We usually ate with the officers, but each guest of the ship had dinner with the captain one night. We also ate with the cadets. The differences were what one might expect between officers and crew. Petty officers serve the officers their multi-course meals on china plates. When the petty officers eat, they are issued trays and stand in line to receive their meals.
Meals are relaxed, lengthy affairs.
All meals are served in the Argentine tradition to provide a sense of continuity with the sailors' home. Breakfast is light, consisting of tea or coffee, water and fresh-baked rolls with butter or a kind of spread resembling thin caramel. Lunch and dinner often lasted more than an hour. Dinners are late, about 8 p.m. Following dinner in the officers' wardroom, after-dinner drinks, singing to the accompaniment of guitars, tambourine, bongos and other percussion instruments often went on until well after midnight. If you fail to remember to return drinking glasses to the non-skid place mat, they will slide down the inclined table.