Tom Stieghorst
I've made mention before that one of the things that most cruise lines do well in the culinary department is Indian food. Many of the cooks in cruise ship kitchens come from South Asia and do a great job with Indian cuisine.
On the newly delivered Carnival Horizon, the chefs prepared an Indian meal for the press group one night and it was one of the best meals I've had on a cruise ship this year. (Full disclosure, I'm no connoisseur and probably eat Indian food shoreside less than half a dozen times a year).
It made me wonder, with the proliferation of specialty restaurants on ships, why isn't Indian more prominent?
Almost every sizeable cruise ship now has a sushi bar or restaurant, offering a type of food that outside of Los Angeles and New York was virtually unknown in the United States until the late 1980s.
Most cruise ships offer some kind of Indian food as part of the main dining room menu. But to my knowledge only Carnival has a dedicated Indian restaurant, Tandoor, and that is only on two ships for lunch service.
On Carnival Cruise Line ships, Indian meals can be requested for service in the main dining room up to two weeks in advance of departure. And I've had good luck asking for special vegetarian Indian food on Carnival ships after boarding.
Kathy Tan Mayor, until recently Carnival's CMO and now its chief digital officer, said Indian food isn't in great demand from passengers when Carnival surveys them about alternate dining concepts.
In 2015, the Chicago-based food research firm Technomic surveyed consumers about their ten favorite ethnic foods. Indian did make the cut, but just barely, coming in ninth. It was cited as a favorite by 19% of those surveyed.
Leading the parade in the Technomic poll was Chinese food, listed as a favorite of 77% of those surveyed. It's no surprise that many cruise ships have a Chinese specialty restaurant, or at least a pan-Asian restaurant, which also covers Thai food, cited as a favorite by 24% of those surveyed, landing 7th on the Technomic list.
Sushi was fourth on the list (32%), trailing #2 Mexican (74%) and #3 Italian (71%).
All three are well represented at sea.
A little surprising is that French food is ranked only 6th , the favorite of 26% of those surveyed, although a French concept is one of the first to be added to many ships, along with steak, Italian and Asian choices.
And two of America's top 10 ethnic favorites are hardly represented on cruise ships at all. I've never come across a Greek specialty restaurant on a cruise ship, although it is ranked in the Technomic survey at #5, cited as a favorite by 32%.
Likewise, Spanish cuisine, which leans heavily on bite-sized tapas appetizers, is a no-show as an alternative dining concept, although it gets listed as a favorite of 22% of American diners by Technomic.
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Correction: Tandoor is on two
ships, having been removed recently from Carnival Dream and
Carnival Magic.