Day 94 & 95 ~ Haifa Sea Day and a real one

April 13 & 14, 2022

High 60's 

"A holiday is an opportunity to journey within. It is also a chance to chill, to relax. It is when I switch on my rest mode. - Prabhas Kumar.

Sometimes, it's good to proclaim a sea day even if you are in port. That's what we did on our last day in Haifa. We were scheduled for an included excursion to Acre (a Crusader's fortress). Part of the tour would take us through the knights' escape tunnels, which doubled as ancient sewers and would require us to walk doubled over like the part of the tour we skipped when when we visited the Great Pyramids. We've had a string of long 9-13 hour excursion days, so we cancelled our excursion and stayed on the Star. 

It was like having our own private yacht. With almost everyone else off the ship, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. When we put on our swim suits and went down to the thermal suite, we were the only people there. When we sat down at the pool grill for lunch, it was just the two of us in that big space. We had a lovely restful day. 

The next evening, on an actual sea day enroute to the island of Rhodes, we had supper at The Chef's Table. It had been a while, but the menu advertised was Indonesian. Since a goodly number of the crew, including our room steward Yoyok and waiter, Aswi, are from that island nation, we were encouraged to give it a try. 

It was the best meal we've had in that venue!

Amuse bouche ~ Asinan, seasonal fruits & vegetables with chili tamarind sauce. It had a bit of a kick, but not too spicy. It was paired with a light Selbach-Oster Riesling from Moselle Germany. For the first time I realized how a specific wine can enhance a specific food. 

 

First Course--Sate Lilit Jukut Lawar. Satay minced tuna with authentic paste, lawar salad, samal. This course came with Black Cabra Chardonnay from Mendoza, Argentina, a very light refreshing wine.

I forgot to take a photo of the granite, the shaved ice concoction that's served after a fish dish to cleanse the palate. The first time we went to the Chef's Table, I got choked on the sweet and sour Chinese granite. But this one was based on watermelon juice, ginger, and lime syrup. Very nice! Almost like a mid-meal dessert!

The main course--Beef Rendang. These ribs had been slow cooked for 12 hours in traditional spicy herbs and served with vegetables and sweet potato rice. The wine for this course was Anko Malbec from Salta, Argentina. (We may not have been allowed to set foot on Argentina when we had our technical stop in Ushuaia, but the Star certainly stocked up on Argentinian wines then!)

A trifecta of Indonesian sweets--Passion fruit ice cream, coconut cream depot and chili chocolate! Yes, the chocolate was spicy but the warmth didn't hit me until it reached my throat! Our dessert wine was Domaine de Montgillet, Coteaux de l'Aubance, Loire, France. Not my favorite wine ever. It didn't play as well as with the food as the other wines did. Though as you can see, I only ever sipped my wines and am not a good judge of wine or spirits.  

An adventure without leaving the ship. Someday, I hope we'll actually visit Indonesia. The people and the food are warm and gracious.