So what about resort food?

[ski diva]

Just got a press release from Heavenly saying they're going to be offering hormone-free meats and organic dairy products this season, in an effort to promote a healthy life style. Not bad.

So this got me to thinking. What does everyone here think about resort food? Love it, hate it? Which ones are good, and which should be avoided at all costs?

I always bring my lunch because a) I'm cheap and can't stand those jacked-up prices; b) I'm picky and I like my own stuff better; and c) I can eat healthier if I bring my own.

So what do you think?

 

[cyn]

We've had good food a few times, (mostly in Europe) but usually it's mediocre and way, way overpriced. So, we bring our own lunches, even if we're on a ski trip somewhere out west. We almost always stay in condos anyway, so we buy lunch stuff and make sandwiches to take along.
Another good thing about having your lunch with you is that you can eat it anytime, without having to go all the way back down to the lodge and waste time standing in line.

 

[Jilly]

We bring most of our lunch. If we're eating at the hill (and not the condo, at the bottom of the hill), then we buy soup and eat sandwiches etc that we brought. As long as we buy the soup the staff don't kick us downstairs to the "box lunch" area. The prices are way too high even with our "pass holder" discount.

 

[IntheClouds]

I was on Heavenly's site today & saw that announcement, yahoo ! I'm hoping that means organic, non-feed lot but pasture feed beef also. Hormones remain in the meat, are not easily excreted & do not cook out of our meat. I have a strong belief that one of the factors in the increasing road rage the past 20 years is the hormones contained in red meats & chicken. The lowering age of puberty in the past 20 years is one indicator, but the amount of testosterone being consumed has to be a factor in so much of the increased anger in the overall population. Kudo's to Heavenly & presumably Vail resorts for supporting sustainable agriculture ! As I'm only less than an hour away from my hill, I bring snacks & usually buy a bowl of soup & side of slaw for my lunch on the hill. The midweek food offerings are not very good, but the monthly scheduled Wine taster's lunch at the top is outstanding ! Can't miss those, good social time too.

 

[abc]

What does everyone here think about resort food?

It's something I eat so I can continue skiing without fainting! So I'm not fussy about how good it has to be as long as it taste "normal"...

If I'm skiing in my "home" resort, I bring my own soup. But if I'm traveling, I buy them at the base lodge. I'm on vacation after all! Not cooking, no dishes, no grocery shopping!!!

I do bring my own cocoa pack and make my own hot chocolate drink with hot water. Partly because I'm cheap, but more because the hot out of the machine is almost always too sweet for my taste. I sometimes also bring a banana or apple, if I happen to have bought a whole bunch.

I don't eat that much for lunch. (I don't have aptitide when I'm working out hard) So cost really isn't a big issue.

Dinner... now THAT, is a totally different story!

 

[ski diva]

Just got a press release from Heavenly saying they're going to be offering hormone-free meats and organic dairy products this season, in an effort to promote a healthy life style. Not bad.

Just learned that this isn't limited to Heavenly -- it's all Vail Resort Properties, which include Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone in Colorado and Heavenly in California and Nevada.

 

[Kimmyt]

Does that mean food price will be increasing there?

I once spend $20 for a personal pizza at Vail!!

I guess that shows me, for forgetting that the lunchmeat was in the truckbed and not being able to unfreeze it enough to make a sammy!

K.

 

[dloveski]

I don't like to eat much when I ski. I like to ski through lunch and graze on a candybar and water and hit the hill hard. The lodge eating areas are JAMMED and food is over-priced and mediocre, unless of course you eat at Deer Valley or other upscale lodges---but then the skiing goes downhill post-lunch.

My biggest challenge is not the food---but staying hydrated!!! Especially on hard-skiing days. I hate to wear a pack, so rarely take my Camelback. I forget to drink H20 and sometimes get so dry it's scary.

 

[tradygirl]

Deer Valley is my one big exception for food. I always eat a full lunch there because their food is SO GOOD. Paninis, carrot cake, and turkey chili.

Otherwise, I usually eat snacks out of my pack and ski through the day until about 2:00 or 3:00. Then it's either a pit stop at the base for a pint of beer or down the canyon to eat a huge dinner at home!!

 

[altagirl]

Deer Valley is my one big exception for food. I always eat a full lunch there because their food is SO GOOD. Paninis, carrot cake, and turkey chili.

Otherwise, I usually eat snacks out of my pack and ski through the day until about 2:00 or 3:00. Then it's either a pit stop at the base for a pint of beer or down the canyon to eat a huge dinner at home!!

Snowbasin is the same way. That restaurant up top is amazing. And we usually only ever go to Snowbasin when we have people in from out of town who don't ski much, so stopping for an incredible lunch with a view is always good.

At Alta they do have a couple good healthy options - awesome veggie wraps in the cafeteria, and baked potatoes up in the bar. And I try to avoid it, but Goldminers has the best american style pizza I've ever eaten. (vs. Sette Bello downtown which has real Neopolitan pizza, mmmm....)

 

[Native Vail Gal]

Personally, the resort hamburger and chocolate eclair is all part of the exerience for me! (I can justify that if I buy a pass!) :D

 

[ski now work later]

When I ski my local hill, Berkshire East, we bring 100% of our food with us. It's a waste of $ to buy lunch for the whole family there and the food choices there are pretty yucky anyway. My kids make their lunches the night before and I let them pack some chewy candy in a bag for snacks on the hill.

When I ski mid-week at Stratton, I sometimes splurge (calorie wise) on a fried egg, cheese, and bacon sandwich on whole wheat before skiing YUM and I often buy a bowl of chicken noodle soup ($5) and have it for lunch. If I have a big lunch, I don't ski very well and I like having something hot for lunch. Sometimes I'll bring sugar snap peas, carrots, and other snacks to supplement the soup.

I'll be skiing Okemo this winter so I will check out the options there, but from what I remember it's nothing unusual and I'll most likely bring lunch and buy a hot tea or soup to supplement.

At Big Sky, I don't have a lot of appetite because of the altitude, though the burgers at the restaurant they built before last season are to die for!

At Smuggler's Notch, I would just ski back to the condo, have a snack, and head out again. Now that is ski in ski out! I did check out the lodge and was not particularly impressed with the choices, though one day I had a drink at the mid-mountain lodge bar and then had a very *relaxed* run down a green road back to the condo.

My challenge is controlling the chow down that happens in the late afternoon. That's when the empty calories slide down like crazy and at my age, even after a day of skiing, I need to watch what I eat or I put on weight immediately!

 

[ski chick]

I have never heard of any resort having good food so I am encouraged by a couple of these posts that it actually does exist. I like to hear of healthier optins being offered. How depressing is it to stand in line only to see greasy hamburgers, dried out chicken fingers and fries and then get charged $20 for nothing? I could justify it if it was healthy and delicious!