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Side Trips

Food critics at 35,000 feet

By JANET K. KEELER
Published June 5, 2005

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Complaining about airline food is almost as entertaining as the in-flight movie.

They call this dinner? Looks more like a snack. Why does the drink cart come 20 minutes later than the food? When are they going to pick up the trash?

I should have ordered kosher. Or vegetarian. Or brought my own.

Stop whining and start taking photos. Add your snapshot of tray table cuisine to the photographic pantheon of mystery meats and microscopic servings at www.airlinemeals.net

Picture this. Nearly 12,000 photos of airline meals from about 450 carriers have been posted by food-obsessed travelers since 2001. Comments and ratings are included.

It's true what you've heard. First-class passengers, the world over, eat better than the rest of us. They are trusted with metal utensils and even get real glasses.

Here's a sample of food in the friendly skies.

- JANET K. KEELER, Times staff writer

BRITISH AIRWAYS

Photo by Rob Hafer

Route: London to Detroit, January 2005.

Flight duration: 7 hours.

Class: Economy.

Meal type: Child.

Contents: Chicken fingers, fries, beans, yogurt, roll, juice, candy and Diet Coke.

Comments: "Nuggets were good quality but fries were limp and beans unappealing; cool, neon-colored silverware."

UNITED AIRLINES

Route: Seattle to Washington, D.C., January 2005.

Flight duration: 5 hours.

Class: Economy.

Meal type: Breakfast.

Contents: Egg, ham and cheese croissant, orange muffin, orange juice and tea.

Comments: "Nice croissant and muffin - would have been nice to have some fruit with the meal."

AIR INDIA

Route: London to Chicago, March 2003.

Flight duration: 8 hours.

Class: Economy.

Meal type: "Dinner? Lunch? The meal was served four hours into the flight, leaving no time to sleep!"

Contents: "Indian chicken curry, rice, roll, pappadum, yogurt, very weird Indian salad with sweet corn and peas, cracker and some unknown paste which probably was the dessert."

Comments: "Very filling meal, the main dish was lovely, bread roll was half frozen - only tasted a bit of the salad and dessert and gave up."

JAPAN AIRLINES

Route: Hiroshima to Seoul, March 2003.

Flight duration: 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Class: Economy.

Meal type: Boxed snack.

Contents: Bamboo rice with soy flavor, fried salmon, scrambled egg, sauteed spinach with sesame seeds, oolong tea, coffee, green tea, Sapporo beer.

Comments: "Very light meal for a short afternoon flight."

AIR JAMAICA

Route: Kingston to New York, February 2003.

Flight duration: 3 hours, 40 minutes.

Class: First.

Meal type: Dinner.

Contents: Salad of lettuce, peppers, tomato and cucumber with beans and dressing, warm roll, seafood stir-fry with tomato sauce, rice and beans, lemon cake with chocolate shell for dessert and Coca-Cola.

Comments: "Overall meal was good - great salad, main course was an interesting combination but satisfactory, dessert was tasty. Service was outstanding in the first class cabin - only three of the 12 flat-bed seats were occupied (my family)."

KUWAIT AIRWAYS

Route: London to New York, September 2002.

Flight duration: Not provided.

Class: Business.

Meal type: Dinner.

Contents: "This was the starter for dinner featuring artichokes, prawns, a vegetable concoction (left of plate) whose name I cannot recall and salad."

Comments: "Choice of dressings (I used both), a roll arrived later to spread the butter on. Quite edible."

[Last modified June 3, 2005, 09:56:03]