Years ago, I had a friend who was in Weiss Memorial. The menu there was amazing (for a hospital). Unfortunately, he was on a liquid diet, so he just had to watch as his roommate chowed down on steaks and salmon. Once a week they offered lobster. They even call the food service "room service" and give you a restaurant style menu to order from. You call up and order when you are hungry and it is delivered to your room. Besides a special Kosher menu, you can order Vegetarian, Russian, Mexican or Vietnamese food. They also offer guest meals for $7.50

We had an unexpected one night stay at Children's Memorial hospital last week. I know kids are not known to be adventurous eaters in general, so I understand the menu is limited to the kids' favorites but it should not mean that the food would be inedible. It is pretty cheap though, $6 for lunch and dinner (includes one main, 2 sides and a drink) and $4 for breakfast.
Oh, there is McDonald’s to buy from downstairs if you can leave your child and go get food. When compared to the only other option

Things are getting better for Alberta seniors. I can't believe someone thought serving goo was a good idea!
http://www.care2.com/causes/fresh-food- ... niors.html

Had lunch in the cafeteria at Prentiss Women's Hospital today. Had a leg & thigh of fried chicken that, no fooling, compared to some of the best fried chicken I've ever eaten.

During a pre-op visit to Rush, I found the cafeteria offerings I tried delicious and was hopeful for solid sustenance during recovery from a spine procedure. Cream of mushroom soup tasted housemade, Meditteranean salad greens frsh and crisp, Kalamata olives salty, fresh and toothsome and the marinated, grilled chicken on top was freshly grilled and still warm, though not so hot as to wilt the greens.
Sadly, post- op in the nice, new Tower room I was assigned, the daily fare was generally inedible, save for the fresh fruit. I needed to shed a few pounds anyway and subsisted mainly on the fruit and Italian ice they freely provided. I headed home eight pounds lighter after a three-day stay - and I am good with that!
Davooda

My husband was admitted in a Novosibirsk, USSR hospital on our vacation 4 weeks ago. The food was delivered as follows: A women wearing a white labcoat and white scarf/hair protector ladeled a yellow watery stew from a big vat on a wheeled cart. Two pieces of russian white bread were served. When the lady went into each room to serve the soup/stew, the other patients would sneak into the hall and steal extra pieces of bread. Some sort of fruit juice/tea was served-you had to bring your own glass. No one semed to eat the stew/soup as my husband's roomate had his private stash of blinis, crackers and some hard candy-of which he freely offered to my husband and our entire family. The same was served for dinner.

We moved and put my father into a local assisted living home. His demand of what he wanted for dinner reflected who my mother was (bff to Julia, guest of honor at her first taping, my mother also catered many embassy dinners in the 60's, etc. )

In the multiple times he was at a local hospital, he loved the selections, and i was very appreciative of the fact that I was not cooking. He still complained about the quality, but the selections were great. For reference, during major holidays the staff ate my cooking in his room rather than the generic the place served.

exvaxman wrote:We moved and put my father into a local assisted living home. His demand of what he wanted for dinner reflected who my mother was (bff to Julia, guest of honor at her first taping, my mother also catered many embassy dinners in the 60's, etc. )

In the multiple times he was at a local hospital, he loved the selections, and i was very appreciative of the fact that I was not cooking. He still complained about the quality, but the selections were great. For reference, during major holidays the staff ate my cooking in his room rather than the generic the place served.

This happened when we put my MIL in assisted living. MIL family was used to a nice spread on Christmas Eve so we asked for the common "party" room for that night and put out a huge spread that was normal for us, crock pots of stuff, trays, good home cooked food, not just nibbles. We fed the whole place, staff and all for Christmas Eve plus a large amount of leftovers. Sad commentary on the state of assisted living food.... but they sure loved holidays and when my MIL had her birthday, plenty of good eats provided by the inlaw family.

I guess that my experience with retirement communities has been a lot different than most. Here is one place that a friend of mine operated for a few years:

http://thegatesworth.com/dining_chef.html

The community hired one of St. Louis's finest chefs to set this up. Sure, it is a luxury operation.

Most operations try to put out food that satisfies their residents but are hampered by the amount that people are willing (or able) to pay.

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Back to hospitals food. You will generally do a lot better in small local hospitals than in the large mega training hospitals. In the smaller hospitals, you are a lot closer to the kitchen. I worked in a couple of places where the kitchen was nearly a quarter mile from the patient rooms. Try keeping the food hot under those conditions.

I spent five days in the local hospital this past spring. They had a setup where you called in your food order (from a menu) anytime you wanted to eat. Room service...how cool! I tried every dessert on the menu (loved their signature chocolate cake). Tried a lot of their main dishes. Was most surprised by the sizzling fajita plate. It came up sizzling, with the tortillas on the side so you could assemble them as you desired. The only thing I had to "learn" was to request the extras like salt, pepper, sugar and other condiments. Hospital food has come a long way.

razbry wrote:I spent five days in the local hospital this past spring. They had a setup where you called in your food order (from a menu) anytime you wanted to eat. Room service...how cool! I tried every dessert on the menu (loved their signature chocolate cake). Tried a lot of their main dishes. Was most surprised by the sizzling fajita plate. It came up sizzling, with the tortillas on the side so you could assemble them as you desired. The only thing I had to "learn" was to request the extras like salt, pepper, sugar and other condiments. Hospital food has come a long way.

I had a 2 day stay in Febraury and my hospital was the same. It took me one bland bare meal to learn you have to be specific about what you want (2 pats of butter, 2 tubes of mayo, 1 pack of salt). Although I liked being able to order when ever I wanted something and that it came hot and fresh, I can't see how the hospital can afford this. The food service people were constantly patroling the halls from 6 am to 6 pm either bringing food or picking up trays.

I was at Loyola in Maywood yesterday during my mother's surgery (all's well!). I am a sucker for hospital food because it harkens back to my volunteer/student nurse days at Resurrection, and they had some great stuff on the menu, so maybe I'm biased. But dad and I went down for lunch and I was quite pleased with my meal. I had a stuffed pork chop (stuffed with stuffin'... have your kids been singing this lately?) with some kind of gravy on it—it was not pretty, but it hit the spot. I also had a bowl of ginger peanut soup that tasted an awful lot like chicken and corn, but it was good anyway. The mixed veggies were clearly frozen. I recalled the pie at Res being fantastic, but after I realized that the food at Loyola came from Sodhexo, I figured the fillings probably came from a can and passed. The cookies looked great too, especially the double chocolate.

One thing though—they really should rethink placing plates of specials at the door. They were dried out, gross and wholly unappetizing. Everything was served from a steam table; all anyone has to do is peek in.

Why an Alaskan Hospital Added Reindeer Pot Pie and Seal Soup to Its Menu

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a ... c8c05e4c9a

At One Alaskan Hospital, Indigenous Foods Are Part of the Healing Plan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/dini ... ticleShare