Of course you're forgiven - but the dining experience in the Navy nowadays is very different to yours. Firstly there is only one galley - so all the food is prepared by the same chefs and the same food goes to the Seniors, Wardroom and Junior Rates serving hatches. I sometimes eat with the Junior Rates - although conversation is challenging as its usually a hurried get in, eat it, get out for them - with not much time to sit and chat. More to the point the Ratings on my last ship got more choice than in the Wardroom. They frequently had courses availablem to them that weren't on the menu in our mess. The only ships I can think of currently in service that have separate galleys for the WR are the Type 22 batch 3's - and they have just been axed under the latest SDR.Have you never eaten the food dished out to naval ratings? I was in a Colony class cruiser in the 1960s and the NAAFI shop did a roaring trade selling tinned food that we used to heat up on illicit hot plates that were carefully hidden when OOW's rounds were due. Heinz sausage-and-beans was especially popular, as I remember. Anything was better than the awful stuff that came out of the ratings' galley
We also had a scam going whereby one lad in our mess, who ran a private hammock-scrubbing service, had a deal going with the officers' cooks, so we used to get illicit fry-ups from the officers' galley. These were carried down to our messdeck in conditions of Colditz-like secrecy.
That was in the days when food was eaten in the messdeck. On my next ship, HMS Victorious, we had a communal dining (dining seems hardly an appropriate term) area and queued up with compartmentalised steel trays into which your entire meal was dumped. Bad weather produced some interesting food combinations as each compartment overflowed into its neighbour.
So your Reverence if, after that scathing experience in my formative years, I enjoy the occasional Fray Bentos pie, can't you find it in your heart to forgive me?
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/0176532/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CHome+and+furniture%7C14417894/c_2/3%7C15701246%7CStorage+and+shelving%7C14417975/c_3/4%7Ccat_14417975%7CStorage+baskets+and+boxes%7C14417980.htmCongratulations on 70 years young. At 50 something I have already outlived my father... (Heart attack - died when I was a student.)
You obviously weren't paying attention at the relevant part of the 'Cooking on a Boat for Beginners' course; what you describe has nothing whatsoever to do with pies per se.
Have you never eaten the food dished out to naval ratings? I was in a Colony class cruiser in the 1960s and the NAAFI shop did a roaring trade selling tinned food that we used to heat up on illicit hot plates that were carefully hidden when OOW's rounds were due. Heinz sausage-and-beans was especially popular, as I remember. Anything was better than the awful stuff that came out of the ratings' galley
We also had a scam going whereby one lad in our mess, who ran a private hammock-scrubbing service, had a deal going with the officers' cooks, so we used to get illicit fry-ups from the officers' galley. These were carried down to our messdeck in conditions of Colditz-like secrecy.
That was in the days when food was eaten in the messdeck. On my next ship, HMS Victorious, we had a communal dining (dining seems hardly an appropriate term) area and queued up with compartmentalised steel trays into which your entire meal was dumped. Bad weather produced some interesting food combinations as each compartment overflowed into its neighbour.
So your Reverence if, after that scathing experience in my formative years, I enjoy the occasional Fray Bentos pie, can't you find it in your heart to forgive me?
I think we've found Heston Blumenthal's next "nostalgia resurrection" project!
