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Airline Food: The good, the bad and the ugly

David Ross

By David Ross
in Food Traditions & Culture

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liamsaunt

liamsaunt

Posted
Posted

Jet Blue Mint BOS-STT breakfast service.  Not champagne and caviar, but acceptable 😀

 

Menu options

 

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Non-alcoholic grapefruit spritzer (quite tasty)

 

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Iced cappuccino

 

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Watermelon, frittata, chia pudding and bacon.  Everything was quite tasty.  (I did not have the bacon, I ordered it to give to my niece the bacon hound across the aisle).  The frittata was custardy and nicely seasoned, the watermelon had a small kick from the espelette pepper, and the chia pudding was mildly sweet.  Can't ask for much more on a plane.

 

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  • Like 9
  • 2 weeks later...
gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted

American Airlines lunch.  PHL-TPA

 

Not terrible. A braised beef and macaroni and cheese. Sensible choices for the 737's galley incinerators.  It was tasty. The spice cake was nice. The Seuss-hued hummus was gross, but I am no friend of hummus.

 

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  • Like 8
Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Once Upon A Time

In 71, 72, I worked for the catering company that supplied all the meals that went out at the Reno Airport. At that time we still used the small porcelain plates and I have to say that we made some pretty darn fine food. Everything that went out of our kitchen was freshly cooked and beautifully plated.

Edited by Tropicalsenior (log)
  • Like 5
  • 2 weeks later...
Sdogg

Sdogg

Posted
Posted

Is it just me? But do most airline meals taste extremely bland, like there is absolutely no seasoning involved?

 

This is what you get from Air Canada as a meal, unseasoned chicken pasta with unappetizing salad.

They should serve something good like poutine.

 

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  • Sad 2
KennethT

KennethT

Posted
Posted

@Sdogg Food/drinks taste different at altitude than they do on the ground.  So the food might have been properly seasoned on the ground, but to taste the same at altitude, it needs to be aggressively seasoned.  Some airlines' caterers adjust for this but evidently not all.

  • Like 3
Sdogg

Sdogg

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, KennethT said:

@Sdogg Food/drinks taste different at altitude than they do on the ground.  So the food might have been properly seasoned on the ground, but to taste the same at altitude, it needs to be aggressively seasoned.  Some airlines' caterers adjust for this but evidently not all.

 

That's crazy, our own taste buds are to blame for shitty airline food.

I guess that cabin pressurization affects how vapours behave in the air which reduces the effectiveness of flavour.

I went to school for chemical engineering but I've never the connection before 😂

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/one-reason-airline-food-so-bad-your-own-tastebuds-6c10823522

  • Like 1
liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, Sdogg said:

That's crazy, our own taste buds are to blame for shitty airline food.

 

No one said that.

It is well known that the pressurized cabins and low humidity affects our taste and smell.

 

Also, the limited space means you aren't going to be served top grade grub. It's all made on land and reheated.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, Sdogg said:

 

That's crazy, our own taste buds are to blame for shitty airline food.

I guess that cabin pressurization affects how vapours behave in the air which reduces the effectiveness of flavour.

I went to school for chemical engineering but I've never the connection before 😂

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/one-reason-airline-food-so-bad-your-own-tastebuds-6c10823522

 

Though underseasoning doesn't account for overcooked/incinerated proteins...mushy pasta...and bad recipes

  • Like 2
  • 4 weeks later...
Katie Meadow

Katie Meadow

Posted
Posted

Using up my miles, American first class to Atlanta. The last time it was inedible, this was a little better. The choice was lasagne (vegetarian) or beef. I've never had lasagne on a plane that was edible, so I ordered the beef, even tho I rarely eat beaf. It was supposed to be short ribs, but was more like a brisket. Not as terrible as it could have been and I left half of it uneaten. Came with what I think was some overly rich mashed potato type dish. Also edible but weird. Salad was dark leafy greens, so at least I got some percentage of my daily requirement. .Dessert was a choice of "cheese plate" or mango sorbet. I got the sorbet. Also edible, although it needed ten minutes to defrost from a sold block. The best part of the meal was the flatware and tray tables. Real flatware and magnetic tray table, so fun to play with. You can get a spoon to stand up at very strange angles.

 

 

  • Like 2
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  • 3 weeks later...
Allura

Allura

Posted
Posted

Third trip this year to the UK (work). Tried to pay attention to what I was eating but didn't get pictures. United Economy, EWR to EDI. The outbound leg we got dinner (even though I had nibbled in the lounge with co-workers, I figured I could nibble here a bit). I got the pasta, but it was just a plain, mildly spicy tomato sauce. The accompaniments were exactly the same as last two times: roll & butter, salad with weird grain salad, and a Milk lemon bar (which is my least favorite). I had taken melatonin before boarding, so I was sleeping pretty shortly after. About 2 hours before landing, they served a breakfast sandwich of egg, cheese, and turkey ham on an asiago bagel. Not bad, actually, but of course, not fresh either. 

 

Returning EDI to EWR we got lunch. I had a chicken with a mushroom cream sauce and spaetzle. Sides was a salad with small mozzarella balls and a wedge of not-very-good tomato. Also a roll and Irish butter, and a package of small chocolate truffles. Those were tasty. :)  Half way through they gave out biscoff cookies & water. About 2 hours before landing, they brought a choice of a cheese sandwich (hot) or a chicken pesto pizza thing. It was...not great. 

  • Like 3
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Joanna G. Hurley

"Civilization means food and literature all round." -Aldous Huxley

  • 4 weeks later...
MaryIsobel

MaryIsobel

Posted
Posted

Just flew Westjet economy from Vancouver to Los Cabos and back. Suffice to say that airport Subway was a better choice than anything that Westjet offers🤢

 

  • Sad 7
ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

Just flew Westjet economy from Vancouver to Los Cabos and back. Suffice to say that airport Subway was a better choice than anything that Westjet offers🤢

 

Westjet is  baaad.

  • Like 1
KennethT

KennethT

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, AlaMoi said:

. . . . never get on a plane hungry . . .

 

I think that became an absolute rule about the turn of the century + / -

Depends on the airline and point of departure. Leaving Singapore, Singapore Airlines has one of the best chicken biryani I've ever had. And they have 3 options on the plane plus you can preorder from over 10 options up to a couple days in advance.

  • Like 6
AlaMoi

AlaMoi

Posted
Posted

indeed, I've found non-US airlines tend to do better - especially on trans-continental flights.

but . . . not always.  my fav was BA - PHL to FRA.  once (same time frame) I got stuck taking Lufthansa - what a disaster . . .

  • Like 1
haresfur

haresfur

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

indeed, I've found non-US airlines tend to do better - especially on trans-continental flights.

but . . . not always.  my fav was BA - PHL to FRA.  once (same time frame) I got stuck taking Lufthansa - what a disaster . . .

 

Lufthansa economy from Singapore to Frankfurt was spectacularly bad. First meal was a wad of stuck together tepid ravioli. Breakfast was a barely thawed breakfast burrito. 

  • Sad 7

It's almost never bad to feed someone.

heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, haresfur said:

 

Lufthansa economy from Singapore to Frankfurt was spectacularly bad. First meal was a wad of stuck together tepid ravioli. Breakfast was a barely thawed breakfast burrito. 

You could do as the United attendant suggested when I asked her to warm up baby's bottle on an LA>Sydney flight  "I can't. Just stick it between your boobs"

  • Haha 4
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Slim W

Slim W

Posted
Posted

Sometimes bringing your own food on is great, even in 1st. 

Mango sticky rice from the airport in Bangkok, Emirates provides the Dom P.

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  • Like 6
gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

You flew away from the game?

Not a bad idea actually.  :-)

 

Theres something to be said for watching the boys get thumped in Dallas too.

 

Our son moved there.

 

Barf

  • Confused 1
gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted

Here's the return trip. DFW-PHL

 

Short rib and "mac" and cheese. Both were better than the first trip , but still not good. Beef needed some interesting notes in the sauce which just tasted brown. The Mac was actually cavatapi, for which they gain points, but it was still bland. Hot sauce would've helped.

 

The shrimp was benign and the cole slaw underneath was good.  But who pairs shrimp with slaw?

 

At least we were on-time.

 

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