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Hospital Food

liuzhou

By liuzhou
in Food Traditions & Culture

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
20 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I hope it wasn't the new knife.

I think that is a Japanese custom!

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

Duvel

Duvel

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Anna N said:

I think that is a Japanese custom!


Yeap - and if you do it right no need for hospital anymore.

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heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted (edited)

Having been around some hospital dietitians in the US (ex SIL, late MIL, some of their friends) I saw the formulaic diets for various conditions. Ex: diabetic, cardiac, kidney. I imagined that a patient seeing those diets might become depressed, rebel, and say "screw it" once out of hospital. I read their nutrition journals = dry rote and boring food.. Maybe more individual nutrition counseling has become the norm. My experience was in the 90's. Although the food I saw being served to patients at UCLA the times I worked there looked decent and their cafeteria was a nice blend of good nutrition and varied choices which hopefully carried over to patient meals. Excellent collard greens most days :)

 

Personally the several times I have been hospitalized I felt like crud, no appetite - just let me die now. Do not recall food at all. 

Edited by heidih (log)
Margaret Pilgrim

Margaret Pilgrim

Posted
Posted

My experience has been with California Pacific (Sutter Health) and over the course of 20 years the food has been excellent.   As I wrote, there are quite decent Asian offerings.   Restorative jooks at breakfast, fresh and simple stir fries, dumplings.   I am judicious on the regular menu, rather like I would be at Applebee's.    KISS.  Order the same way you would on an airline...except that the hospital food is better.  Don't get carried away by descriptions.  Don't expect rare meat.  Last time, rather superb "goulash".   As important, serving pieces are insulated so that hot foods stay hot and cold , cold.    Coffee and tea stays hot for half an hour.  

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eGullet member #80.

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

While the food isn't going to win any stars, it is  better than some university canteens I've eaten in, in the past.

 

I planned to post a couple of photos but took them at a higher resolution and size than eG likes. I can't see any way to resize in my Android cellphone. How strange!

 

So photos will have to wait until I return to the real world.

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, liuzhou said:

While the food isn't going to win any stars,

I am still willing to bet that the very worst of it would be an amazing improvement on anything I have been fed while in the hospital here! 
I hope they let you go home soon and that your health is good when you do so. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

scamhi

scamhi

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, liuzhou said:

While the food isn't going to win any stars, it is  better than some university canteens I've eaten in, in the past.

 

I planned to post a couple of photos but took them at a higher resolution and size than eG likes. I can't see any way to resize in my Android cellphone. How strange!

 

So photos will have to wait until I return to the real world.

 

first, I hope you feel better soon. to resize: you can email those pictures to yourself and on the iPhone it will ask what size transfer you want to make.

Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, scamhi said:

first, I hope you feel better soon. to resize: you can email those pictures to yourself and on the iPhone it will ask what size transfer you want to make.

 

18 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I planned to post a couple of photos but took them at a higher resolution and size than eG likes. I can't see any way to resize in my Android cellphone. How strange!

But he has an android not an iPhone. 

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

scamhi

scamhi

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

But he has an android not an iPhone. 

I read that. I have no android experience. I would assume that you could indicate what size attachment you wanted to send

Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, scamhi said:

I read that. I have no android experience. I would assume that you could indicate what size attachment you wanted to send

Guess we’ll have to let him see what he can do. He’s no slouch in the technology department. 

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

But he has an android not an iPhone. 

 

Nor do I have e-mail on my cell phone. By choice. I have a life.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

Perhaps bizarrely, I find myself in the local Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital. This Is not so desperate as it may seem.

 

In fact, the hospital offers both TCM and western thought and diagnostics etc. They mix and match, usually leaving the choice up to me.

 

The food situation has fallen apart. The first couple of meals were passable. The third inedible.

 

The problem is that the person charged with bringing me meals is at least one dish  short of a banquet. She asks me what I would like, then in response to my suggestions gives me a long list of 'don't have; don't have. I am requesting only the most common dishes. My request that instead of telling what they don't have, it might help if she told me what they DO have just baffled her.

 

On Saturday evening, I suggested 青椒肉片 which is a simple pork and green chili stir fried staple. 'Don't have!'  I said that they must have some kind of dish with pork and vegetables served with rice. Yes!

 

She returned with this

 

IMG_20220912_171938.thumb.jpg.79c9fd5b6382051f946cfe1a967d5b2e.jpg

 

Well, I suppose it technically meets the description. A dry, bland puck of chopped pork. Some fried greens devoid of the usual garlic, ginger etc. Overcooked low quality rice. No sauce of any kind.

 

Sunday evening after a long day of tests and pain, I didn't eat anything other than a bowl of soup.

 

Monday evening, I gave up and said 'anything'. Big mistake. This arrived. 

 

 

IMG_20220912_171932.thumb.jpg.15a0b96c8a5a7d03ccf7898635d4eb4a.jpg

 

I immediately lost it and asked the woman if she was crazy. 'I DON'T EAT THE SAME DOG FOOD EVERY DAY!'

 

She scuttled off. God know what will happen today. 

 

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Minutes after I posted the above, she turned up with a professional caterer supplying hospital patients. The caterer nodded happily at my list of potential requests. Looking forward to dinner!

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted

Pardon for laughing at your misery, couldn't help myself.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
1 minute ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

How can hospital Asian dishes be so fresh, decently prepared and well seasoned in the US while lacking in your community?

American Asia food and Asian Asian food are very different in many ways. Also, I haven't seen much, if any, praise for hospital food from either.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Margaret Pilgrim

Margaret Pilgrim

Posted
Posted

Did you note my comments above?   Quite decent American Chinese plates a la carte.  
FWIW, the most vile and expensive hospital food I’ve encountered was in Paris,    Who’d have thought?!

eGullet member #80.

JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted

Rice and fried greens are a common meal for me.  (Minus the pork looking like boiled brains.)  But as much as I enjoy rice and greens, it does lead to complications.  Sometimes mild, sometimes more severe -- as unfortunately two nights ago:

 

Shortly after dinner it began with cramping in both hands.  Not long after cramps were in both feet, calves, and thighs.  This went on till 8:00 am.  Ask me how well I slept.  Nothing new, cramping has been like this all my adult life.  I tell my doctor it's the rice, which it may well be, which would be awful since I now have a wonderful new Zojirushi.  Though I can't deny I seldom have problems with Basmati rice and Indian cuisine.  OK, well I do occasionally have problems with Indian cuisine but that has to do with nether epithelia, and not with muscle cramping.

 

Next week I am visiting the doctor, and before then I am performing an experiment.  The ingredients of my stir-fried greens are very simple:  garlic, something of the cabbage family, soy sauce, garlic, and a few drops of sesame.  I have cabbage at least a couple times a week without problem.  I eat garlic more nights than not.  Thus my problem must be rice, soy sauce, or sesame.  If I can force myself for my experiment I'll leave out the soy sauce and sesame. and hope I don't end up in the hospital.

 

Please get well fast!  Though I hate to think what you may be paying for the caterer.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

SusieQ

SusieQ

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

Perhaps bizarrely, I find myself in the local Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital. This Is not so desperate as it may seem.

 

In fact, the hospital offers both TCM and western thought and diagnostics etc. They mix and match, usually leaving the choice up to me.

 

The food situation has fallen apart. The first couple of meals were passable. The third inedible.

 

The problem is that the person charged with bringing me meals is at least one dish  short of a banquet. She asks me what I would like, then in response to my suggestions gives me a long list of 'don't have; don't have. I am requesting only the most common dishes. My request that instead of telling what they don't have, it might help if she told me what they DO have just baffled her.

 

On Saturday evening, I suggested 青椒肉片 which is a simple pork and green chili stir fried staple. 'Don't have!'  I said that they must have some kind of dish with pork and vegetables served with rice. Yes!

 

She returned with this

 

IMG_20220912_171938.thumb.jpg.79c9fd5b6382051f946cfe1a967d5b2e.jpg

 

Well, I suppose it technically meets the description. A dry, bland puck of chopped pork. Some fried greens devoid of the usual garlic, ginger etc. Overcooked low quality rice. N Theo sauce of any kind.

 

Sunday evening after a long day of tests and pain, I didn't eat anything other than a bowl of soup.

 

Monday evening, I gave up and said 'anything'. Big mistake. This arrived. 

 

 

IMG_20220912_171932.thumb.jpg.15a0b96c8a5a7d03ccf7898635d4eb4a.jpg

 

I immediately lost it and asked the woman if she was crazy. 'I DON'T EAT THE SAME DOG FOOD EVERY DAY!'

 

She scuttled off. God know what will happen today. 

 

 

 

This looks really awful. So sorry.

 

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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
23 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

what you may be paying for the caterer

 

Surprisingly little.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

MetsFan5

MetsFan5

Posted
Posted

Oooof that is a rough looking meal. My sympathy and well wishes to you. 
 

  My limited (🤞🏻) hospital food experience was great. I had a list of the choices of meals or could order al a carte. 
 

  In the theme of KISS, my nearest hospital has amazing chicken noodle soup, a quality Caesar chicken salad, and the best, crispy tator tots and grilled cheese. 

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chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted

When my late wife was in our local hospital, she chose the turkey dinner because "nobody can screw that up" (Me: "?????"). What she got was three slices of deli/sandwich turkey breast roll, instant mashed, gravy from a powder, and three baby-cut carrots, at something just above room temperature.

 

For the rest of her stay, I brought her meals.

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“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

gulfporter

gulfporter

Posted
Posted (edited)

Our local hospital food used to be great; a year ago this month mi esposo was there for 3 days and had chicken pipían, shredded beef tostadas and various frittatas and molletes for breakfast.  Sandwiches for lunch such as pierna (pork leg) on fresh bolillos (rolls) with fresh pico de gallo.  

 

I was there overnight last month and got dry toast, watery oatmeal and a vegetable soup devoid of any seasoning. 

 

Turns out the hospital hired a dietician a few months ago to cook "healthy" meals.  Prior to that you ordered off the menu from the small restaurant next door to the hospital.  

 

Ah, progress??

Edited by gulfporter (log)
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