The other reason we haven't posted much lately is that just after moving house the planets aligned and we trotted off on a lovely little holiday to San Francisco. We had our flights booked, visa-less pre-approval sorted, restaurants booked for every dinner and almost every lunch, baseball tickets, Alcatraz tickets, and a booking to go see Sweet Honey in the Rock. Don't you just love the Internet? Only one hazard remained to be overcome.
Airline food.
We read, now and then in the media, about how airlines are trying to improve their food. About how they hire executive chefs to develop new, more exciting menus; about how science has shown which tastes are enhanced or diminished in low air pressure, so that meals can be designed with more spice and umami. But having a picture of Neil Perry (Qantas), Matt Moran (Singapore Airlines) or Peter Gordon (Air NZ) on your in-flight mag doesn't get you past the reality that your food is being produced in a commercial catering factory by the thousands or tens of thousands, and will be reheated up to fifteen hours later. What would Gordon Ramsay (Singapore Airlines) do with that kitchen nightmare?
So I have a lot of sympathy for what airlines have to go through, although I don't think they do themselves any favours with their choices. To me, a good sandwich is better than a cruddy reheated tray dinner. Why don't they do simpler things well? And western cuisine is not super at being reheated, stews aside. Breakfast may be the worst. Soggy potatoes, rubbery eggs, and yet they persist with this. The best airline breakfast I ever had was on Air Malaysia. The sun was rising across the Gulf of Thailand and I was tucking into chicken rendang and rice. Spicy, salty, reheatable and a great way to start the day.
So what awaits us on this long haul from Auckland to San Francisco? Through cunning planning and a willingness to reschedule our flights to stage through Auckland Airport at 4.30am, a time at which all the travellers have the dead, soulless eyes normally reserved for zombies and politicians, we actually managed to get Premium Economy seats for just about 10-15% more than normal economy.
We got to sit upstairs in the jumbo, there was a glass of Piper-Heidsick clutched in my mitt practically before I had my bag stowed in the side storage, and the extra 10-15cm in each dimension makes a huge difference to comfort. I do encourage everyone to keep an eye out for this kind of deal. So it's not quite the cattle class feed we'll be seeing, nor the glory of first class, but somewhere in between.
And first off, we get an appetiser. Kaffir lime cured salmon with a wasabi mayonnaise & microherbs. Nice textured fish, good strong flavours, not a fantastic texture in the mayonnaise but overall a nice starter. On a real plate and with a real knife and fork.
Testing the patriotic food skills of the New Zealanders, I chose the lamb, grilled lamb loin with horopito (New Zealand pepper tree) flavoured salt, roast baby potatoes, carrot puree and and beans. This was a pretty typical airline meal I'm afraid. A good attempt to spice it up with the salt, but lean red meat needs a careful hand to be par cooked and reheated and this was a bit dry and chewy.
The Perigueuxse's choice of confit chicken thigh with kumara (sweet potato) puree, warm leek, green bean and watercress salad was a much wiser choice. The chicken was rich and moist and a few strands of thyme from the confit process still clung to the surface. Good food!
And a cheese plate. Not a piece of Cracker Barrel individually entombed in cellophane, this was nice pieces of some soft cheese and some mild blue with some dried apricots and fresh grapes. It was the quality of cheese you would find in a supermarket, which is to say not mind blowing but quite pleasant. Note on the left side of the field of vision are the crackers, individually wrapped for my convenience. I wonder if First Class gets unwrapped biscuits?
And to round out the post I'll do the meal on the way back, too. The kitchen was sticking with the spicy raw fish theme and gave us some cured and seared tuna with salad ratatouille and lobster dressing. Perfectly cooked tuna, moist and mildly flavoured, with a salad of some cooked red pepper, yellow pepper, grilled aubergine and courgette served at cool temperature. I didn't really get a lobster flavour from the dressing but it was nice, creamy and tangy.
I'd learnt my lesson from the red meat on the way out, so we both chose the fish - pan seared cod with lemon caper sauce, baby potatoes, spinach and caramelised shallots. Good texture on the fish, firm chunks and moist like cod should be, a sauce that could have used some more kick to it but was otherwise smooth, creamy, tasty and unobjectionable, and some perfectly pleasant vegetables.
And some olive bread this time round, with a cute little bottle of EVOO (peppery; not my favourite type of olive oil but probably a wise choice given the strength of the bread flavour).
Far and away nicer than economy class meals that I recall, and how much more expensive and difficult can this be to do? A suspicious mind might think that they are deliberately make the food bad so as to distract you from how uncomfortable the seats are. Gladly, your dear old Ecumer has a warm and trusting mind. And with a glass of Piper to keep him warm on the trip, he'll stay that way.
Next post in San Francisco!
Happy aerobatics,
Ecumer
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