"airplane food" news and stories

If you're flying on Continental Airlines, paying extra for that roomier seat in BusinessFirst class, you'll also be getting higher-end meals designed by Continental's executive chef, Siegfried Lang.

Last month, the airline upgraded its BusinessFirst menus on international flights, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The airline even customizes its menus for each major overseas market, including an Israeli kosher kitchen for flights to Tel Aviv.

"We have two Japanese chefs making authentic Japanese food every night so we're not having a Western concept of what a Japanese meal should be," Gerry McLoughlin, Continental's food and beverage development manager and corporate executive chef, told the paper.

Houston chef Bryan Caswell, owner of Reef, Stella Sola and Little Big's, designed one new menu item -- a seafood medley of turbot fish and grilled shrimp served over spiced green lentils and topped with lobster sauce, the paper reported.

The latest in silly, bizarre, fun food news:

• Ever wonder what cops really think of donuts? Or if most teachers actually loathe apples? GOOD Magazine did, too, and conducted an interview with four people in different jobs, asking them their take on the food most often associated with their profession. There's a cop talking about donuts, a pilot on airplane food, a teacher on apples, and a rock star on whiskey. Excerpt from the pilot's take on airplane food: "Economy travelers don't want to live out some bourgeois fantasy of the 1940s. Give me a damn sandwich or some pasta."

• Asylum gives us the ten weirdest pizza toppings, including squid ink and caviar.

• Bake a geek-worthy cake...Tux the Linux Penguin or an iPhone, anyone?

We have an in-flight food guide that we posted a couple of weeks ago to help Slashfood readers know what they're in for food-wise on several major airlines this summer. This week, the Wall Street Journal actually took to the skies to taste-test some of the meal options on various airlines. Dubbed the "unfree lunches," since you now almost always have to pay for meals and snacks when you fly.

Many of the "snack" boxes contained little food for the shocking amount of calories they contained, and the exact calorie count could not always be determined, since single-serving "cheeses" were often unlabeled. Overall, you'd do best to pass on the "insultingly skimpy" snack box from ATA ($3), which garnered the "worst snack box" award. United Airlines Right Bite Box ($5), by contrast, was voted the "best snack box" because their selections were "smart," reasonably healthy and stocked with popular brands - including organics. Air Canada was praised for their excellent muffin ($2) and offering of Subway veggie sandwiches ($5). As for the rest? Let's just say that packing your own snack is always a good idea.

Just when it seems that we'll never get any decent food on an airplane again, Southwest Airlines has introduced a special on-board snack. Produced by Nabisco, "golden airplane-shaped crackers" mark the airline's 35th anniversary. The unique crackers come in commemorative packaging.

Since Nabisco makes Ritz crackers, which already come in various non-circular shapes, Southwest's crackers will probably be very similar to them. The last time I flew Southwest, they were serving mini-pretzels, which I quite liked for an airplane snack. I'll be sad to see them go, even though Ritz are tasty, too. I'm just hoping that they decide to go with mini-airplanes, because the only thing sadder than not getting a snack on a plane is getting one lone Ritz cracker.

Source

I don't mean put tiny packets of honey roasted peanuts and a vacuum-packed bag of wilted celery cticks in a flimsy box and charge yourself $4.95.

Conde Nast Traveler magazine challenged chef Gene Kato of Chicago restaurant Japonais to create an in-flight meal that was spoil-proof for three hours, leakproof, and didn't stink strongly enough to disturb your neighboring traveler (Conde Nast used the word "odiferous"). It couldn't be too difficult for something Japanese-inspired, since the concept of mobile food in bento boxes comes from Japan. Chef Kato created Miso-glazed Fried Chicken with Japanese Truffled Soybean Salad. The recipe is on Conde Nast's website.

I challenge Chef Kato to make something to take on a Korean Airlines flight that's not "odiferous." Kimchee anyone?

[via: Gadling]