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The Man Who Makes His Own Airline Meals

I would say it is the little 'dinky' compartmentalised boxy bowl/dishes that make it an 'airline meal'. I have had some delicious airline meals, and even the more so-so ones seemed more fun. For me it is the compactness that appeals more than anything. It's a meal in a compact little parcel, and usually quite acceptable fare. I never expect a gourmet repast!

If I were to criticise anything about the meal in that photo, it would be : where are the clear plastic lids, the plastic cutlery and all the cellophane wrapping? Those things would make it the real deal.

Oh, and the essential 'refreshing towelette'. Lemon scented, of course!
 
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CharmerKamelion said:
I would say it is the little 'dinky' compartmentalised boxy bowl/dishes that make it an 'airline meal'. I have had some delicious airline meals, and even the more so-so ones seemed more fun. For me it is the compactness that appeals more than anything. It's a meal in a compact little parcel, and usually quite acceptable fare. I never expect a gourmet repast!
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The main issue with airline food is that it has to be made to be eaten with very flimsy plastic cutlery
 
Souleater said:
The main issue with airline food is that it has to be made to be eaten with very flimsy plastic cutlery
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Haha! As you were posting, I was editing my last post. Great minds think alike, Souleater!
 
I headbutted the table when I read this story for so many reasons.


Least of all that the BBC reported it.


:actw:
 
Mythopoeika said:
A microwave may be able to boil water even at low air pressure.
Don't quote me on this (I am not an authority on the subject).
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I had to quote you on this. The boiling of the water will still happen at a lower air pressure, but the temperature at which it boils will be lower.

Separately, food prepared specially for airline meals are generally made with more seasoning as the sense of taste alters in flight due to changes in cabin pressure etc.

The 'fresh boiled egg' might have been achieved by popping it on the outside of Concorde for a bit. The skin of the aircraft would heat up considerably in flight with temperatures reaching between 92c and 102c.
 
EnolaGaia said:
The airline whose food most impressed me on long-haul flights was FinnAir. The runner-up was Air France.

Based on a tip from a fellow passenger I adopted and used a strategy that worked well for me back when I did a lot of long-haul flying.

I would make the extra effort to request a special meal with my initial reservation or later using the airline's online registration system - always a "vegetarian" option, preferably the cold / salad & fruit sub-option. This option selection didn't cost any more, so long as it was done in advance.

This had the twin benefits of ensuring a relatively fresher meal package and a lighter meal that wouldn't weigh heavily or generate gurgling in my guts. I always found the fresh / veg & fruit option the most refreshing divertissement when trapped in a seat for hours.

This option never failed to be tasty and fresh (unlike some of the warm meals I had to endure).

This strategy also afforded me an enhanced backup capability in case of meal coordination failures. If my special meal was missing or accidentally given to someone else, the attendants would make up for the mistake by giving me extra treats or upgrading me to a substitute meal from first-class. If they screwed up my advance request, I ended up eating even better.
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Another point in favour - they serve the special meals first, which makes a difference on an A380... My OH and younger daughter have had the fruit platters in the past, and very much enjoyed them. AVML for me on Thursday, OVML for herself, and the two offspring have decided to take pot luck. We're on Singapore Airlines, and although I haven't drunk any alcohol for half a year, I may well be tempted by a Singapore Sling. It's going to be a wrench leaving, so a little bit of comfort on the plane will be welcome.
 
French airport food on the other hand can be so fresh you have to trap it yourself.

 
RaM said:
French airport food on the other hand can be so fresh you have to trap it yourself.

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Unfortunately i cant see the video :(

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Mythopoeika said:
This seems similar to the man who has to recreate Christmas every day, just so he can feel a warm glow of security.
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Trevp666 said:
We really do need a separate thread for these "Too much time on their hands...." type of stories.
I mean come on....surely this guy has got better things to do?
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The airline food guy is someone with an interest in flying and airports, who has started to prepare a themed novelty meal for himself and his husband once a week. This is a hobby he started as a way of coping with the changes brought about by the pandemic. I see nothing strange or obsessive about that.

What are "better things to do"? Collect stamps? Build models? Play boardgames? Read about cryptids? Participate in an internet forum?

My own hobbies serve no purpose other than the enjoyment of my leisure time.

The only strange thing here is that this non-story was considered interesting enough to make it onto the BBC news.
 
Krepostnoi said:
Whatever other impact the pandemic has had, it has led to a vast improvement in airline food. I would have been pleased to receive my mutter paneer in a ground-based eatery. And the almond flour dumplings in cardamom-infused coconut milk were a revelation.
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Crikey that sounds really nice and nothing like any aeroplane meal i’ve ever been offered. i seem to remember the breakfasts being particularly grim, with a square of ‘scrambled’ eggs. My last flight, from Rome, involved buying one’s own food and taking it on board, which was a bit of an improvement.
 
Nosmo King said:
The Heathrow to Schiphol flight always made me laugh, you'd get airbourne, the seatbelt light goes off, cabin crew start dishing out sandwiches, by the time they've finished the seatbelt light comes on and your landing, if you are lucky you got served early enough to have had time to eat your sandwich.
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I had the same experience as you on that route - blagged some Airmiles BA flights from the (then) new and swanky t5 - just had time to drink the breakfast coffee and eat the big cookie thingy and "oh look, Amsterdam!"

I've also been served 'Yeti nuts'!

On the 23 minute flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, on a 70 seater turboprob that is held together with more string than is advisable. The cabin has a very sweet and quaint service - the stewardess comes through before takeoff with a tray of cotton wool balls in case your ears may hurt, then once airborne pours a tray of 50ml cola servings into plastic cups, then offers a tray of Yeti Airlines branded nuts and boiled sweeties around. Then you were getting quite close to the rooftops and rice terraces again very quickly.


Yithian said:
Everything was good at my school apart from quiche.

:yuck:
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I liked my school dinners, but had the very good fortune to attend a brand-new village school built in 1975, our meals were made in a sparkly new kitchen with gizmos like pressure steamers - and by a good cook. When people deride school dinners, especially the cabbage I can only think of the steaming tender white cabbage which was lovely with gravy on. We even had curry sometimes - the best of all was that chocolate crunchy cake with minty green custard! :)

bugmum said:
Best airline meal I ever had was a lemon grass chicken between Bangkok and Sydney, on a BA flight - they obviously picked up some good local grub on the layover from Heathrow. However, I cannot thin of any reason why I would want to recreate one of those meals. Especially since the last cream tea I had on a plane supplied Rodda's clotted cream rather than Langage Farm!

The Junior Medic had a bad experience with airline food when very young, and wouldn't eat on a plane for years. Then he noticed that they were giving out Gu puddings and managed to force one of those down. The Teenager is not hugely enamoured of airline food either, but that's just because she's a fussy madam at times.
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Virgin Airlines returning to London from Delhi served up the best airline food I've had so far - a tomatoey veggie curry, chana dal, warm butter paratha and a small pot of full-fat yogurt. It actually had some flavour! They also scored extra points because at a random point during the 10 hour flight they came around with tubs of ice cream like a cinema usherette.
 
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Ive never needed to fly so I have not experienced these carnal delights.
 
I think it's just that the food acts as a trigger to more exciting times, going on holiday etc, the link has been formed in his mind thus every time he prepares an "airline meal" the old happy emotions are triggered, I love travel and I must admit that Airports tend to trigger off all kinds of happy emotions in me, but I won't build one in my garden the neighbors would complain
 
At some point during covid I found airline meals in the freezer section of the supermarket - I guess those companies were thrashing around trying to keep themselves alive. I think I got a chicken curry, expensive and thoroughly underwhelming. I fly relatively often and most of the food is pretty good these days, the worst recent one being the 'western' option on a China Southern Airlines flight which consisted of plain, dry, roast potatoes, ketchup, a chicken frankfurter and something that was supposed to be omelette.
 
CharmerKamelion said:
Gosh, guys. I must be even weirder than I thought I was!

In my defence, I better confess that I really liked school meals too .... well, except for the lumpy mashed potatoes, the mere thought of which still makes me retch like I've got a furball.
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I loved school meals as well, especially the fluffy white salad cream, gawd that was delicious, i asked on my local radio station, they were doing a thing about school meals, and they put me in touch, with her permission, to a school cook from that time era, she gave me the recipe, which i cannot remember now, apart from lemon and evap milk and everything had to be cold, i would love to try and make it
This salad cream was light and fluffy it melted in your mouth
 
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When we eventually experienced an overhaul of our school meals, these went from the traditional 'stale veg apparently boiled in a tumble dryer' type to burgers, chips etc etc...so even this 'revolution' ended up with us eating unhealthy food. How on Earth was schoolchildren's health overlooked and neglected for so long?
 
At our school you had a choice of whatever the hot dinner was or a salad. And the puddings were gorgeous, cornflake tart, shortbread, which was usually accompanied by pink custard, rice pudding with rosehip syrup, I loved that syrup, that stuff is quite dear nowadays
 
'Salad cream' at school was a curious, rather watery substance. It had a slightly grainy feel. It was palatable but odd.

The best pudding was Gipsy Tart, a tooth-rotting confection which seemed to consist of sugar, sugar and more sugar, although the recipe says the filling is made from evaporated milk and muscovado sugar.
 
I may be alone in actually really enjoying airline food. I fly Quatar airlines to Australia quite often (well, once a year...) and there's something wonderfully relaxing in being brought food whilst you sit and watch back-to-back films wrapped in a blanket. Like being a teenager again. Because I live alone, there is never anyone to bring me so much as a cup of tea, so the constant stream of meals and drinks (and, because I can never sleep on planes, the stewards will see me awake when everyone else is sleeping and bring me popcorn or other snacks) feels like being cared for and I love it!
 
Erinaceus said:
'Salad cream' at school was a curious, rather watery substance. It had a slightly grainy feel. It was palatable but odd.

The best pudding was Gipsy Tart, a tooth-rotting confection which seemed to consist of sugar, sugar and more sugar, although the recipe says the filling is made from evaporated milk and muscovado sugar.
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You and I must have gone to the same school!
 
catseye said:
I may be alone in actually really enjoying airline food. I fly Quatar airlines to Australia quite often (well, once a year...) and there's something wonderfully relaxing in being brought food whilst you sit and watch back-to-back films wrapped in a blanket. Like being a teenager again. Because I live alone, there is never anyone to bring me so much as a cup of tea, so the constant stream of meals and drinks (and, because I can never sleep on planes, the stewards will see me awake when everyone else is sleeping and bring me popcorn or other snacks) feels like being cared for and I love it!
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Qatar air and international flight probably gets you good food. Domestic flights gets you some rubbery bit of meat they claim is chicken.
 
kamalktk said:
Qatar air and international flight probably gets you good food. Domestic flights gets you some rubbery bit of meat they claim is chicken.
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In the UK there isn't time for meals on domestic flights! In Oz I think I've only taken one domestic flight, from Melbourne up to Perth and I don't remember food being offered on that one.
 
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