy pearl onions, carrots, and odd glistening things surrounding a glob of instant mashed potatoes. May as well put it in a blender and serve with a straw.
The "Pasta" is undercooked or dried out tubes in a mush of some indeterminate vagueily flavored "sauce". Or mystery meat (?) balls in same.
With apologies to Vegans, Vegetarians, and the like, I don't consider "substitutes" as human food. "Veggie Burgers" and all that stuff. Might as well graze by the right of way.
To be fair, the "Breakfast Omelette" is flavorful, one can actually taste the additional ingredients, and, well, it is sort of egg-y. The sausages are pretty tasty and the potatoes are as well.
Look, boys and girls, AMTRAK would have done better to simply offer some Marie Callender's, Swanson's, Hungry Man or other Frozen TV Dinners. At least they come in compartmented trays and can be nuked.
But I guess then the various suits involved would not have realized gratuities and honoraria from whoever got paid to dream up this gustatory sham. Wanna bet they don't dine on FLEX fare in the AMTRAK Corporate Dining Room?
Hey, I have an idea! Why not use one of the Flight Kitchens that the airlines use? We did that for school lunches, saved a ton and the kids actually ATE the food.
Look - the dining experiencs on planes or trains is never going to be the same as in a fine restaurant. The DeLuxe experience of freshly prepared meals of the railroads or the early airlines will never return. I believe, however, the absurdity of tryring to call this chazerai "Dining" equals calling a Greyhound or Ryan Air as "Traveling in Style". Even the meals now in the Long Distance Diners are Cryovaced, Par Cooked, Defrosted, but the food is served in a modicum of style and grace. And is enjoyable. O for a Flatiron Steak for Dinner on the Eagle!
AMTRAK should stop trying to put lipstick on a pig. It fools no one, and generally annoys the pig.
