Hospital food not that bad

I had heard about the horrors of hospitals for years, the least of which was about the food. As it turns out, those horrors no longer exist for the most part.

I was truly impressed by how good the meals were at Alliance and Hillcrest Hospitals. A damn shame Anthony Bourdain never did a show featuring it. If I remember right, both places had a system in place to let you choose what you wanted. Hillcrest went steps further - I was given a pamphlet menu and at first I was on a very limited menu. So I had to get creative. Light yogurt with cereal worked out well since milk wasn't allowed. Applesauce in vanilla Greek yogurt worked out well, too.

And the kitchen or whatever it was called knew better than I on what and how much was allowed. I would get shot down if I tried to order too much. I worked with only the information in front of me. They must have had a computer to keep tabs on sodium, for example.

It became a ritual to call down on the in house telephone to order meals and have to confirm my birthday each time. At first I was on a very limited renal failure diet - imagine my delight when I got told I was suddenly on the Heart Healthy menu - cereal and chocolate milk! Yes!!

I was determined to at least try everything once. And I found out you had to be clear and specific, otherwise they'd screw up something or forget something. Only once did I order something that was not what I thought it was. And boy did Hillcrest's chefs know how to cook a burger. I relaxed the day I had one.

I discovered my love for fresh cut pineapple. And found that Swiss cheese makes great grilled cheese sandwiches along with tomato soup. I used to hate Swiss cheese. What happend??? I also discovered Italian Ices at Hillcrest and had 2 lemon flavored servings secreted to me. I thought that was awesome. I had to eat one quickly and hid the other emptied into my water mug.

Only once did the kitchen lose my order. And it was almost torture to order and then have to wait up to an hour before the meal was delivered. Stuck in bed or in a chair for most of my time and suddenly food becomes a very important part of your day.

I was sad to have been discharged from Hillcrest the week a new menu came out and this one had spicy lo mein noodles on it. Oh well...