BA London to Shanghai

My main meal on our BA flight from London back to Shanghai. Flying was a treat in first class even I was with my 2 girls on my own. Why can't we do this more often?

I had salmon tartare to start.  It was under-seasoned and I could do without the messy coriander.

The side salad was actually decent.  I think it was the first time I ate a salad on the plane.

Beef tenderloin with chips.  I wonder if everything was cooked on board?  Chips were crispy and beef was cooked to my liking.  It was as good as a restaurant dish.

The molten chocolate cake was a little bit spongy but I wasn't complaining.  I always like icecream on board, I guess it's like a treat.  They had extra portions to give to my kids too so everybody was happy. 

I forgot to take pictures of the child's meal but my girls had a choice of either fish fingers or chicken fingers with chips.  They were very happy.  We skipped breakfast for this flight.  Who needs to eat when you can snuggle in bed with a fluffy duvet and sleep?

BA Lounge

There is actually a small restaurant tucked away in the BA first class lounge in Heathrow terminal 5.  Service was a bit slow but food was yummy and well made.  I wish we had more time to hang out and to try out the desserts.

Antipasto plate.

Roasted chicken with risotto.

BA Lounge
London Heathrow Terminal 5

Dragon Air

Shanghai to Hong Kong, lunch. For western there was the usual salad then fish or beef for main courses. On the other hand the Chinese menu looked so much nicer so here we go.

To start there was soup with chicken and ham and jellyfish salad on the side. The soup was quite salty (because of the ham) but the chicken was tender. The jellyfish salad was a bit too soggy and had too much vinegar dressing.

There were 2 main courses: braised pork ribs in sugar and vinegar sauce. Ribs were really tender and the sauce was yummy.
Scallops in XO sauce. The scallops were huge and the sauce not spicy at all - I wouldn't have known it was XO sauce if it wasn't for the menu. As usual the veggies were overcooked. I did enjoy all the meaty scallops and I couldn't believe how big the portion was.
Instead of the Chinese soupy dessert I went for ice cream. It came pretty close to the best airline meal, right after this one.

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Hong Kong to Shanghai. Business starter: smoked salmon salad.

Fist class starter: same dish, same ingredients but different presentation.
Business main: chicken and mash. The chicken legs were grilled and they were pretty moist and tender. The gravy was actually quite close to real gravy! Yum!
First class main: steak and roasted potates. For once the steak was not overcooked but since it's pre-cooked and kept warm it didn't have that fresh-off-the-grill aroma. Still it was pretty good for airplane food.
Dessert was Haagen Dazs again - it's probably the best dessert arrangement and I wish other airlines would do it too.

BA London to Shanghai

Rubbery scallops. They tasted more like erasers.

The boring side salad which I didn't eat.
Green chicken curry. It looked uber unappetising but it was actually not bad, other than the fact that it could use a bit more sauce.
Brekkie time.
If I didn't get water retention from the 12hr flight this salty English breakfast would do it.

British Airways

Lunch on board.

I was praying I wouldn't get food-poisoning.  Luckily I was OK.

My steak was overcooked but I didn't expect much.

The pasta was way too soggy.

Our second meal.  The parma ham was way too salty.

A lame arrangement of food on the side.

I don't even remember if this was chicken or pork.  Overall there were no nice surprises but we were not unhappy.  At least it gave us something to do to break up the boring flight.

Thai Airways

We were actually looking forward to our journey back as it was our first time flying first class...perhaps travelling with a baby isn't such a bad thing!

Made-to-order club sandwich at the lounge.  It was as good as the club sandwiches I had had at hotel cafes (somehow it's such a hotel food).

Once on board we got served a small snack rather quickly.  They were supposed to be bite-sized crab cakes but they didn't taste too much like crab at all.  Maybe it was the rubbery texture which distracted me.

Champagne with grissini and ciabatta. Finally some decent airline bread.

To start we had scallops with avocado and pate.  Didn't touch the pate but the rest was very good.

Caviar and all the fixings.  I am not a regular caviar eater so I couldn't tell if it's good or not.

Pumpkin soup.  It was not hot enough and even if it was it wouldn't save it from being tasteless.

Now things definitely started to look up when we saw the size of that lobster.  The sauce was excellent too.  I assume it's yellow curry?  It tasted more gingery to green curry and it wasn't spicy.  The lobster was actually pretty decent too and for once I was getting full on a plane!

Rice which came with the lobster.  To nitpick the veggies were overcooked.

There were a number of cakes to choose from for dessert but our precious little baby kept whining we had to pass.  It was a shame.

Thai Airways

Now I thought I remember Thai Airways advertising their business class being "smooth as silk".  Well the truth can't be more disappointed.  Perhaps it was the old aircraft and therefore seats were pretty small and cramped.  Service was not particularly impressive, and the food was actually pretty nasty.  We felt like we paid extra so we could get on and off the plane first and that's about it. 

When I saw that horrible aloe yogurt my heart sank.  Why is this yogurt following me around?  It's on all the Dragon Air flights too and I never saw anybody eating the stuff.  When will they learn to have a look at what's left on the tray?  Or better yet how about tasting the stuff before serving it to passengers?

Lunch option #1 beef with rice.  While it didn't look too bad my husband said it was way too salty and chewy.  As hungry as he was he didn't touch the rest of it after a little taste.

Lunch option #2 noodles with mystery meat.  Again it was very salty and to add insult to injury the noodles were nuked to death.  They were so soggy perhaps they had been cooked 5 times over somehow.   
Luckily I brought biscuits with us.  I can't tell you how many times we had to resort to biscuits when we fly these days.  Are airlines really that tight in budget?

Dragon Air

From Hong Kong to Shanghai.  I didn't touch the salad actually as I'm always a bit wary of seafood on planes.  

Some kind of signature chicken dish from the Chinese restaurant at Marriott.  Has anybody from the restaurant actually tasted this dish?  I can't imagine they serve anything close to this salty and chewy chicken coated with glop.  Actually the chicken was so tough I would have guessed it was cardboard if I hadn't seen the description on the menu. 

Dragon Air

Dragon Air's food has deteriorated so much over the last 3 years I don't expect much at all these days.  I pretty much just count on filling my tummy with Haagan Dazs  - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the ice cream stays.

Our very uninspiring starter.  We got fruits because it was supposed to be breakfast, even though it was noon by the time we got food.  Why?  It was just one of those delays, which happens 8 out of 10 flights.  Oh no, I'm not bitter.

The heavily nuked pastries.  We almost got second-degree burns by handling them.  The croissant was easily the greasiest piece of pastry in the world.

Breakfast choices were some very plastic-looking eggs or dim sum.  I went for the dim sum and it was a mistake.   The piece of turnip cake was floury with virtually no turnip and I didn't near go near the siu mai looking thing with spinach on top.  The filling in the green dumpling tasted the same as the white one, and I couldn't tell what it was.  Whatever it was it's very persistent as it repeated on me over and over all day.  Yikes.

China Eastern Airlines

I don't really write about airline food anymore because it's usually pretty bad these days. However I felt the need to document my meal from Bangkok to Shanghai because it was exceptionally bad.

Here you can see the old and pathetic salad which probably had e.coli.

Then I was given the choice of pork or fish. Not wanting to risk old fishy stale fish I went for pork. It's never a good idea to reheat deep fried stuff and in this instance there was no exception. The batter was soft and chewy I was once again worried about food poisoning.
Luckily I brought tea biscuits with me or I would have been very very hungry. I should add that the China Eastern lounge sucked as well. There was nothing to eat other than cup noodles and some very old-looking micro-ham sandwiches. What's wrong with fruits?

Tip: definitely fly with Thai Airways to Thailand. At Bangkok airport Thai business and first class passengers can go through the VIP fast lane for immigration (and trust me you will want the fast lane).  And I imagine the lounge had to be better than the one I was in. The planes are also bigger and newer: the China Eastern plane I was on had only 4 business class seats. The seats were old and cramped and would only tilt a little with no foot rest. Might as well go economy!

Virgin Atlantic Hong Kong Lounge

We didn't expect much from the Virgin lounge in Hong Kong but it's pretty spacious and convenient. And we loved the food menu - we got presented a proper menu instead of a buffet spread. Nice! The menu for the day had a number of usual English fare: scotch eggs, samosas, beef wellington, curry and some desserts. We weren't even hungry and we were torn with choices!

There was no way I would go without scotch eggs so here we go. Unfortunately they looked much better than they actually were. I also wasn't keen on the fact that the eggs were heated, which made the sausage mixture tasted greasy. Nonetheless I was happy to have my scotch-egg fix somewhat satisfied.

The food and service on our HK-Sydney flight were nothing special. Basically one is paying extra for a flat bed. Here's Henry enjoying his space and the inflight entertainment.

Cathay Pacific/Dragon Air

I seem to be eating so much airline food these days so I might as well write about it. My starter on Cathay flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong. It was some kind of apple asparagus salad with cheese - not bad actually.

I picked beef (I always pick beef). While the beef was expectantly dry and chewy (what can you do?) the gravy was exceptionally nasty. I didn't even dare to investigate what's in the thick sauce.

The wine selection was not bad and of course there was the Haagen Dazs ice cream to save the day.

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From Hong Kong to Shanghai: some beef salad. Pretty nondescript.

I picked the halibut because it was supposed to be a JW Marriot speciality. Should have picked chicken instead. The fish was mushy and sweet for some reason. Not the best food and I was glad I had noodles in the lounge beforehand.

TIP: definitely go for the Cathay lounge near gate 3 instead of the Dragon Air one. There's a fast and efficient noodle bar in one corner, and in the main lounge there are loads of tables, each with a phone (free local calls) and sockets for all your charging needs.

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class

The food in upper class was a whole lot better than economy and the beds are truly flat! We could get used to that for sure.

Shanghai to London. A late lunch was served. My cream of asparagus soup was not bad.

My husband's smoke salmon and blue cheese salad paled in comparison. I was actually worried that he'd get food poisoning!

We both ordered sirloin with mash and veg. Not bad at all.

Dessert was plentiful. Too bad the ice cream was some pappy non-Haagen Dazs stuff.

We had a 11-hour flight but only one meal and snacks were served. What gives? We always get hungry. This time around they had pastrami rolls as snacks and they filled the hole.

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London to Shanghai. Flight left at 2:30pm but food was not served till 6. We missed lunch at the airport so we were starving!!

We both picked the cumin soup - very tasty but I'm pretty sure it causes BO.

Steak pie with mushy peas and mash. Smashing!!! Why don't they serve meat pies more often? It's easy and difficult to screw up.

My husband's dessert (didn't ask what it was). He said it was nice. I was too busy "trying" all the different wines by then.

Snacks include chicken tikka rolls and somehing else but we were all ready for bed.

There were so many choices for breakfast I didn't know where to begin. At the end I settle for some pancakes, fruit and yogurt to finish off the flight. Upper class is not a bad way to fly!