This reminds me of a great story/rant my college buddy Bruce Lewis once told me about his time in the Navy. Maybe you can corroborate this or show how times might've changed?
Story goes something like this:
Bruce was on the carrier Enterprise back in 86-88 or so. They'd go on these long cruises and the food would be fine - even great! - for awhile at first. But about a couple of weeks or so before the supply ships were scheduled to rendezvous with the group, the supplies would get a little low. They'd cut back some on the fresh meat like chicken and all in the galleys and a lot of substitution would be going on. Mostly involving creative ways of serving spam. ("We got eggs, bacon and spam! Spam eggs and spam! Spam sausage and spam!" you get the idea... )
Bruce said that the Navy, naturally being a government institution, buys stuff in bulk. On the cheap. Lowest common denominator. This definitely applied with the spam. Of which there was a lot.
One of the ways in which spam can made even cheaper to buy is to get it without the food coloring.
Oh yes. You think spam is naturally pink? Think again. Without the red dye, spam is grey. Very very grey.
And Bruce ate a lot of grey spam at sea.
Which winds us up to the rant, which channels a bit of Sam Kinneson -
"Bad enough... I'm on a grey ship, on a grey ocean, under a grey sky, walking down grey corridors, wearing grey coveralls, sleeping on grey sheets and pillowcases...
"BUT THE FOOD IS GREY!!! AHHHHHH!!!!"
It may be just the way he delivered it, but that always used to crack me up. ^_^
Story goes something like this:
Bruce was on the carrier Enterprise back in 86-88 or so. They'd go on these long cruises and the food would be fine - even great! - for awhile at first. But about a couple of weeks or so before the supply ships were scheduled to rendezvous with the group, the supplies would get a little low. They'd cut back some on the fresh meat like chicken and all in the galleys and a lot of substitution would be going on. Mostly involving creative ways of serving spam. ("We got eggs, bacon and spam! Spam eggs and spam! Spam sausage and spam!" you get the idea... )
Bruce said that the Navy, naturally being a government institution, buys stuff in bulk. On the cheap. Lowest common denominator. This definitely applied with the spam. Of which there was a lot.
One of the ways in which spam can made even cheaper to buy is to get it without the food coloring.
Oh yes. You think spam is naturally pink? Think again. Without the red dye, spam is grey. Very very grey.
And Bruce ate a lot of grey spam at sea.
Which winds us up to the rant, which channels a bit of Sam Kinneson -
"Bad enough... I'm on a grey ship, on a grey ocean, under a grey sky, walking down grey corridors, wearing grey coveralls, sleeping on grey sheets and pillowcases...
"BUT THE FOOD IS GREY!!! AHHHHHH!!!!"
It may be just the way he delivered it, but that always used to crack me up. ^_^