Fruit Platter Meal

Dinner

As expected...Though no big expectations, variability of fruit quality was disappointing. Dragon fruit pedestrian (ie. more than ok for airline food), pineapple nearly inedible, large slices of melon (bottom left) actually quite tasty. Real disappointment was that small slices of melon (above left) were tasteless though what looks like the slice of a cocktail grapefruit (ok tasting) tried to help it out. Above center, was a canned apricot and canned pear which were the most disappointing. Mostly because being served canned syrupy fruit rather than the real stuff (even if its just an apple or banana or something) was lame. Roll and butter were standard.

Date of travel: September 2013
Flight: CX 505 - NRT (Tokyo Narita) - HKG (Hong Kong)

Bland Meal on Cathay Pacific

Dinner

True to its name. Was, well, tasteless. Main of a piece of rubbery, flavorless and sort of dry chicken, with a decent carrot mash (added some salt) and bog standard steamed broccoli and some mushy chips/fries. Don't get why airlines serve fries, really. Usually want them to be crisp or have some edge to them, rather than be soggy... Fruit and roll same as with other meals served on board. Instead of cup of Haagen Dazs ice cream, which standard meals got, was served some sweet tofu instead (on right side of picture). Was pretty tasty and I felt good about myself since it was healthier (yay?). Overall, not a meal worth special ordering.

Date of travel: September 2013
Flight: CX 542 - HKG (Hong Kong) - HND (Tokyo Haneda)

Diabetic Meal on Cathay Pacific

Described on CX's website as "With complex carbohydrates, high fibre, low fat and calories, it is suitable for both non-insulin and insulin dependent diabetics." Hmm.

Lunch

White bean salad with some tomato/cucumber, edible, needed some salt. Roll was a sort of multi-grain standard airline fare, though served with a veggie spread/margarine rather than butter. Main of plain grilled chicken was surprisingly moist if not otherwise flavorless, on the side were purple rice and steamed broccoli. Added some salt for flavor. Full confession - I do not like broccoli (sorry mom). Dessert of grapes and cocktail grapefruit/orange slices - nothing special but nothing I'd object to. Slight concern due to the salad dressing (green container on right)'s first ingredient was "high fructose corn syrup" - didn't try it.

Overall, not good, but not a terrible meal.

Dinner

Cucumber and pepper salad with cherry tomatoes on a bed of lettuce. Pretty tasteless. Roll/spread/salad dressing similar to that of lunch. Main of spiced and herb crusted (I think) chicken with steamed/boiled green beans and a spiced black bean and corn quinoa. Chicken was dry, and overspiced, beans were blah as one would expect (added a little bit of salt). Highlight was the spiced quinoa, had right amount of kick and nice texture to it. Was lovely to eat. Dessert was a few pieces of melon and cantaloupe - nothing fresh and a gluten free/wheat free, lemon cookie that was dense and artificial tasting (despite using fruit juices as sweeteners).

Overall, lunch was better but the quinoa was genuinely nice to eat.

Date of travel: September 2013
Flight: CX 807 - ORD (Chicago O'Hare) - HKG (Hong Kong)

Special Meals on Airlines

As most probably haven't noticed, I haven't posted in a while since I've been traveling a lot and its, well, tough to write about places in Hong Kong when one's not there.

Like many others I know, I fly a fair bit. And like most folks I know, I too, dread airline meals or skip them. I booked a flight a while back and when prompted to see if I wanted to request a special meal (Vegetarian, Kosher etc), I figured, "why not have a little fun?"

Looking at Cathay Pacific's website (and this is not meant to be an advertisement - I just happen to fly them a lot), they offer 20 special meals ranging from "Bland" meal to "Vegetarian Oriental" meal - with a bunch of choices in between that I have never heard of/thought of or can't really explain.

I plan to try every one of Cathay Pacific/Dragonair's special meals in the coming months/years. I will use as similar format as with restaurants. Keep posts brief, with 1-2 photos. I will also include the flight number, month/year of travel, meal (ie. breakfast, lunch or dinner). Unless otherwise mentioned, all meals are in economy class, and I drink water with all of my meals.

I hope folks enjoy this. As with restaurants, if anyone else has any experiences with special meals on airlines, please do feel free to send them over and I will be happy post them with due credit given