New Dining Car Menus Nov. 4

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AmtrakLKL

Lead Service Attendant
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New national dining car menus go into effect tomorrow, November 4. They do not appear to be loaded on Amtrak.com, yet. My observations:

Breakfast

  • French Toast has been replaced with Buttermilk Pancakes.
Lunch

  • Chipotle Black Bean Burger has been replaced with a Gardein Black Bean Burger
  • Panko Chicken has been replaced with Smokey BBQ Pork Shanks
Dinner

  • Vegetarian Stuffed Shells replaced with Six Cheese Lasagna
  • Light & Heathy Asian BBQ Chicken replaced with Bowl of Pad Thai Noodles or Black Bean Vegetable Enchiladas, both of which are vegan.
  • Salmon replaced with shrimp-crab cakes.
Prices appear to remain the same except the light & healthy dinner entree which was reduced $2.
 
AmtrakLKL said:
French Toast has been replaced with Buttermilk Pancakes.
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Hopefully these aren't the same dry and tasteless microwave pancakes they served previously.

AmtrakLKL said:
Chipotle Black Bean Burger has been replaced with a Gardein Black Bean Burger
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One frozen hockey puck replaced with another frozen hockey puck?

AmtrakLKL said:
Panko Chicken has been replaced with Smokey BBQ Pork Shanks
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Fake liquid smoke shanks. Yum?

AmtrakLKL said:
Vegetarian Stuffed Shells replaced with Six Cheese Lasagna
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Might be worth a try.

AmtrakLKL said:
Light & Heathy Asian BBQ Chicken replaced with Bowl of Pad Thai Noodles or Black Bean Vegetable Enchiladas, both of which are vegan.
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Pad Thai and enchilada's are awesome when prepared fresh but they do not lend themselves to frozen commissary meals.

AmtrakLKL said:
Salmon replaced with shrimp-crab cakes.
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This might be worth a try as well.
 
Hate to sound cynical, but this sounds like that World Famous Chef John Mica might have had a hand in coming up with the New and Improved Menus.

The Crab Cakes used to be good to ex ellent depending on the train and the chef, but the past couple of years the Salmon has consistently been the Best thing served on the Dinner Menu in my expierence!

What in the world is Smokey BBQ Pork Shanks? Hope they're better than the Fake Ribs ( McRibs) that used to be served! Why not return to the Excellent Lamb Shanks that after a well cooked Steak was the best Dinner item on the Menu. (or even the lesser Turkey Shanks?)

I'm guessing that the pancakes will be McDonald quality. ( not a positive!)

The Chipotle Black Bean Burger was excellent when served as a "Cheater Burger", ie with Cheese and Bacon!

Guess time will tell, hopefully there will be Chefs and Diners on All ofthe LD Trains to prepare these Meals!
 
Being someone who loves meat and regular eating but due to cancer treatments has had meat among other things cut out of my diet, I will miss the French Toast. The Chipotle burger had enough spices to be ok with lettuce and tomato, garden burger sounds like the spices have been removed. My grand-daughter who loves the train and travels with me frequently, loved the salmon (when not cooked to death). Six cheese lasagna sounds good, though if my wife was with me I would be having the black bean enchiladas (frozen sounds like a Tex-Mex TV dinner).
 
Devil's Advocate said:
AmtrakLKL said:
French Toast has been replaced with Buttermilk Pancakes.
Click to expand...
Hopefully these aren't the same dry and tasteless microwave pancakes they served previously.
Click to expand...
Menu description says griddled to order. I hope that means fresh batter poured on the griddle vs. dropping a pre-made pancake to reheat.

Lonestar648 said:
Being someone who loves meat and regular eating but due to cancer treatments has had meat among other things cut out of my diet, I will miss the French Toast. The Chipotle burger had enough spices to be ok with lettuce and tomato, garden burger sounds like the spices have been removed. My grand-daughter who loves the train and travels with me frequently, loved the salmon (when not cooked to death). Six cheese lasagna sounds good, though if my wife was with me I would be having the black bean enchiladas (frozen sounds like a Tex-Mex TV dinner).
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It is still a spiced black bean and corn veggie burger. Gardein is the new brand being carried.

I noticed another change, the steak at dinner will now be accompanied with caramelized onions instead of a peppercorn sauce.
 
AmtrakLKL said:
Devil's Advocate said:
AmtrakLKL said:
French Toast has been replaced with Buttermilk Pancakes.
Click to expand...
Hopefully these aren't the same dry and tasteless microwave pancakes they served previously.
Click to expand...
Menu description says griddled to order. I hope that means fresh batter poured on the griddle vs. dropping a pre-made pancake to reheat
Click to expand...
To me the previous pancakes looked, felt, smelled, and tasted just like frozen microwave pancakes. But maybe they found a "fresh" batter that somehow forms a perfect replica of a microwave pancake? I remember a television show that followed a McDonalds sauce replacement trial where they consulted with multiple specialized vendors to find less expensive alternatives that tasted just like the original artificial sauces but with even cheaper fillers. It was quite amazing how much effort they went into to find just the right mixture of low grade byproducts and specially tailored artificial flavors. I was shocked that they allowed cameras and a narrator to film the process of how much effort they spend in giving us less value for the dollar.
 
Fresh pancake batter?

Is pancake batter that gets put on the train as a dry mix that water is added to "fresh" pancake batter?

Heck the pancake batter may get put on the train in gallon jugs with the water already added to a dry mix at the commissary.

Inquiring minds want to know.

How much of the prep work is done by the commissary?

Someone said the bacon is partially pre-cooked at the commissary. Are some of the other foods also pre-cooked by the commissary?

This would be fresh pancake batter sufficient for several servings:

2 cups sifted all ­purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups milk

3 tbsp. oil

I seriously doubt an Amtrak dining car kitchen is stocked with the ingredients needed to make 'fresh' pancake batter.

Or maybe it's my definition of what "fresh" means.
 
Palmetto said:
Devil's Advocate said:
OBS said:
There is no cooking done in any Amtrak Commissary.
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I suppose that means the precooked meals are prepared at the packing plant?
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No different from the airlines I'd guess. There are catering services for this sort of thing.
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The difference is that I don't travel on a single aircraft for days on end without access to other restaurants. Airline food may be terrible but it doesn't impact me in the same way because I can easily pick something up before boarding and again before my next connection. Where I live there are no other options anywhere near the train station and the trains depart in the early morning hours when nothing is open anyhow. In other words it's a huge difference that's not easy to mitigate.
 
When I had a restaurant, we found a pancake batter that we just added water to and that our customers loved. Key was that we only made it up for a couple hours and kept it refrigerated. The batter jar had a lid with a handle that allowed for making perfect dollar or normal sized pancakes. The batter is key as well as how you keep the prepared batter once it has been made up. In the DC kitchen, making up a jar or two of batter at 6:30 AM for use for a couple hours makes sense, though I would suspect they will make it up about 6:00 AM with enough to cover the entire breakfast service, thus what is made at the end may or may not be the same quality as the beginning.
 
KmH said:
This would be fresh pancake batter sufficient for several servings:

2 cups sifted all ­purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups milk

3 tbsp. oil

I seriously doubt an Amtrak dining car kitchen is stocked with the ingredients needed to make 'fresh' pancake batter.

Or maybe it's my definition of what "fresh" means.
Click to expand...
The first few ingredients listed are all dry things that they can pre-measure and pre-mix.

Eggs and milk and oil are already available for the other things that they serve.

I can't imagine combining them to a batter and putting it on a griddle to require anything that making omelets wouldn't require...though there's the condemnation problem if you make a bunch of servings and only a couple people order the pancakes.
 
Devil's Advocate said:
Where I live there are no other options anywhere near the train station. . .
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That's too bad. I'm blessed.with lots and lots of options cuz it's a six hour drive to the closest station.

But I'm sad to see that salmon is off the menu as it was usually good.- except one time when it was all dried out. If the pancakes aren't great, the real maple syrup I always carry when traveling will make them that way. And as long as the Hebrew National hot dog is still on the kid's menu the change in the ersatz hamburger (hamburger?) won't matter.
 
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Well, the French toast I had on 98 on one trip was pretty bad. The bread seemed stale, and it was tough. Go figure.
 
My wife has to be gluten free and the salmon or tilapia were always excellent choices. Crab cakes, while I enjoy them, are not a good option for her, as crab cakes contain breading. Breading means wheat, which is a no go.

Unadulterated fish always made for a great past option and I wish they would bring it back. She already can't eat most things on the menu ...
 
Yumacool said:
My wife has to be gluten free and the salmon or tilapia were always excellent choices. Crab cakes, while I enjoy them, are not a good option for her, as crab cakes contain breading. Breading means wheat, which is a no go.

Unadulterated fish always made for a great past option and I wish they would bring it back. She already can't eat most things on the menu ...
Click to expand...
Just be aware that the majority of tilapia we get in the US is farm raised in China and their primary diet is feces.
 
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