Since travel by train almost always has a more efficient alternative , folks who ride trains long distance tend to be a bit strange (yes me included) and often have interesting stories to share. The dining car frequently became the watering hole for passengers to exchange travel stories and life lessons with one another over a luxurious hot meal cooked to order by a chef in the dining car.
With reduced revenue from lack of travel, Amtrak cut their chefs and with COVID restrictions still in place, passengers did not congregate to chat. Additionally, when possible, meals were served in the rooms instead of the dining car to further limit exposure. All this is well and good when it comes to disease prevention and it certainly made me feel safer, but as a result, the food that was served was glorified airplane food and most of us ate it in a small, dimly lit room by ourselves.
The Red Wine Braised Beef (on the left) was served with polenta, pearl onions, carrots, and green beans. This was quite good. The beef and sauce had a texture akin to "chunky" Campbell stew beef, but it was savory, soft, and its flavor was reasonably reminiscent of beef. The real star of the show were the carrots and the onions as they absorbed a significant amount of beef essence and were juicy and sweet at the same time. While the polenta was completely textureless and flavorless, it did a good job mopping up the brown sauce and providing a bit of stomach-filling carbohydrates.
The Chicken Fettuccini (on the right) was definitely a step down from the beef. Unfortunately, pasta just doesn't reheat very well in a microwave. Parts of the pasta were a bit dry and chalky while the center of the pasta was soft and pasty. The cream sauce conveyed more saltiness than it did creaminess. Unlike the veggies in the beef, the carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers didn't have the luxury of reheating in a braising liquid and as a result, they ended up a bit dry and tough. However, the chicken was still soft and moist and the texture oddly enough was like jerked chicken.
Overall, not too bad. Not too good.