Roadfood . . . NOT!

Or: Socialized Roadfood.

I know I should have known better. But today, I had to go to the VA hospital for lab tests for which I had to be fasting for 12 hours. After having the lab tests, I was starving and my mouth felt stuffed with cotton. So rather than head down Clement St. a few blocks to where I know I could have gotten an exemplary meal, I went to the hospital cafeteria.

I grabbed a soda from the dispense-it-yourself machine (so far so good). Then I looked around at the various options and decided on a Polish sausage at the "grill" counter (I've found even the most institutional places sometimes have decent Polish sausages if they get them from a good supplier). When it was my turn (after waiting in line) I asked the woman behind the counter for the Polish sausage, pointing to the menu sign directly behind her head. She screamed something at me in English so heavily accented with some Asian dialect that I had no idea what she was saying. I looked puzzled, so she screamed again . . . a then a third time. Finally, I thought I understood she was saying "next counter". I looked over there--another line and that counter seemed dedicated to cold sandwiches rather than the grill items I was in front of.

I gave up and grabbed a pre-cooked lump labeled "hamburger" from a pile on the counter and some onion rings I had seen another guy take out of the fryer and put there just a few minutes before. After paying and grabbing a couple handfuls of those annoying single-serving condiments in little plastic pouches, I headed for a table.

The hamburger, when I unwrapped it, was the hard, dry, cold grey hockey puck I expected it to be. So I began trying to open the condiments, figuring if I drowned it in enough mayo and ketchup I might not be able to taste it. But, as usual, I couldn't get them open. I tried my teeth--no good. Finally, I tried the Leatherman tool on my keychain. It took a while, but I managed to open enough of them that way to smother the alleged burger. Then I opened some more ketchup for the onion rings, which turned out to be warm as hoped and pretty darned good (amazingly, they seemed not to have been frozen).

Then I noticed the view--in the first golden autumn sunshine after many days of heavy fog. The SF VA Hospital sits on a point of land which forms the wetern end of the southern shore of the Golden Gate strait. It is actually to the west of the Golden Gate Bridge so looking north out that window I saw, past a few weathered Monterey pines, to the left the Pacific horizon, to the right the Golden Gate Bridge and, directly across the water, the rocky, mountainous Marin Headlands. And I thought, "The food may be truly awful, but I'd eat here again anytime for this view."

That'll teach you to go to the VA expecting decent food under the Bush administration!

cheers, John

John,

The same existed long before Bush was involved, the VA has been a joke since I first went there, and your friend Jimmy Carter was in charge at that time.
I thought you were a bigger, smarter man. Live and learn !!!!!! Veterans are a pain in the butt to congress no matter who is president.

I'm a proud twenty year employee of the Department of Veteran's Affairs. The Veteran's Administration when I hired there. I haven't eaten there yet ... Just because of what you have described ...

1. John , my friend, This is not the 'just for the hell of it' forum. It claims to be food related. Shame on you !

2. BT After a career in the Military Medical Service were you really suprised by the quality or lack of it in that Grey-Burger? At least you had the view to enjoy and hopefully the Coke was cold !

3. I don't think I would limit my negative attitude to the VA Hospitals. Within the past 10 years I have had the opportunity(??) to visit or be a patient in 4 hospitals in SoCal and 4 more here in the Metro Louisville medical community. I can honestly say that the food availble to those unable or unwilling to "go out" for a meal is lower than the worst school lunch program I have ever tasted. Last year I was obliged to stay 'In House' for several days after surgery. The menu checks were made daily and not once did the tray contain what was "ordered" on the check sheet. Appearance, texture, serving temperature, flavor, and everything else you can measure was out of phase. I understand the difficulties in food-service operation in that type of an institution, but I have yet to experience any degree of positive meal service....if there really is any!
In this case the 'chain' hospitals, the government operated hospitals, and the private, 'Making Big Profit' hospitals all seem to use the same quality food service programs.

Perhaps Johnny Rockets are in order for all these Hospitals.

Mr. Mayor: No doubt everything you say is now true, but it wasn't always so. I can remember the days when even those who couldn't get up and walk out, could "order out". When I was 8 years old, I had to have a hernia operation at what was then Washington (DC) Children's Hospital. Back then they kept you a week for what is now probably done as outpatient surgery. Anyway, my parents came to visit, of course, and spent most of every day there with me and started bringing food with them. Somewhere they discovered a sub shop that turned out what my memory recalls (maybe a bit foggily) as the best sub I've ever tasted. I know this because I whined, screamed and moaned enough that they had to start bringing me subs too. I don't know if the hospital knew it, but I suspect they did and ignored it.

I was in Long Beach Memorial Hospital California in 2002. Medical reasons prevented me from eating for 4 Days. Jell-O and Water was it! I hadn't eaten much before that either. I have since made up for lost time and then some. LOL However, try looking out your Hospital window and seeing all the fast food Joints, Fried Chicken Joints, as well as a Carrows Restaurant and a Supermarket/Deli. So close yet so far away. Boy was it tough. But I kept telling myself that when I got better.................LOL

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen


1. John , my friend, This is not the 'just for the hell of it' forum. It claims to be food related. Shame on you !

2. BT After a career in the Military Medical Service were you really suprised by the quality or lack of it in that Grey-Burger? At least you had the view to enjoy and hopefully the Coke was cold !

3. I don't think I would limit my negative attitude to the VA Hospitals. Within the past 10 years I have had the opportunity(??) to visit or be a patient in 4 hospitals in SoCal and 4 more here in the Metro Louisville medical community. I can honestly say that the food availble to those unable or unwilling to "go out" for a meal is lower than the worst school lunch program I have ever tasted. Last year I was obliged to stay 'In House' for several days after surgery. The menu checks were made daily and not once did the tray contain what was "ordered" on the check sheet. Appearance, texture, serving temperature, flavor, and everything else you can measure was out of phase. I understand the difficulties in food-service operation in that type of an institution, but I have yet to experience any degree of positive meal service....if there really is any!
In this case the 'chain' hospitals, the government operated hospitals, and the private, 'Making Big Profit' hospitals all seem to use the same quality food service programs.

Really - put the words 'military', 'hospital' and 'food' together, and the only word to follow is 'RUN!'

Actually the VA hospital here in Muscogee has a pretty good cafeteria---with what may be the best salad bar in town---my wife works next door in a museum and pops in for lunch now and then and was very pleasantly suprised at the quality.

Tiki,
Thanks for putting a positive comment on here...I always feel like we tend to recruit negative support when we do a "downer review", no matter how justified it is. Thats not a criticism of any of the above who posted comments, just an observation that misery does indeed love company !!

BT, Like everything else that seems to be changing and not always for the best. The system is trimming the fat (so to speak), and food service and creature comforts for the week's stay patient seem to be on the "trim" list. BTW how was life back in the days of coal dust and the 'gunboat' Navy?

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

Tiki,
BT, Like everything else that seems to be changing and not always for the best. The system is trimming the fat (so to speak), and food service and creature comforts for the week's stay patient seem to be on the "trim" list. BTW how was life back in the days of coal dust and the 'gunboat' Navy?

I date from the "oil-fired boiler Navy" (as opposed to today's gas turbine Navy). Actually, it was pretty good. As a matter of fact, I was discussing the "quality of life" issue the other day--wondering whether the goodie-packed PX's and fancy officers' clubs of the cold war era still exist. I don't know.

30 or 40 years ago, though, one could find some pretty fine food at military bases around the world, comments here to the contrary aside. The top example from personal experience was a little spot known as the "Top of the Rock", otherwise known as the Army Officers' Club at Camp Kue in Okinawa. It was a modernish building perched on the top of a cliff with large picture windows looking out over the East China Sea. It had a well-known piano bar serving dirt-cheap drinks and a restaurant featuring very elegant white table cloth service.

Even the much scruffier Marine "O" Clubs on Okinawa had local chefs hired with "mess dues" collected from the unit's officers. At the base where I was stationed, these guys turned out a very nice "Mongolian BBQ" and numerous other special meals. Unfortunately for the troops, Federal law didn't allow charging enlisted folks extra for their food, but officers could, and did, form a "mess" and assess themselves dues to purchase better food than what the government provides--and excellent chefs to cook it.

Then there was the "O" Club at Subic Bay Naval Station (Philippines)--that may have served the most delicious tropical fruit salad I've ever put in my mouth.

Even at McMurdo Station Antarctica one found what may have been the only "town" of 1000 or so people with 4 bars, innumerable saunas and one church--and some very good food (all the boiled shrimp you wanted any time you wanted it? Fillet mignon anytime, anywhere? We had it).

Even here in San Francisco the army had an Officers' Club in a building that included the original Spanish officers quarters (from the late 1700's) and a golf course to rival Pebble Beach (now redesigned by Arnold Palmer and open to the public).

Like I said, I don't really know but somehow I suspect those days are gone. Seemed like they were going in the last few years before I retired. But just a few years before I packed it in, I had a CO from the old school (a wonderful guy, really) who used to run formal "mess nights" like something out of the British Raj in India--forced me to go out and buy a formal dress uniform (with sword) which I had never previously had a need for. We used to assemble at the Marines Memorial Club ( http://www.marineclub.com/ ) here in our formal outfits and swill the night away. "God Save (George Bush??) . . .well, just forget it."

Yeah I think most of those days are gone. We ate at the O club on Ft Knox not to long ago, It is open to the public a couple of nights a week now, as part of a 'community relations' Program. I think George Patton would be rolling over in his grave to see the feather merchants in the center of 'his' club !
You won't hear me bad-mouthing the food service we enjoyed in the cold-war Army. Except for the meals in the Boonies now and then in SEA, the food everywhere I was stationed was above average to great!

Advice for hospital eating from a Veteran RN (thankfully no longer in the trenches!): Look in the dining room and at the hosptial staff in line in front of you. Get what they get.

I had to stay two days in the Texas Orthopedic Hospital last year and I was completely amazed at the quality of the food. The staff told me that people come from all over the medical center to eat there. My first night there, I was served strip steak with a mushroom sauce, artichoke salad and new potatoes and it was wonderful.

That is about the only experience I have had like that though.

It always amazes me that the world renowned Heart Institue at St. Luke's Hospital has a McDonalds in it.

quote:

Originally posted by Lone Star

It always amazes me that the world renowned Heart Institue at St. Luke's Hospital has a McDonalds in it.

Hmmm. Could there be money involved? It never amazed me very much that years ago Duke Hospital in Durham NC had hallways lined with cigarette machines.

The University of Tennessee Memorial Research center in Knoxville has a food court which is comprised of many vendors. The food selection is very good however when my daughter was involved in a car wreck and I was there, the idea of eating in a disease base did not appeal to me.

I left the premises and went somewhere else. Germs, virus, mold and other demons did not appeal to me.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

BT's comments on the "O" Clubs vs enlisted men's fare reminds me of a classic bill Mauldin WWII cartoon.

A general and his aides are standing on a promontory watching a magnificent sunset. The general asks an aide, "Is there one for the enlisted men also"?

Cheers, John

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7
Germs, virus, mold and other demons did not appeal to me.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Dancer, I think you'd starve to death in SF. At most of the good ethnic places here if you want to use the bathroom, you have to walk through the kitchen to reach it. The bathrooms in these places are scary enough, germ-wise (but they nearly all have a friendly sign from the Health Department about washing one's hands--if there's any soap). I try to walk through the kitchens looking at the (dirty) floor--I don't really want to see or know what's going on there.

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

Yeah I think most of those days are gone. We ate at the O club on Ft Knox not to long ago, It is open to the public a couple of nights a week now, as part of a 'community relations' Program. I think George Patton would be rolling over in his grave to see the feather merchants in the center of 'his' club !
You won't hear me bad-mouthing the food service we enjoyed in the cold-war Army. Except for the meals in the Boonies now and then in SEA, the food everywhere I was stationed was above average to great!

Back when i was cooking for a living,some of the best cooks i worked with were guys that cooked in the service--particulary the Navy--and those guys claimed that the food searved on flagships and most carriers was really frist class---my cousin was a jitney driver on a carrier and claimed some of the best merals he ever ate where on that ship--but---when a elevator gave out under his jitney and he lost his leg,he coouldnt stand the food at the hospital---weird-feed em like kings till they get hurt???!!! seems a litt6le unfair to me!

quote:

Originally posted by BigGlenn

I was in Long Beach Memorial Hospital California in 2002. Medical reasons prevented me from eating for 4 Days. Jell-O and Water was it! I hadn't eaten much before that either. I have since made up for lost time and then some. LOL However, try looking out your Hospital window and seeing all the fast food Joints, Fried Chicken Joints, as well as a Carrows Restaurant and a Supermarket/Deli. So close yet so far away. Boy was it tough. But I kept telling myself that when I got better.................LOL

Big Glenn,
I feel your pain. Back in 1980(not positive of the date but I came home from the hospital the day Reagan was shot) I was in the hospital for a week while they fought to get an infection in my gall bladder under control, so they could operate. For the whole week I was on an IV drip for antibiotics and feeding. I couldn't see the fast food places from my window but everytime the TV came on there were the commercilas for Micky D's and KFC. I was ready to kill for a fast food fix. As an interesting side note, they sent me home for a month to continue getting the infection under control & then I returned for the surgery. The day I was released was the day the Pope was shot. For a long time the running joke was don't let me back in the hospital ... no telling who'd get shot the next time!

Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981 - the same night, Indiana
won the NCAA basketball championship game.....

I knew it was in March & the Pope was in May, just wasn't sure of the year.

I think that the Bay Area has some of the best food in the world. It's too bad with that view they can't hire a great chef and open the cafeteria to the public.