Sometimes, food from outside the hospital /care facility is forbidden. I couldn’t bring a friend the sandwiches he craved when he was undergoing cancer treatments , because there had been some listeria outbreaks affecting cold cut supply in Canada.
In parts of Northern Italy, visitors can cook for their relatives staying at longterm care facilities.
I’m glad my hospital didn’t have those restrictions. And the bonus was the doctors wanted me to put on a few pounds, so the milkshakes were encouraged 
Oof, this discussion brings to mind scenes in a movie on Amazon Prime where one of the main characters (played by Charlie Day) works in the corporate office of a nursing home company.
One scene shows a meeting where the management is looking for ways to squeeze pennies from the food budget by cutting out things like ice cubes and subbing in the very cheapest stuff they can find. Chicken will be replaced by something called “Hint of Chicken” that is “protein-adjacent.” Apparently all too inspired by real life.
The movie is a rom-com called I Want You Back.
Well that really sucks! It’s pretty hard to screw up a grilled cheese sandwich but plastic cheese would certainly do it.
My Mom was in the Billings Clinic Hospital (a Mayo affiliate) in Montana last year and the food was surprisingly good. They were trying to feed her up, so to speak, so they were sending up portions for two.
But what made it so enjoyable were the people that served the food. They would sit and chat with my Mom and make sure she started to eat when myself or the nurse weren’t there.
I spent a bit of time in hospitals during my younger, wilder days and the food was never that good back in the day.
My hospital experience with food was great.
My rehab experience was much like yours, especially considering I was sent there for a CKD diet which of course was NEVER served.
The cook would smuggle me some strawberries or other fruit
occasionally.
Turns out food and kitchen budgets are prime recipients of cost cutting by management to increase those profits.
When my dad was ill a few years ago (before passing), he was hospitalized in an area facility that serviced a large part of the neighboring Asian community. He had some really interesting choices for his meals, like congee for breakfast, or soup noodles for lunch. I can’t say how good they were (I assume only middling), but it was at least something he was familiar with. Normally, situations like this where there is a limited menu, my dad would only pick at the bread, fruit or veggies too. Bringing food is what my sisters and I expect whenever our parents had to stay overnight in the hospital elsewhere.
Glad you are back hom and feeling better, @greygarious .
So glad for you and all involved, that you can write about this in a relatively positive way. Okay, maybe just that you can write about it.
In these parts, meeting criteria for staying overnight in a hospital is a very serious matter.
So glad you are okay.
FWIW, I always want to thank those “on the front line” for their service. I think it’s a tough gig.
So is being a patient.
When my Puerto Rican father was in the Soldiers Home in Holyoke (MA) at the end, most of the attendants were Puerto Rican or Dominican and would bring him homemade Puerto Rican and Dominican food. (Probably the fact that he was always nice and cheerful to them helped.) It was probably against the rules, but we all appreciated it.
