Most of the cruise menus presented here in the last few weeks have been for holidays ranging from Christmas to St. Patrick’s Day. The Chung collection has some ordinary menus from the 1936 and 1937 West Indies cruises aboard the Empress of Australia revealing that breakfast menus were cards and lunch and dinner menus were mostly in what I call the Charcoal Series of menus with Canadian Pacific hotels and ships on their covers. It may only be a coincidence, but the lunch menus had hotels on their covers while the dinner menus featured the Empress of Britain.
Click image to view and download a 1.0-MB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This breakfast menu from a 1936 cruise has an amazing variety of foods that would not be found on a dining car breakfast menu. Just as an example, there are 11 different fruits, nine different kinds of rolls, 11 different kinds of other breads, four different coffees (plus Postum, a coffee substitute), and nine kinds of tea.
Click image to view and download a 2.5-MB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This 1936 lunch menu has many more offerings than even an ordinary ocean liner menu. The fish course has four different choices (normally just two); there are six entrées (normally two or three) plus two “joints” and seven more meats “from the charcoal grill”; 11 desserts, and so forth.
Click image to view and download a 2.1-MB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This dinner menu from the same cruise has slightly fewer selections. There are three fish courses, seven entrées, four meats from the charcoal grill, and eight “sweets.” There was a time and place when the midday meal was the biggest of the day and usually called “dinner” while the evening meal was called “supper.” These menus seem to make midday the biggest meal but use the more modern terms of lunch for midday and dinner for evening.
Click image to view and download a 868-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This 1937 breakfast menu has as much variety as the 1936 breakfast menu but not exactly the same items.
Click image to view and download a 528-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This breakfast menu is from a different cruise than the previous one. While they have many similarities, they are enough different that even if they had been on the same cruise no one would get too bored from the offerings.
Click image to view and download a 2.2-MB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This 1937 lunch menu has as much variety as but very little overlap with the one from 1936. In addition to the appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, fish, entrées, joints, meats from the grill, and vegetables, both menus also offered buffets of 17 or 18 meats and 9 or 10 salads.
Click image to view and download a 2.1-MB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This 1937 dinner menu is remarkably similar to the 1936 dinner menu shown above, but there are a few minor changes. The 1936 menu offered quail; this one has partridge. The 1936 menu had Aloyau de Boeuf picqué (grilled sirloin steak) Beatrice; this one has Aloyau de Boeuf picqué Dartois. In place of chicken, this menu has plover, etc.
Click image to view and download a 2.1-MB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This dinner menu was from the same cruise as the previous one so for the sake of variety it should have been quite different, and it was. For the fish course, the previous one had turbot, kingfish, and oysters; this one has halibut, trout, and scallops. For entrées, the previous one had eggplant, beef, partridge, and pear fritter; this one has ham, mutton, pigeon, and rice fritter.