I have received a lot of questions about life here aboard the Oden, so I'd thought I'd tell you about one aspect everyone can relate to - FOOD! The Oden has 3 people in charge of meals and food for the 62 people on board. Bo Cederberg is the Chief Cook. Ranjit Roy is the cook, and Kristel Pettersson is the "messman." They work in the galley (kitchen on a ship,) pantry, and mess ( dining room on a ship,) and they seem to be on duty all the time!
Bo Cederberg, Ranjit Roy, and Kristel Pettersson make the delicious meals served on board the Oden.
The Oden has set meal times for everyone on board: breakfast 07:30-08:15, coffee at 10:00-10:15, lunch at 11:30-12:30, coffee at 15:00-15:15 (that's 3:00-3:15 pm,) and dinner at 17:30-18:15 (that's 5:30-6:15 pm.) We eat buffett style, serve yourself, and everyone sits together at large tables. There is always a smorgarsdsbord - a salad bar, bread, butter, jam, cold cuts, sliced vegetables and fruits, and knackebrod. Knackebrod is a hard, dry bread like a thick rye cracker that is very popular in Sweden. I like eating it with butter and cheese.
For breakfast Bo usually makes some type of eggs, sometimes sausage or bacon, oatmeal, and there is also yogurt and dry cereal available. The coffee is very strong , and almost everyone takes a true "coffee break" at 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. If you are looking for someone, this is often the best way to find them - just go to the mess at coffee time. At lunch, there is a hot entree, sometimes pasta or else a meat and potatoes dish. They post the lunch and dinner menu on a board in the mess, but unless you read Swedish, it's usually a guess as to what we'll be having. Sometimes though, we'll get a little hint.
The Oden kitchen staff posts the meal entrees each day, always in Swedish. Sometimes we get a hint though!
This is a typical lunch - entré and salad, water to drink, and coffee for dessert. This was sliced reindeer meat in gravy. It tasted like beef.
Dinner (Middag in Swedish) is usually a meat or fish entree, potatoes or rice, and sometimes a hot vegetable. On Thursdays, though, dinner is always pea soup and Swedish pancakes. This is an old Swedish traditional meal for Thursday nights. The Swedish pancakes can be eaten plain or made sweet with lingonberry or strawberry jam and sugar sprinkled on top. That's the way I prefer mine! And after Thursday night dinner, dessert is a small glass of Swedish Punch, a warm sweet after-dinner drink.
Thursday night we always have pea soup and Swedish pancakes for dinner. This is an old Swedish tradition. It is a very tasty meal!
Pascy the Penguin poses with a favorite traditional meal on the Oden - Thursday night pea soup and Swedish Pancakes, with Swedish Punch for dessert.
After eating we bus our own trays, rinse our plates and set in them in racks to go to into the dishwasher. Saturday nights are "dress-up" evenings and the meal is a little fancier than the other nights. You can also purchase a glass of wine to have with your meal, and we usually have a nice dessert too. We don't have dessert, which is good because I haven't been to the small gym here very many times! But, I also have to use self control every time I walk by the "Oden Store," which is full of Swedish candy and sweets!
The Oden Store has chocolates, candy, and ice cream for sale all the time. You just mark your purchases on a checklist next to your name and then pay for them later.
Lesson Learned: Everyone speaks the universal language of food!