Airplane food

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To complete the troika of air travel threads.

What's the worst/best meal you've had on a flight?

The best for me is when I got upgraded on a flight from Jersey (chanel ilsands, not New), and they gave me a plate of smoked salmon and enourmous prawns.

The worst was on a Quantas flight where they gave me a really greasy fried chicken breast with nasty tomato sauce for fucking breakfast.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

What, is it international air travel day or something? What have I started?

― The Minimal Criminal (kate), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:01 (nineteen years ago)

I am easily pleased, and thus enjoy my food whenever I fly. I remember getting some salad on a flight to Iceland once, and the attractive lady beside me muttered something about the lovely food, and I heartily agreed, not realising that she was being ironic.

I remember getting great sandwiches on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Prague once. The whole experience had a hearty German informality to it, with these jolly stewards handing out the sandwiches from a bag. Mucho embarrassment ensued when they realised they only had ham sandwiches to give to the party of Israeli kids on a Jewish hell tour of Europe.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:09 (nineteen years ago)

Don't know what the best/worst would be, all the ones I've had have all been pretty much the same.

I did have a nice banoffee pudding type thing on a flight last year.

― Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:09 (nineteen years ago)

One thing I've often wondered is just what in the heck is the deal with airline food? I mean, you know what I'm talking about, right?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

2 for £1

― Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

I forgot to mention - I had a stopover at Munich, and got the most fantastic roast duck lunch in the airport resturant for about eight euros. It's the only time I've been in Germany, but I am now a fully in favour of that country.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

WHAT'S THE DEAL...

http://www.sportsevents.net/events/images/jerry_seinfeld.jpg

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

> What's the worst/best meal you've had on a flight?

booked a vegetarian meal on virgin not realising that one of the three options was vegetarian by default. ended up with a vegan meal...

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

Funny - it was flying through Frankfurt that triggered my current fascination with the Germany.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, jaymc. That was the gist of my above post.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

Best = Air France, Virgin.

Worst = Maleev. A gherkin in a roll is not a vegetarian meal.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:27 (nineteen years ago)

Best: Paris to Prague on a Czech airline, excellent curry.

Worst: NYC to Dublin this year, miserable chicken breast with a few pathetic green beans thrown around. was so hungry!

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

best: business class kosher meal on british airways. TWO entrees, TWO deserts, really good quality food.

worst: "ham" and "eggs" on iceland air.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

i flew air berlin three times in the past two weeks--for a bargain airline their sandwiches are not half bad. the cheese sandwiches are noticeably better on the way back from germany than they are from the UK, as i assume they refill their stock with whatever country they are in.

american airlines, NYC-london and back: dire!

― geeta (geeta), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:43 (nineteen years ago)

also: airlinemeals.net!!

― geeta (geeta), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

Dangnambit, I was gonna say that.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:49 (nineteen years ago)

lufthansa and SN brussels airlines both had really pleasant food onboard, in my experience. for a 45-minute shuttle flight, SN brussels will serve you a delicious fruit tart, served piping hot. good coffee, too. and free squares of good belgian chocolate to take home. lufthansa i found a bit bland, but it all seemed healthy and filling and never too greasy. good coffee on lufthansa, too, served in those adorable yellow lufthansa plastic tea cups with the matching yellow stirrers. i would fly lufthansa all the time if i could afford to.

i was bumped up to business class on british airways once on the way back from india and that rocked nonstop. they kept coming around like, every 10 minutes with complimentary liquor and wine and beer.

― geeta (geeta), Thursday, 18 May 2006 16:58 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, Pleasant Plains, I didn't read your post.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 18 May 2006 17:06 (nineteen years ago)

Best full meal was on Singapore from JFK to FRA (there was a screw-up and I got somebody's Asian meal -- oh yes); yummiest sandwich was an Austrian Airlines flight operated by Lauda Air from VIE to FRA; worst meal ever was some inedible chicken thing on AA from BWI to San Juan.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 18 May 2006 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

worst has to be on US internal flights where you pick up a bag lunch from a cooler on the way down the jetway. Do they serve these anymore? or is it all BYO these days? These are usually thawed from frozen, so the bread is soggy and the cheese sticky and the meat, if any, tastes like the lettuce, which tastes like nothing.
Best is probably Virgin, though no one meal stands out in my mind. BA is pretty good too, my first flight to the UK I was SO impressed with the meal, and when the stewardess offered (17-year-old) me wine.

― sgs (sgs), Thursday, 18 May 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

Business class on Alitalia, Los Angeles to Rome - venison was the meat, and they also brought around cheese and dessert platters and non-stop wine. I was flying for business and my company owner was going as well, so I guess he'd have been embarrassed to put the underlings in coach while he was in business class.

― nickn (nickn), Thursday, 18 May 2006 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

I can't remember the last time I had airline food on a domestic flight -- it might have been 15 years ago. The best food I've had during a flight was probably last coming back from Seattle, a couple of piroshkies I picked up that morning from Pike Place Market.

― The Jazz Guide to Penguins on Compact Disc (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 18 May 2006 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

sometimes airlines will hook you up proper if you say you are vegetarian or vegan

― ai lien (kold_krush), Thursday, 18 May 2006 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

best: thai air, hk to bangkok

worst: (tie) delta, taipei to pdx - some weird sausage link breakfast thing that made me puke (and i had hours and hours of flying/waiting left that day); virgin, london to jfk - no veggie meal, nothing else to eat except thankfully i bought a pretty nasty cheese sandwich at heathrow.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 18 May 2006 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

the best was when i got to sit first class from hawaii to LA on american or maybe it was united. i got to sit upstairs on those 747 jumbo jets. think there was ahi tuna and champagne involved.

the worst:
malev hungarian. some nasty red goulashy slop.
vietnam airlines. soggy bread with unpleasant pate sort of thing.

― phil-two (phil-two), Thursday, 18 May 2006 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

I think I had pretty nice stuff on Malev. And free wine! They were showing off their natural produce.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 18 May 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

british airways asian vegetarian is pretty decent, if greasy - saag paneer, chana masala, naan, etc. virgin vegan meals are good, but otherwise they're not much better than anyone else. delta has to be the worst. i nearly gagged upon peeling back the foil on one of their meals. i've been bumped to business class a few times, but the food has never been that great. the wines, however, are delicious. and plentiful. hic.

then there's jet blue - love them. airline food is never filling, anyway, so i'd rather just have oreos and terra blues potato chips than a nasty "ham" roll on barely defrosted bread.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 18 May 2006 21:20 (nineteen years ago)

Best: Silver service on Alfa-Romeo jet to sicily
Worst: Kosher meal from Cairo-London. It was one of the long-term freezable ones, and was about eight months old.

― stet (stet), Thursday, 18 May 2006 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

Worst: Pakistan International Airways, also the worst flight I travelled on all round. Short Haul the BA Deli toasted panini is a horror only topped by the In-flight pizza.

Best: BA Club World or Finnair Business Class, both picked meals hat would reheat/keep warm well. BA economy isn't bad going from Heathrow but can be pretty atrocious when returning from some places (JFK, Cape Town). In Flight Gulab Jamun from Delhi to Khatmandu was enjoyable.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 18 May 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

Asian Veg out of Heathrow is a good bet on any airline. Curries reheat well and a lot of the people preparing the meals are from the south asian community that lives in the flight path and the results are pretty good.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 18 May 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

No mention of KLM yet, but they seem to do OK in coach.

― nickn (nickn), Thursday, 18 May 2006 23:40 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.airlinemeals.net

See them in their glory.

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Friday, 19 May 2006 01:56 (nineteen years ago)

Klm was pretty good long and short haul but the last time I flew with them was late 90s. Air france was pretty good when I flew them fairly regularly a few years ago; on long haul they have a good selection of herbal teas.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 19 May 2006 05:08 (nineteen years ago)

Destroy any economy meal that is pasta in sauce with a chunk of meat on the top and a few exhausted veg on the side.

BMI do great shorthaul sandwiches; when I've flown business class on NWA the food is noticeably nicer and served on PLATES but am slightly galled by skeevy stewardesses who serve rich alcoholic men first irrespective of where people are sitting, and think the women passengers don't notice this.

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 19 May 2006 07:38 (nineteen years ago)

Domestic flights in India, both Indian Airlines and Jet = AWESOME FOOD.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 19 May 2006 08:05 (nineteen years ago)

really greasy fried chicken breast with nasty tomato sauce
ha. qantas have been serving that to economy for as long as i can remember. ive never seen it at breakfast though.

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 19 May 2006 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

I've begun to swear off alcohol on flights, especially red wine, it makes me headachey and cranky and even more dehydrated. But SO HARD TO RESIST.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

My dad swears that, back during the free-spending 80s, he took a NYC-Paris flight in which first-class passengers were served hot chocolate-chip cookies that had been BAKED ON BOARD. I don't really buy this, but it gives me something to dream about.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:14 (nineteen years ago)

I love BMI so much; yes, it's the hats and the gloves.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

Aldo OTM. I've had three Jet meals this year - veg and non-veg - and they've all been *super* They used to do a really nice prawn and noodle thing on BA from Glasgow to London, but the few BA flights I've taken, the food has been appalling. Suddenly it's back to rubber eggs, dried beans, dicky sausages etc.

I appreciated the BA choc ice when flying to Denver. I thought, at the time, that it was a nice touch.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

Whoa, my pars are all skewy.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:22 (nineteen years ago)

whilst trawling the seedy underbelly (too many bagels on the bed again? - Ed.) of t'Internets to find a pic of the BMI uniforms, i ran across this!! - http://www.uniformfreak.com

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

although their BMI page is sadly out of date ..

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.rhydin.org/uniform/airline/bmiflatt.jpg

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

Air Hostess, I like the way you dress!

― Mädchen (Madchen), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

whoops yeah, I got kind of carried away there.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

Curries on British Airways.

― shookout (shookout), Friday, 19 May 2006 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

dim sum on dragon air from hong kong to san francisco

― anonymous celebrity (anonymous celebrity), Friday, 19 May 2006 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

Ooo, dim sum on a plane is a great idea.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Friday, 19 May 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

I bring my own food. I've never had alcohol on an airplane.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 19 May 2006 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

its ok when people bring their own sandwiches or something, but i hate it when people bring mcdonalds on board and stank up the cabin with fry smell. which i usually like, but not in confined spaces. once, someone brought some kung pao chicken and lo mein on board, stank up the place, and people in other rows kept looking back and staring at ME, but it was the fucking WHITE guy in SEAT 14C. ugh.

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 19 May 2006 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

I'd like to see the look on your face.

― JW (ex machina), Friday, 19 May 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

Best International: TAP from Lisbon to New York. Fresh seafood and free-flowing vino verde.
Best US short-haul: Reno Air from LAX->Reno->Seattle. Above-average breakfast goodies with fresh muffins and cookies and decent coffee.

― LOL Thomas (Chris Barrus), Friday, 19 May 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

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