WHO SAYS THERE’S NO GOOD AIRLINE FOOD?
One of the regular laments of the airline traveler is the fact that the food on airlines is either mediocre or non-existent at all. The days of real cutlery and glass plates with assorted entree options and delicious desserts died decades ago. Today, the airline meals of yesteryear have been replaced by a gourmet choice of either pretzels or cookies. And on my last flight, I was informed I couldn’t have a full can of Diet Coke until all the passengers had been served. Excuse me for being a pig, but I thought that my fare of over $1000 for my return airline ticket provided some benefits. Well, our recent flight from Calgary to Mazatlan has erased all of those inconveniences as I was treated to the full-meal-deal!
Aside from a variety of snacks that I could purchase, we had the choice of four lunch entrees on our trip - a chicken wrap, mac and cheese, a ham and cheese croissant or a butter chicken dish. Not a great menu, but not that awful. I chose to dine on the ham and cheese croissant and had no complaints. After I was finished, I read the contents of the meal printed on the croissant box and was astounded by the fabulous meal that I had actually eaten.
The actual contents of my lunch were described thus:
INGREDIENTS: CROISSANT (enriched flour; wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid; water, margarine (partially hydrogenated soybean oil, lecithin, mono and diglycerides, potassium sorbate, citric acid, artificial flavour, beta carotene colour, vitamin A palmitate), high fructose corn syrup, contains less than 2% of the following: yeast, whey salt, vegetable shortening (partially hydrogenated soybean & cottonseed oils), wheat gluten, monoglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium proportionate, dextrin, natural flavour, ascorbic acid, azodicabonamide), BLACK FOREST HAM (pork, water, potassium lactate, dextrose, salt, potassium chloride, sodium phosphate, sodium diacetate, sodium ascorbate, smoke flavour, sodium nitrite, spices, caramel, smoke), ROASTED RED PEPPER SAUCE (mayonnaise, water, canola oil, modified corn & potato starch, liquid egg, sugar, salt, vinegar, concentrated lemon juice, sorbic acid, spices, natural colour, natural flavour, calcium disodium edta, dehydrogenated vegetables - red, green bell pepper, roasted garlic, onion, garlic, sugar, sodium acetate, spice, high oleic sunflower oil, acetic acid, disodium inosinate guanylate, ascorbic acid, flavour, calcium silicate, SWISS CHEESE - pasteurized milk, salt, microbial enzyme and bacterial culture. CONTAINS egg, milk, soy, wheat.
It’s not hard to understand why I felt full from consuming all of the above natural ingredients and those approved by the Canadian Food Protection people! It was comforting to know that I was able to consume my daily ration of smoke and I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to actually get my daily requirement of disodium inosinate guanylate so I was really pleased. And it only cost $9.99 and I even got a full can of Diet Coke without any hassle. Life is good, isn’t it! And healthy eating only adds to the pleasure!
2 comments:
Kia ora,
I've heard people dissing airline food a lot over the years. If you don't like your airline food, you're doing it wrongly, or perhaps you're just flying to the wrong destination.
My preferred restaurant in the sky is in Emirates.
It starts with the champagne and a wine list to ponder (drool over). The menu is printed on a textured card and includes a welcome from the Chef. A smoked salmon starter with a slice of lemon and you know it's going to be classy when the lemon has gauze wrapped around it to stop the pesky lemon pips getting among the capers on the dish (btw, in this restaurant it's a dish, not a plate).
I like to have red meat, and there's usually a steak option. I believe this offsets the flight's carbon emissions. My favourite is a sirloin steak with mushroom sauce, char-grilled asparagus, mashed potato... The red wine will be from Central Otago (that's southern New Zealand) if possible. I think the char-grilled asparagus offsets the carbon too. It must be the crispy, burnty bits - they're carbon, aren't they?
Dessert poses hellish problems for me, my fingers trilling up and down the menu like it's a piano keyboard while I sing the words I can't remember, um, um, um, um..., but the fight attendant simplifies life. She offers to bring them all. OMG!! I say 'no, I'm on a diet, so I'll just have 3 desserts' and I go for the three-chocolate mousse, the mango cheesecake, and the passionfruit parfait. FYI, the one I left out, on account of the diet, was the calorie-laden fruit salad. You see, dieting is all about making healthy choices and feeling good about yourself.
And remember that they give the wine list first? Do your preparation. Scan all the options and you'll see a Taylor's 20 year old tawny port and so it would be socially wrong not to ask for the cheeseboard to accompany a glass of port. And because stilton, dried figs, and port go together like, um, cheese and crackers. And it turns out that the flight attendant offers repeated refills of port. OMG again and no this is all not a dream.
There's coffee of course, always served with Lindt truffle chocolates.
Did I mention the crisply ironed and starched linen table cloth and linen napkins? And the array of stainless steel cutlery and the stemmed glasses for the champagne, red wine, and port? Just like being at home.
And later, Earl Grey tea with shortbread.
This is what Emirates serves when you fly Business class from Dubai to Zagreb at the start of the summer vacation. Last year, as I ate that I watched the Far East of Turkey drift beneath the plane and in particular Lake Van in which I'd swum about 10 years ago.
Who says the romance of travel has died?
Hard to find an Emirates flight to Mazatlan!
The thing is Ken if you continue on a diet similar to what you described with all the preservatives and additives you won’t go mouldy and you may be preserved to an old age!!
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