China post 1: The mile high food club

Plane Cuisine



I’m starting my holiday posts with a bit about what I ate on the way there. My opinion about plane food has always been ‘keep that away from me’. Usually, I’m so nauseous I can’t even stand the smell of hot food on the plane.



For some reason, on the way to China this year, I had a HUGE appetite. Dad was sitting beside me and time after time, I was finishing my meals before him. I say ‘on the way to’ because on my return flight, the old air-sickness kicked in and I could do no more than open a few biscuit packets and shove dishes around on the tray.

Breakfast: poached eggs with hollandaise, chicken sausage and hash brown

We flew Singapore Airlines from Brisbane to Shanghai with a stop-over in Singapore. 3 meals were provided, which works out nicely for me to give an example of the breakfast, lunch and dinner options that they have.

Singapore Airlines has a reasonably high standard for their food. Usually, for each meal, you get a choice between 2 types of cuisine. Because we were flying into an Asian country, there was a Western and an Oriental option for each meal.

Lunch: braised egg noodles with chicken and mushroom in Oriental sauce and vegetables

I was really impressed by the food. Some of the stuff reminded me of the kind of dishes I order from Asian eateries in Brisbane (e.g. fried rice, fried noodles). There are always limitations to what can be provided from a foil tray on an aircraft though. As a result, the hot meals have that ‘reheated’ vibe you get from microwaving left-overs where things seem mushier than it should do.

Dinner option 1: Fried noodles with vegetables and pork

Dinner option 2: penne pasta with tomato basil sauce and cheese

The other thing is, based on what I saw on MasterChef this year, it seems that plane food has to be completely cooked? That’s probably why our eggs Benedict had a totally set egg yolk. I like my poached eggs runny but I can understand why that’s not feasible for mass catering. All the same, that hollandaise was amazing and it was my favourite meal on the flight.

Tiramisu gelato for dessert

I LOVE ice-cream on flights, EVEN when I’m feeling sick because it’s cooling and calms the tummy down. On the way to Shanghai from Singapore, they were giving us tiramisu-flavored gelato. So delish :D.