When I was growing up my best friend’s mom had a sign in her kitchen. “Eat to live, don’t live to eat.” I never really understood why you can’t do both at once and have pretty much devoted my life to that philosophy.
So I’ve been delighted to find that the Carnival Liberty, the cruise ship that is my home for this entire week, has amazing food. We are on board experiencing the beginning of the roll-out of Fun Ship 2.0, a $500 million multi-year initiative on the Carnival line, with the addition of new restaurants being just part of it. I’m planning return trips to both of these.
Guy’s Burger Joint.
Fans of the Food Network will recognize Carnival’s partner, Guy Fieri, the white-spiky-haired big star best known for his show “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.” This cleverly decorated spot on the corner of the Lido deck (surfboards, car bumpers, servers in mechanic uniforms) serves up big, fresh burgers fast. Order one of six types of burgers, and head to the huge selection of condiments – underneath car hoods of course – to pile up with your choice of grilled onions, sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles and more. Burgers are served with large hand-cut fries.
They are large enough (as is my desire to still fit in my jeans post-cruise) that my husband and I could split one. And leave room for fresh sushi an hour later, which just jumped on my plate as I was walking by. I seem to have the same problem with the frozen yogurt machines as well. Those cones just seem to swirl themselves.
BlueIguana Cantina.
Also located in a corner of the Lido deck, with rarely much of a line, the BlueIguana has one line for tacos (pork, fish or chicken) and one for burritos (chicken, beef or shrimp.) Again, the emphasis is on fresh food – even down to the tortillas, which are cranked out by the tortilla machine front and center. The fun really starts when you head to the salsa station where I loaded up on the selection of the usual, plus watermelon and jicama salsa, black and bean and corn salsa, sliced veggies and huge springs of fresh cilantro.
The BlueIguana Tequila Bar is adjacent to the BlueIguana for refreshing frozen drinks, margaritas and Mexican beers with your meal.
You may expect to pay extra for this type of custom dining experience, but both Guy’s and BlueIguana are free. Fast, fresh and free. Certainly fits my definition of fun.
