Best/worst In Convent Food

[Cherie]

I can't really think of worst, because every convent I've been at has had some great food!

Absolute best was when I first visited the community I later joined - Tortellini Soup made by one of the Sister's moms. BEST. SOUP. EVER. I joked, and the Sisters did with me, that it was[i] that meal [/i]that made me enter the convent.

Surprisingly, though, we didn't have it too often after I entered. But when we did, oh boy! I definitely went back for seconds!

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='InHisLove726' timestamp='1231871246' post='1750218']
This is a topic I never would have thought of. Good choice!

I have only visited the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in St. Louis, MO. I went there this past August. I don't remember much about the food, because, well...I was sick with the stomach bug. I mostly ate at the evening meal, because it was like I had morning sickness not accompanied by pregnancy. LOL!

I remember eating the soup they had there, and it was really good! I think it was vegetable soup, which I am a sucker for anyway.

The night we ate in the courtyard in the sisters' garden was the best food that we had. It was one of their meatless nights (they abstain from meat 3 days out of the week), and we had Mexican inspired food. So we ate little flatbreads with melted coagulated milk (it keeps changing it to coagulated milk, but it's ch-eese) (yum!), and they had two different kinds of rice (spicy red rice, and white for the ones who couldn't stomach the spicy stuff), corn, and tortilla chips with salsa. It was really good! I love their lemonade too. I went back for about 3 or 4 cups of that stuff, LOL!


I'm going to be visiting the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in Milwaukee, WI sometime this year, so I bet the food will be just as good, if not better.
[/quote]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I don't think I posted what the food was like at the Northern Province (the one I was planning to enter in 2009). It was better than the Central Province's offerings, definitely, because there was a little more variety. For breakfast, the other retreatant (who is a novice now) and I were allowed to choose from cereal, grapefruit, orange juice, milk, water, and hot tea. On Sunday, the Sisters placed bacon and sausage on the little buffet for us.

For lunch on Saturday, we shared tuna subs from the Cousin's Cafe. We had just heard a talk from a temporary deacon and we ate lunch with him in the common room. We also had water and grape juice (I mixed both as I noticed that some of the other Sisters said, if you don't, it was too sweet, LOL). We had chips and a veggie platter with dip on the side. It was really yummy.

We were given a snack in the mid-afternoon because Bl. Mother Maria Teresa wanted her Sisters to be well nourished since they participate all day in the apostolates, so the Sisters offered some coffee and cookies.

Saturday night was a very interesting experience because the Sisters ate with the other retreatant and I in the common room instead of the refectory so we could experience a quiet meal with a cassette tape of Archbishop Fulton Sheen playing in the background. That night, we had a really good rice noodle casserole that the Filipino Sisters had made with hard boiled eggs and veggies. I love those thin rice noodles! We also had some salad on the side and some really good hot herbal tea. It didn't need any sugar at all.

[FutureSister2009]

At my retreat with my Order, we had Chinese takeout! And it was delicious!!!

[carmenchristi]

I'm a Franciscan... we always eat well.... especially when I cook . One of my sisters makes the best cakes ever. I've eaten some pretty gross stuff too, but that's when the people in the kitchen have no food-sense... hahahha. I like everything that falls into the "normal" food category though!!

[faithcecelia]

The worst I ever had was spinach whizzed up with a white sauce There is very little I can't stomach but that beat me Im afraid - my NM thankfully knew I wasn't a fussy eater so allowed me to leave it and not take it in future.

The worst I ever had to deal with as a cook was the last carrots from the garden, from about 6 crates I got enough to just about do a portion for the community, but there was an awful lot of orange slimy sludge as well!!!

The best? Well it just has to be the summer fruits - bowls and bowls of raspberries, sweet gooseberries, cherries, blackcurrants etc etc, it was amazing! When I had my retreat (in a caravan in the garden!) it was a boiling hot week and I just scavenged from the garden, it was wonderful. *sigh* those were the days.

[faithcecelia]

Oh and I think most of the sisters who had been there longer than me would say the worst was the wild mushrooms that made them all terribly ill and led to a few days of dry toast and boiled water! Mushrooms no longer feature on the menu unless they come in plastic cartons!

[Debra Little]

i remember having fish for almost every meal in Lent. i got so sick of fish. a benefactor gave us some fish from Norway and they
were so not good. one of the Sisters finally said i didn't have to eat them cuz i was trying so hard to eat the things out of
obedience. we had to eat whatever was in front of us and we had to put a little bit of everything on our plates. we couldn't
refuse anything. i just knew i couldn't take it anymore with the fish and i was so glad when Sister finally said I didn't have to
try to finish them.

then there was the time when the eggplant was not good. a number of us got sick.

[Studiumecclesiae]

I can' believe such a thread extends on 8 pages!!!!! LOOOL

I couldn't say what the worst dish I had was. I'd be so mean because the sisters prepared it with so much love.

[faithcecelia]

[quote name='Studiumecclesiae' timestamp='1306096445' post='2244529']
I can' believe such a thread extends on 8 pages!!!!! LOOOL

I couldn't say what the worst dish I had was. I'd be so mean because the sisters prepared it with so much love.
[/quote]


Aw, thats very sweet. I have to confess though that as a former convent cook, there was many a day my cooking had barely a pinch of love in it!!

[EWIE]

[b]The best food I've ever had was at the Benedictine Monastery in Bethlehem, Conn.[/b]

[Lisa]

I went on a retreat this weekend, and I usually don't eat scrambled eggs. But that was the main thing for breakfast, so I ate them. Best eggs ever! [img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/clap2.gif[/img] Not too juicy, not too dry.

Maybe everything tastes better when you are living in God's grace.

[LaPetiteSoeur]

[quote name='Lisa' timestamp='1306155208' post='2244832']
Maybe everything tastes better when you are living in God's grace.
[/quote]

Maybe that's why there's always food in the parish offices and rectory...

[vee]

[quote name='Lisa' timestamp='1306155208' post='2244832']
I went on a retreat this weekend, and I usually don't eat scrambled eggs. But that was the main thing for breakfast, so I ate them. Best eggs ever! [img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/clap2.gif[/img] Not too juicy, not too dry.
[b]
Maybe everything tastes better when you are living in God's grace.[/b]
[/quote]

I agree.

[Yaatee]

[quote name='vee8' timestamp='1306167768' post='2244894']
I agree.
[/quote]

My mother made Perfect scrambled eggs.

I can't .

*sigh*

[SevenSwans]

At a vocations pizza night at the Georgetown Visitation Convent in DC I had the BEST homemade pizza ever. It was delectable and made with lots of love.