WOULD YOU RATHER DINE ON WESTJET OR EMIRATES AIR?

I've heard people dissing airline food a lot over the years. If you don't like your airline food, you're doing it wrong, 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 the 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 served when I flew Business class from Dubai to Zagreb at the start of the last summer vacation.

Who says the romance of travel has died?