Airline Food: The Topic

[beans]

Jon Tseng

I had a good giggle with your post.

Some air carriers, in the States, are opting for the end of meal service on flights shorter than x hours. (I forgot the amount of time, sorry). However that virtually eliminates a meal while traveling by air anywhere within the States.

Anyhoo, I have to list my top three airline meal experiences:

1. Eastern Airlines (god rest their corporate souls) had a great vegetable lasagna when I traveled from Atlanta to West Palm Beach. It was wonderful, however the turbulence due to some Summer tornadic activities and heavy storms made it a challenge to consume with the stretchy, stringy mozzarella cheese.

2. Alaska Air generally serves up a tiny cold cut sandwhich, a cookie and a bag of pretzles the last flight I took from Sitka to Seattle.

3. Have to be wowed by the Northwerst super nonstop from Detroit to Narita, Tokyo. We were greeted with Russian beluga caviar canapes and chilled Russian vodka. Later we had foie gras, a lovely beef wellington and a fabulous gigantic cheese course. From Tokyo to Bankok I remember having sushi.

Not bad, eh? But then again, those were a few years back now and I doubt regular practise anymore, with exception to Alaska Air. A good sammie with some mustard, chips and an Alaskan Amber is a fine lunch whether it be up in the blue skies or on the ground in my kitchen!

[Suzanne F]

I thought most US airlines have discontinued meal service -- or is that only on shorter flights? And now some are experimenting with offering meals for sale, the way the old People Express did.

(Didn't we have another thread on all this in the recent past? I remember seeing pixelchef's link before.)

[jackal10]

I always take my own. I can put a much nicer cold collation together than the airline.

Travelling to UK from the US, a couple of submarine/gyro/hero sandwiches work well.

The other way a few deli items: couple of stuffed quail, some nice salads etc

[hollywood]

I thought most US airlines have discontinued meal service -- or is that only on shorter flights?

Yeah, how many peanuts do you get on Southwest?

[WHT]

Now out of business, MarkAir used to have on the taped announcement to the reservation line, “bring your own food.” They did not even give out nuts on there flights. But the prices where low.

[SobaAddict70]

The thing is, will they let you take meals aboard, past security?

Plastic knives and such are legitimate things, but I can only imagine an overzealous security goon refusing a passenger access for fear of an exploding overripe banana. (half joking, half sarcastic and half serious here, folks...yeah that's three halves, so sue me. )

Soba

[Smarmotron]

Quite frankly, I never eat airline food. I usually pack - or buy - a box lunch for myself, using an ice pack if necessary. While the rest of you pick at your 'breakfast roll', made with artificial eggs and bacon bits whose contents aren't on the periodic table, I eat fine salami, aged havarti, luscious pineapple, and occasionally, very occasionaly, and only on long flights, something lovely such as seared ahi tuna, chinese mango salad, organic greens and miso dressing.

[Bux]

One of the best ways you can brown bag your dinner leaving from NY is to pick up some cold appetizers at a Shanghai restaurant. So much the better if you can smuggle on some wooden or plastic chopsticks. Not sure if they're legal carry on or not. The funny thing about utensil/weapons on board is that Air France gave us plastic knives. The forks had plastic handles but metal tines. My guess is that someone could do more damage with those times than with a standard issue metal dinner/butter knife. I should watch what I say here. It may come home to haunt me and I may find myself using a rubber spoon to eat my airline meal. Maybe sandwiches are the way to go for the airlines. No utensils at all. Or maybe some astronaut food, like an artificial milk shake with a day's worth of nutrition in a pouch you squeeze into your gullet. The sad thing is that even that wouldn't make me nostaligic for most airline meals.

[aliwaks]

I almost always bring my own, in fact last year a flight attendent sent me a nice® bottle of wine gratis from first class because I refused the nasty meal and instead had camenbert, walnut bread, fresh pineapple & fresh raspberries.

however it is sometimes not possible which is why I have found that if you order the special meals (there are like a hundred to chose from) you are usually better off)

Kosher meal is very often a nice piece of BBQ chicken & some colelsaw from a kosher place (not airplane kitchen you can bet)

The low fat meal can be very nice or very bad on a BA was given ravioli no sauce & white rice (refused it but happened to have a spare tuna sandwich on me that I had picked up at a deli in NYC before leaving, I know tuna is not the most plane freindly of sandwiches but I ran out of xanax and needed much comforting for my plane ride that day) HOWEVER on the return trip I was in such a rush to the airport (had lingered far too long nursing my excellent hangover in a middle eastrern rest. in west london with the greatest merguez , hummus, fattoush & this gorgeous freshsqeezed honey dew juice) anyway couldn't stop at M&S to grab sandwiches, in fact barely made it to the plane fiegned extreme illness saying I'd been in my hotel room for 3 days with food poisoning ( thus insuring a seat by myself and much water) anyway by the time it was meal time i was famished

and it was just fine. Grilled chicken breast plain, roasted potatoes a whole lot of broccoli lemon wedges some crappy salad and they never give you dessert with the low fat meal so just to be safe I purchased a humongous toblerone from duty free on the plane, then we had tea sandwiches half way through that were delightful & had the crusts cut off

BTW I told the attendants I think I can manage a few bites since hadn't eaten at all for days since had been so ill amazing since I was probably reeking from alcohol & cumin they actually believed me . It was such a pleasant flight.

[Marlene]

BA has the best meals I've ever tasted on a plane. I've generally given up on airplane meals, and bring something for myself. Not because the meals are so bad (even though most of them are) but because of my mushroom allergy. Airlines have a dismaying tendency to put mushrooms in every main dish they make. No matter how often I tell them about the allergy, it never fails. Something arrives on my tray with a mushroom in it. Special meals are no good to order in this instance either, since most of them have mushrooms in them too. BA was the single exception to this rule. I told them, they paid special attention to what I got.

Since an airplane would be a bad place to die of an anaphalactic attack, I generally avoid their food.

[anil]

Most Asian Carriers generally have a better selection as well as allocate more $$ per pax for meal and beverage service. In NYC; LSGChef (an LH subsidiary) caters to most airlines. The airline specifies what they want to pay and what they want included. SQ, if I'm not mistaken has rent a chef in First Class. SR before it went belly up had a very good cheese platter -

DO not expect US carriers to improve anything in domestic routes. ANA is going to start on-demand-meal service starting June 1 (as per today's NYT)

US Carriers have started charging for alcoholic beverages for coach pax in international routes. NOt to talk about the carnage with their FF programs.

It is one of the peeves on Flyertalk for years

[fifi]

I will take a well done sandwich with fruit and other goodies anyday. I remember an airline a few years ago, mostly east coast I think, that handed out these little red shopping bags with NOSH printed on them. Inside was a really good sandwich. That was really new at the time and I thought it was a great idea... better a well done sandwich than a really gross hot meal.

I fly Continental a bit between here and Europe a bit, business first, and they do a pretty good job on the food. For the price of those tickets, they should.

Best meal... Early morning flight from Seattle to Houston, first class. We were held up by fog. (Surprise!) The catering truck got lost so we didn't have that really good breakfast I was counting on. They did have a good supply of Bailey's on board to supply our milk & sugar. Then we got into the wine that they had for the afternoon service. It was a very happy flight.

[anil]

Maybe a new thread on what was served on a recent flight ? I'll leave it to others to start it.

My JFK-BRU-JFK few days ago on DL B/E had the following -

Appetizer - Pepper crusted Ahi Tuna with shrimp and spicy Cucumber

Salad - I bagged that

Bread - Plain & Onion rolls - Bagged that too

Entree - Marinated mahi-mahi with ginger soy sauce, Jasmine rice and soggy asparagus.

Dessert - Ice-cream with caramel and nuts accompanied with Grand Marnier.

coming back: Wine - Primitivo di Manduria from Apulia Italy.

Bagged the Appetizer and Salad.

Entree - Paste in roasted rep pepper cream and chicken -

Dessert -- Fruit and Cheese platter with Ferriera Port from portugal.

[fresco]

http://www.airlinemeals.net/

[pixelchef]

I already posted that link in this thread, fresco. :P

[jhlurie]

One of the best airplane meals (sic) I ever had was on a TWA going to Kansas City. It was a box lunch.  Cold. It was a piece of fried chicken, not the best but not bad.  A cup of fresh fruit and a nice brownie.  Maybe it was the chocolat fininsh that gave me the good memories, whatever it was one of the best. 

My best airline meal ever was on a TWA Ambassador class flight to Hawaii, maybe 17 or 18 years ago. Champagne, Chateaubriand, Lobster, fresh pineapple, etc. No quantity limits. You finished and they kept asking--"do you want another"? This was in a super-widebody jet, so they obviously had a little extra space to work with, and the TWA Ambassador class was apparently famous for spoiling people.

Back in the REAL world, at least in recent years, maybe... Midwest Airlines--also, coincidentally on flights to and from Kansas City. I had cold plates (but really GOOD cold plates) because they were short flights, but apparently the longer flights have more complicated stuff. Frankly, the simple but well executed fruit plate I had on the way, and the sandwich plate I had on the return, were more than good enough.

[fresco]

Pixelchef,

Missed it. Must be jet lag.

[fresco]

Airlines charge extra for meals--and America's business newspaper of record says they're often worth it.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/b...ess/6016241.htm

[beans]

I'm old school with what used to be a pleasant experience, meal included, so this is nice but still sad to me nonetheless.

[Jinmyo]

Still sounds ghastly. Bring a bento.

[Jason Perlow]

http://www.airlinemeals.net/

Informative, and scary. Has a database of thousands of photographs of airline meals, plus a goofy "vintage" section featuring meals from the 50's thru the 90's. And a forum where you can discuss your meals.

[joiei]

oh the memories of what food service in Tourist class used to be like. That site made me remember what flying used to be like. In the late 60's, I used to fly between Pensacola and Tampa. If I took the early flight on National with a change of planes in New Orleans, i would get breakfast twice. On real china. Not the fancy first class stuff, I was a poor student. I always preferred the food on National to that on Eastern. It is amazing to think now of how hard those stewardesses worked, getting drinks and meals to a full plane in an hour. Now, peanuts, or if your on continental, pretzels, and they are grumpy if you ask for another pack, like they have to pay for the damn things. I got a tour of the United flight kitchen in Portland back when they did real food. That was an amazing place. Everything was totally mobile. THe kitchen could be reconfigured in about 10 minutes. Todays kids will never know what they have missed.

[Jake]

Having had to do a large amount of travelling over the past 10 years, mostly in the US and Canada I have learned NEVER to eat on the plane, with the exception of pretzels, chips etc.

Some of the stuff is just frightening. Canadian airlines are the absolute worst.

[alacarte]

Really.

Airline Meals

you have to click on the left-hand nav bar to get any pictures. It's not a pretty site. Some would say that airline food is not a pretty sight. I like the "meals of the 70s" area. Bring on the disco ball.

[edsel]

Great link, alacarte! I scoped out the Northwest and Continental areas, since those are airlines I fly on frequently. Did you see the pdf file they linked to? OMG! The salt must be to the right of the pepper!

At least they finally stopped using plastic knives in first class. Looked kind of silly next to the metal forks.