lunch on an airplane

[shrjeff]

i can preselect my meal on our flight from heathrow to seattle next month.

here is the menu, what would people suggest taking into consideration that it is on an airplane, food will be precooked and just heated up?

Starters

Great Glen Scottish cured venison, blackberries with toasted hazelnut and horseradish

Wild mushrooms on chargrilled sourdough, cep aioli and flat leaf parsley

Roasted beetroot and Granny Smith apple soup with goat's cheese tortellini

Fresh seasonal salad with a choice of aged Balsamic vinaigrette or honey mustard dressing


Main

Seared fillet of British beef, Café de Paris butter, grilled Portobello mushroom, slow roasted tomato and roasted charlotte potatoes

Grilled turbot and caramelised cauliflower puree, runner beans, girolles and Sauternes raisin sauce

Gressingham duck à l'Orange, braised chicory and crumbled Blue Monday cheese

Root vegetable hash, baked chestnuts, sage velouté with soft free range poached Hen's egg

Asian Buddha bowl with Teriyaki chicken and maple hot mustard dressing

[Baz Faz]

This must be biz class.
I'd go for the cured venison starter. Main... hm... certainly not the beef fillet (is the cabin crew going to just reheat it?). I guess the fish is the light option I'd go for though I'm not sure about that raisin sauce. Anyway turbot is a great fish, just push the sauce to one side.

[shrjeff]

agree with the venison starter, baz... however i'm leary about dried out fish as well as beef steaks... i'm tending towards the duck for the mains but am wondering if the skin would come out too flabby...

[Baz Faz]

Duck is certainly a possible good choice. I just worry that Gressingham duck seems to lack flavour, but I am spoiled having lived in a great duck rearing area of France.

[shrjeff]

The Gressingham duck is a unique breed that first came about when the small but flavourful wild Mallard was crossed with the larger Pekin duck giving a meaty, succulent duck with more breast meat, less fat and a rich gamey flavour.

[kuskiwi]

Sounds nicer than curled up edge sandwich followed by broken biscuits.

[Baz Faz]

We've developed the breed over the past 20 years to meet the demands of the market. We've strived to produce more breast meat and a product that is much leaner. We have our own feed formulation to make sure we have the right quality of bird.

Yes, they've "developed" the breed.

[auntieannie]

Yes, I agree with your choices of cured venison followed by duck. Guessing these are the dishes that are least likely to get really badly messed up.

edited to add that the other starter I might have liked was the soup, except for the tortellini in it that will get messed up by reheating.

At some point in the past, ordering the veggie option was usually the best. However, on that particular menu, it reads awful.

[Baz Faz]

I remember speaking to a British Airways captain who said that he always ordered the Kosher meal. It was usually fresher and better.

[mockchoc]

The wild mushrooms then the root veggies. I don't know what ever happened to the meat loving girl I was before. I'm addicted to garlic tofu right now. Where are the desserts? That is the most important part ;P

[shrjeff]

Nov 18, 2018 11:45:34 GMT 2 mockchoc said:

The wild mushrooms then the root veggies. I don't know what ever happened to the meat loving girl I was before. I'm addicted to garlic tofu right now. Where are the desserts? That is the most important part ;P

for little carob:

Desserts

Millionaire shortbread terrine with almonds and hazelnuts
Warm Orchard fruit crumble
Vanilla bean ice cream

Cheese Plate

Belton Farm Red Fox
Fourme D'Ambert
Double Barrel Lincolnshire Poacher
Normany Camembert

[auntieannie]

crumble or cheese?

[mockchoc]

All the cheeses!

[shrjeff]

perhaps i'll just have the venison starter and a bunch of cheese the mains on a plane always sound better than they turn out to be!

[mockchoc]

Well you liked my cheese platter and the one at the place in the mall to Happy you did.

[shrjeff]

the venison starter wasn't there! i had its replacement, rabbit and pork terrine - bland and tasteless... then the duck which was ok (i cut the flabby, fatty skin off)... i was then too full for dessert and requested i have it later... i then requested the vanilla bean ice cream as the pastries seemed too heavy... the steward said that the ice cream had already melted but found me a magnum bar instead ... didn't ask why the bulk ice cream was left out as they obviously had a freezer for the magnum bar! anyway, while an impressive menu in first class, the food was better in business from tel aviv to heathrow! the lamb tagine was definitely one of the two best dishes i've ever had on a plane (the other was steak cooked properly by the stewardess on a TWA flight in business/first a couple of decades ago)... the two flights back to heathrow and on to tel aviv will be in first class... the menu from heathrow is for breakfast so there really isn't much unique to choose from... and the menu from san francisco to heathrow isn't on-line as one can choose main courses in advance only out of heathrow...