Mining Meals - Pickaxe Not Included

[CantCookStillTry]

The food hasn't really impressed him yet but its early days. The styrofoam is again a result of early days - he's been taking his evening meal back to his hut - hasn't taken to eating in the common area yet. 

Unfortunately I dont think all those plastics would be being reused. But I hope at least recycled. 

The noodle salad didnt get a good review but the fruit was good 🙂. 

 

I will ask for some mine pictures if they are allowed.

[Shelby]

4 minutes ago, CantCookStillTry said:

The food hasn't really impressed him yet but its early days. The styrofoam is again a result of early days - he's been taking his evening meal back to his hut - hasn't taken to eating in the common area yet. 

Unfortunately I dont think all those plastics would be being reused. But I hope at least recycled. 

The noodle salad didnt get a good review but the fruit was good 🙂. 

 

I will ask for some mine pictures if they are allowed.

What is his "hut"?   

 

I'm sooooo interested in this.  Thanks so much for taking time.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

When I first saw this thread I was listening to Bob Dylan's rendition of Days of '49, a mining song that was published about a hundred and fifty years ago.  Seems appropriate somehow.

 

[CantCookStillTry]

Look mining has come on quite a lot in modern times - the hours are long and the work is hard, but honestly, it's where many rural Aussie boys aim to be. A mine mechanic for example will earn double what a mechanic in a rural workshop would. You trade a poor home life for well, money I guess. 

 

His hut is his room, its a semi permanant, prefab, removable thing with a single bed, table, a tv a shower and toilet and a fridge. To be honest its a lot better than I thought. The rest of my husbands crew are amazed its his first "camp" despite being a veteran in his field - he has always picked DIDO (drive in drive out) work before when the kid was smaller. 

 

Tonights tea was a Thai curry with veg. Other options were a parmy or some kind of casserole. 

 

Tomorrows lunch will be the habitual fruit. 

 

And chopped salad. 

 

And, I quote "some kind of Pizza looking thing". Any guesses? 

 

I will answer the Pizza? Question tomorrow after lunch. Progress people, he took the lids off for me! But he also said " Ain't Happening " when I asked for Breakfast 🙄 😂. 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2021 by CantCookStillTry (log)

[CantCookStillTry]

Oh and to clarify I'm not being a terrible mother by not cooking, husbands first shift has coincided with my kids annual week at Nannas pub (Middle of Nowhere, towns only service is the pub, population 77 - maybe i'll get him to take me blog photos when he is old enough for a phone!). 

Edited January 14, 2021 by CantCookStillTry (log)

[gfweb]

Maybe make him a kit with various BBQ sauces, tabasco etc to dress hat food up a bit

[Shelby]

4 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Maybe make him a kit with various BBQ sauces, tabasco etc to dress hat food up a bit

I was going to say the exact same thing.  The idea came to me in the middle of the night (yes, I was thinking about you guys @CantCookStillTry--I hope that's not too creepy 🤣)

[weinoo]

5 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

some kind of Pizza looking thing". Any guesses

 

I know some posters here you might ask.

 

7 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I hope that's not too creepy 🤣)

 

Depends what else you were doing, methinks. 🤔

[ElsieD]

What is a parmy?

[Darienne]

5 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

 

 

Tonights tea was a Thai curry with veg. Other options were a parmy or some kind of casserole. 

 

What is that pale rectangle thing on top somewhat to the left?  Is it actually food?

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, Darienne said:

What is that pale rectangle thing on top somewhat to the left?  Is it actually food?

Looks like a bun.

[CantCookStillTry]

4 hours ago, Darienne said:

What is that pale rectangle thing on top somewhat to the left?  Is it actually food?

I spent a good five minutes trying to work out why his vege curry had a bit of luncheon meat on it. 

Its a badly lit, not very photogenic bread roll. 

Edited January 14, 2021 by CantCookStillTry (log)

[CantCookStillTry]

4 hours ago, ElsieD said:

What is a parmy?

Sorry. A parmy here is Parmigiana - the breaded meat topped with sauce and cheese. Not served with pasta though.

[Eatmywords]

1 hour ago, CantCookStillTry said:

I spent a good five minutes trying to work out why his vege curry had a bit of luncheon meat on it. 

Its a badly lit, not very photogenic bread roll. 

At first sight I thought giant freeze dried finger tip 🔪

 

May I ask where in Queensland you and or the mine is?  (fun to map stuff, esp half way around the globe : )    

 

We were in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Nimbin (-a story in itself) many years ago.  Lovely people and places. 

[Spork]

I’m following along too. I work for a mining equipment manufacturer and spend a limited amount of time in the field.

[haresfur]

3 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

Sorry. A parmy here is Parmigiana - the breaded meat topped with sauce and cheese. Not served with pasta though.

 

We have a topic (and I am firmly on the parma side of the parma/parmy linguistic divide)

Edited January 14, 2021 by haresfur (log)

[gfweb]

4 hours ago, haresfur said:

 

We have a topic (and I am firmly on the parma side of the parma/parmy linguistic divide)

As far as i can tell the parma debate is limited to Oz. Parmigiana to the rest of us. 

[CantCookStillTry]

Night four and grub for day 5. 

 

For tea we have a Lamb & Sweet Potato Casserole. I think with cauli, carrot and another thumb roll. 

Other options were pasta, fish and chips or a lentil curry. He believes that if you can be bothered to wait, you can also ask for a steak to be cooked. 

The quick serve options are from a Bain Marie you point at. 

 

For lunch I convinced him to grab something out of the breakfast section. There is cereal, wraps and fruit available too and they do 'hot food' but alas, dear reader, I am going to need a strong draw card to get him out of bed earlier. 

I don't think this egg bacon and spinach wrap is gonna help me either. 

 

For lunch part 2 a pumpkin feta and sundried tomato salad. 

 

And a (Ahem) Parmy. 😂. 

 

He got fruit too but if you have seen that 3 times its twice to many (and the very same reason I'm not posting my nightly toast in the dinner thread). 

 

I asked for dessert, I cannot yet cajole him in to covert dining hall pictures, but he says the dessert fridge is "Lame". There was Jelly, Custard, 2 flavours of Ice Cream and fruit. Miners or Toddlers? 

 

(I asked what the 2 flavours of icecream were exactly but for that sake of my marriage dropped the topic bloody quickly 😂). 

Edited January 15, 2021 by CantCookStillTry
Spelling as usual (log)

[Eatmywords]

Pumpkin??!!  This is getting gourmet!   

 

He is a trooper taking these pics.  Risking some major chop busting if he gets caught I'd think 🤪       

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, Eatmywords said:

Pumpkin??!!  This is getting gourmet!   

 

He is a trooper taking these pics.  Risking some major chop busting if he gets caught I'd think 🤪       

 

Yes, those miners might think he's a bit of a poofster (or whatever the equivalent Oz slang would be) for snapping photos of food!

 

I'm impressed by that salad, but given that I don't like pumpkin l might have needed to look at another option. Even that spinach wrap, if it had been available!

 

None of the meal options looks as large as I'd expect for physical laborers. Is that because they can pick and choose, and get more than one entree if they wish?

 

[Eatmywords]

10 minutes ago, Smithy said:

None of the meal options looks as large as I'd expect for physical laborers. Is that because they can pick and choose, and get more than one entree if they wish?

 

I'll guess they allow seconds once everyone has gotten firsts.  (It's 2am there now so might have to wait a bit for CCST to respond : )  The lamb looks great too.  Depressing, it's not more widely accepted here. 

[heidih]

1 hour ago, Eatmywords said:

Pumpkin??!!  This is getting gourmet!   

 

I think it is an Aussie thing like the ever present beetroot.

[haresfur]

Ok, a hijack into a tale of two cooks.

 

My second year in mineral exploration after graduation (not counting my undergrad summer jobs), we had a cook who had absolutely no experience as a commercial cook, as far as I could tell. She brought a thick book on how to run a restaurant kitchen that included tables of portion sizes for various dishes. Needless to say, it was not written to address cooking for a crew of mostly young men out walking many miles a day. I particularly remember her being dismayed when the tray of (cakemix!) cake that she thought would last a few days wouldn't even touch down as it was handed around the table until it was gone.

 

I was sent to a camp in Nova Scotia in the autumn when our work up north was finished. Pretty plush - they had rented out the buildings at a ski area (as an aside, the year before it turned out the place they rented was a recently closed brothel and they got some irate visitors). About the first thing the cook told me, with pride, was that she had gone through 3 cases of chocolate chips because the boys would come back from the field and eat her cookies until dinner. She didn't have much if any professional experience either, but she was a real cook.

[heidih]

6 minutes ago, haresfur said:

My second year in mineral exploration after graduation (not counting my undergrad summer jobs), we had a cook who had absolutely no experience as 

 About the first thing the cook told me, with pride, was that she had gone through 3 cases of chocolate chips because the boys would come back from the field and eat her cookies until dinner. She didn't have much if any professional experience either, but she was a real cook.

You got lucky with the 2nd one1

[chromedome]

We had a popular TV cook in Canada in the 80s and 90s named James Barber, a humorous English gent who'd been an engineer by trade. He was raised by his granny, who was - at least in his telling - exactly the kind of stereotypical English cook who gave English food a bad name. He only *really* got interested in food as he traveled the continents in his day job, and began to notice how often a given technique or combination of ingredients would crop up across multiple cultures.

 

He would often make that point in his show, getting to a point in the recipe and then explaining how you could take that basic preparation and spin it into something Italian or Chinese (or whatever) by changing the next few ingredients.

 

One one episode of his show he told the story of a mining camp where he'd worked in the 1970s, where the cook quit or left due to illness or something of that sort. The company flew in a new cook from Vancouver, but the new guy Had Ideas. He only lasted about 10 days, and was literally chased from the camp when he served the miners tofu (In my head he vanishes into the distance, burly miners in hot pursuit, wailing "...but it's GOOOD for youuuuuu!!!!"). Since it would be at least several days until a new cook could be found, Barber volunteered to give it a whirl and found he quite enjoyed himself. That led, eventually, to him becoming a popular TV host and cookbook writer.