I’ve gone and dislocated my hip so I have been given the opportunity to rate the food at Wellington public hospital. Being in the public system still recovering from a recession I did not expect much. I will give an overall rating based on 4 meals because honestly they all taste pretty much the same.
Saturday night dinner
I was admitted late so missed out on the fresh courses so had to have a nuked frozen meal. The dish tonight was roast lamb, mash and vegetables, and it was microwaved hmmmm. So everything was against them from the start. The only way they could pull off a decent roast lamb frozen meal is if they worked at Nasa or if I had suffered a brain haemorrhage which severely damaged the taste centres in my cerebral cortex. The “roast lamb” arrived in patties accompanied by mash and typical mixed vegetables. If they put the lamb between some burger buns and chucked some Big Mac sauce on it, then it would have been semi legit. Not even my haziness from the truck load of painkillers I was on could cover my distaste for this meal. One positive from the meal was that it came with ice cream afterwards with some cubed jelly, a minimal amount but enough to cheer me up.
Sunday Breakfast
Can’t be bothered putting this into sentences.
Porridge-Water mixed with a bit of flour I think
Toast-appalling toast to jam ratio
Coffee-Good for instant
Sunday lunch
After a less than satisfying breakfast I was looking forward to the “sausage hotpot” with a side of pumpkin soup. What I got was devilled sausages public hospital style. It consisted of sizzlers (I think) cooked in a sauce that seemed like a fancy tomato sauce. It was served with a side of carrots and broccoli, with no mash. What a debacle. Mash is the foundation of devilled sausages; you cripple the dish without it. Then again this was supposed to be a ‘sausage hotpot’ but it didn’t come in any kind of pot so who knows what was going on. What is with this hospital and chucking fancy names on ratty meals?
There was no pumpkin soup with my meal; apparently I did not miss much. My ward mate described it as water drained through a pumpkin with a dash of whatever was coming out of my other ward mate’s catheter.
Sunday night dinner
A fresh meal tonight! No excuses for this meal.
I ordered chicken and on first appearance the chicken aspect of the meal looked similar to what my cat Mozart regurgitates after it scoffs herself silly. A point of hilarity here, the dish was called Tahitian chicken on the piece of paper that comes with the meal. What was the point in trying to add an authentic element to it like that when it was blatantly chucked together from an expired Wattie’s can? Worth noting however was the pumpkin mash which had a good consistency unlike the potato mash which had the consistency of porridge. They did include beans with this meal as well and accordingly to the old guy opposite me, are quite expensive this time of year. He was just transferred from neurology though…
One of the other dudes in my ward had scrambled eggs, I would have been well satisfied with that meal.
I once again received ice cream with this meal exactly the same as the night before except for a different flavoured jelly that was a little denser. Geez I need some more Ketamine.
Overall the food does serve its purpose-it keeps you alive…just.
This sort of food brings back memories of airline food. Both systems with strict budgets which is evident in the taste, both have meals with fancy names that make you think you’re going to get a kick-arse meal but leave you very disappointed, and both are eaten in company you wish wasn’t there. This rating will not be pretty. Further blogs could compare hospital and airline food because they are in a whole different league to normal food (in a bad way).
Rating
Taste- .5/4 stars
Appearance- 1/4 stars
Originality-1/4 stars
Overall-2.5/12 stars
The reason why appearance gets a whole star is that they were served on a plastic platter which always added an element of surprise to it. This excitement did not last long and always ended in bitter disappointment. Kinda like at Christmas when I open presents from Grandma expecting something awesome (sorry Gran!).
