Airplanes are not Shooting Stars

Do you base your flight options based on reviews of in flight meals by random strangers online? If the answer to the above questions is 'yes', then do you go anywhere?! The airline industry is not exactly known for their stellar in flight meal "options". The pre made meals generally look and smell like someone vomited in a dish. The quality has "improved" over the years, but it is definitely no 5 star restaurant. Hell, it's not even Applebee's. But you're hungry on your 14 hour flight and thus have to settle.

Flying on Air Canada for my trip back to Hong Kong (13 hours), we were offer three meals, which I've dubbed "this is slightly tolerable", "another bite will cause projectile vomit" and "I'm not eating that".

The first meal was a choice of chicken and pork. I had the pork. It came with a side of rice with hoisin sauce and mushy leftover vegetables. The rice was super crusty. There was also this corn salad type thing that tasted like it had gone bad last week. Oh and a block of chocolate fudge brownie. It was rock solid. It would probably be considered a weapon if it went through security.

For the second meal, there was a choice of chicken and beef. Except they ran out of beef. So I had the chicken with 5 spices. Which looked and tasted like the hoisin sauce pork I had a few hours ago. Maybe their hoisin sauce is made with 5 spices. Same crusty rice. Same meat texture. I swear I did not just take two picture of the same thing. The chicken came with a fruit cup which was definitely the highlight of the meal (all three meals actually).

Due to turbulence, the third meal was scaled back from a choice of instant noodles or sandwiches to just sandwiches with crackers. Which I didn't eat because I'm still scarred from the last meal. Only two hours till arrival. I can wait.

I wish I had more layovers.

Virgin Atlantic was the flight of choice when we flew down to Sydney. This 9 hour overnight flight featured 2 meals. The first meal, served shortly after takeoff, consisted of chicken with mash potatoes, salad and some fruit dessert brownie. I must say, I was super impressed with how it tastes. Though the bar was not set very high, I was pleasantly surprised. The chicken looked and tasted like chicken. It arrived in filet form too. Not a mish mash of chicken parts. It was tenderish and very flavourful. But not a “Can I get another gallon of water to wash down this dish of salt?” flavourful. The dressing for the salad came in it's own container which is nice. The dessert was interesting. The mandarins oranges didn't do it for me. It wasn't bad. Just meh.

The second meal was served just before arrival. It consisted of a sausage roll. I was like what? You're serving a hot dog for breakfast? Not quite. It was cut up pieces of sausages on a dinner roll. With sauce. It did not look at all appetizing... In fact, I would say that it looked pretty gross. I can't say I was a huge fan but it wasn't too bad. Best of all, it was served hot. So that was a nice touch.

So what did we learn after this entry? Virgin Atlantic is the way to go if you care what your in flight meal taste like. Virgin Atlantic doesn't offer flights to your destination? Then I guess you will have to go somewhere else. Or eat crappy airplane food. The choice is yours...