The Cuisine of the Friendly Skies

A couple of weeks ago, I took my last business trip of the year, a short (five day) jaunt to Sweden. The corporate travel agency booked me on an outbound flight on Lufthansa and had me returning on United, so I had an opportunity to compare their cuisine a few days apart, which is about as close to head-to-head as I would probably ever get to experience. I had flown in United Business just a few months earlier, but hadn't flown on Lufthansa since late last year, so I took the occasion to reacquaint myself with the fare on German flagship airline.

I took the Monday afternoon flight from SFO to Frankfurt. After my customary nap through take-off, I spent about a half an hour fiddling around with the settings on the new Business Class seat before a flight attendant came around with napkins in hand to kick off the dinner service.

To start my meal, I could have selected a pistachio crusted shrimp with mango salsa and cilantro aioli, but I instead went with the smoked duck breast with sweet corn flan and cherry vinaigrette. The duck breast was pretty decent, though I barely noticed the vinaigrette, but the flan was ice cold.


For the main course, I had a choice of three entrées: turkey escalopes, grilled salmon, or saffron fettucine. Though I normally don't order fish on flights, this time, I decided to try the salmon, which came with celeriac purée and sweet pea and fava bean jus. The salmon was surprisingly good, flavorful and cooked to almost a perfect doneness - the middle of the filet was about perfect and the ends were, if anything, just a touch overdone, but when you are 39,000 feet in the air, it's pretty close to being perfect. However, all of the sides were pretty forgettable. It would have been better if they had just put down some mashed taters next to the salmon.


The next course was a cheese plate consisting of (from the left) Cambozola, Sage Derby, and Gruyère. All the cheeses were quite good, though I would have enjoyed some more dried fruit on the plate.


After the cheese plate was cleared away, I was served with some apple raisin bread pudding with sweet cream and a box of chocolate truffles. Both the bread pudding and truffles were very good - a couple of small, but tasty treats to finish off the meal.



After a few hours of intermittent sleep, I woke myself up for breakfast as we cruised over England. I groggily ordered some coffee and selected a fruit plate with some cold cuts (turkey and salami) and cheese (Brie and pepperjack). The plate was tasty, especially the fruit, which was very ripe and surprisingly sweet.


After landing in Frankfurt and passing speedily through immigration, my colleagues and I had a few hours to kill before our connection to Stockholm, so we headed up to the United lounge to stretch our legs and rehydrate ourselves. While we were in the lounge, I showed one of my colleagues some pictures from our dinner at the French Laundry. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off my camera. By the time that I noticed, we were just about to start the meal service on our short SAS flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm. It was too late to do much about a dead camera battery, so I was not able to capture the food on this flight. Oh well.

The next few days in Stockholm were quite packed, as I was busy conducting a design-led innovation workshop with several colleagues from Germany and the United States. One of my colleagues and I did have an opportunity to do some sightseeing around Stockholm on Friday, but that's another blog post...

Heading back home on Saturday, we boarded an early morning SAS flight to Frankfurt. Once again, I was not able to capture my meal, as my camera was stowed away in the overhead compartment, access to which was blocked by the slumbering passenger in the aisle seat next to me. I guess that photos of the food on the SAS flights were not meant to be, at least not on this trip.

After another short visit to the United Red Carpet lounge, we boarded our United flight to return home. After settling in my seat, I dozed off for a bit before being awakened for the main meal of the flight. We started off with a cold appetizer of Parma ham, tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella with balsamic vinaigrette. Unfortunately, this was not a good starter. The plate apparently had been refrigerated, so the tomatoes were completely flavorless and had a mealy texture. The balsamic "vinaigrette" had the look and viscosity of used motor oil, so I didn't even try it. There was some spongy-looking orange and yellow thing on the plate. I had no idea what it was (and still don't), but it didn't taste very good at all, so I pushed it aside after a single bite. I guess that that mozzarella and Parma ham were okay though...


After the disastrous course was cleared away, I had a selection of one of three entrées: a pan-seared filet mignon with three peppercorn sauce, a mushroom stuffed chicken breast with shallot Madeira sauce, and a spinach and ricotta stuffed tortellini Antonio with creamy chive sauce. Despite my rather poor experience with the filet on my last flight, I decided (for whatever reason) to give it another try. I'm glad that I did. While it was far away from being a great steak, it was actually halfway decent. First of all, unlike the meat from the previous trip, the steak actually looked like it was a filet. While the steak was still overcooked, I was still able to detect a faint pink section in the middle, which was definitely a step in the right direction. Best of all, the steak was actually quite tender and tasted like steak. Not bad for hot box cooking six miles above the ground. Unfortunately, the accompanying Lyonnaise mashed potatoes with cheese were pretty disappointing, though the green beans were okay.


After the main course, I passed on the ice cream dessert and instead had the cheese platter, which included smoked chili and Sbrinz cheeses. I like these simple cheese plates, but I do wish that they would use seedless grapes.


After finishing dinner, I actually managed to get some decent sleep, which I generally have trouble getting when flying from Europe to the United States. We took a very northerly polar flight path which, at this time of the year, meant that the sun set (from our perspective) and rose again before we landed. I woke up relatively refreshed in time to catch a light snack before landing. The snack consisted of another cheese plate (apparently I can't get enough of them) with cheddar, Brie, and Edam cheeses and seasonal fruit. It was a light and tasty snack which would carry me over until I had a chance to enjoy a real dinner after we landed.


Well, now that the year is over, I'll have to endure a couple of flights in economy before I'll qualify for Business Class travel again. Stay tuned for my meal reports from back in the cattle section of United and Lufthansa.

My Aha! Food Moments

Every so often, each of us experiences an "Aha!" moment. During these brief flashes of insight, you make a quantum leap and suddenly have a profound revelation that changes the way you view the world. Over the past few days, I've been thinking about the "Aha!" food moments that I've experienced. I came up with a list of five such moments which I would like to share with you.

O-Toro
Date: July 9, 2005
Place: Sushi Ran, Sausalito, CA
During the summer of 2005, I had my first encounter with o-toro, the most luscious cut of maguro available. I can still remember that piece of tuna belly just melting away in my mouth like it just happened yesterday. The taste and texture were simply amazing and unlike anything else that I had ever eaten before. That utterly decadent slice of fish changed the way that I think about eating sushi. Since then, every time that I eat o-toro (which is nearly every time I eat sushi), I close my eyes and hope that I can once again experience the feeling of eating o-toro for the first time.

The Complete Dining Experience
Date: August 17, 2005
Place: Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder, CO
It was during my dinner at Frasca when I first understood how exquisite service combined with exceptional food executed with culinary precision can elevate a simple meal into an out-of-this-world dining experience.

The Corn Croquette
Date: October 1, 2005
Place: Manresa, Los Gatos, CA
Karen and I celebrated our first year together with a fabulous dinner at Manresa. Ordering the tasting menu, we were treated to a series of amuse bouche prior to our main courses. One of these amuse bouche offerings was a croquette, a small, breaded morsel meant to be eaten in a single bite. When I bit down on the croquette, I was completely surprised by its warm liquid center which released the pure and unadulterated taste of sweet corn into my mouth. Its sun-soaked flavor simply made my taste buds sing. The croquette utterly captured the delectable essence of corn and demonstrated that little packages can be full of wonderful surprises.

The Cheese Plate
Date: November 21, 2005
Place: Le Bistro de l'Olivier, Paris, France
At the end of an otherwise ordinary meal at a mostly empty bistro in the 8th arrondissement, Karen and I were both blown away by the cheese course. The plate had a couple types of cheeses and was served with a smear of honey sprinkled with lavender. The cheeses tasted fine, but combined with the honey and lavender, their flavors were elevated to extraordinary level. For the first time, I understood how good a cheese plate could be, the elements of the plate coming together to show how the whole can be far greater than the sum of its parts.

And there is one more moment, but it's certainly not the least important. In fact, it probably is one of the defining moments of my life as a foodie.

Beer Can Chicken
Date: Early Summer, 2002
Place: Chez moi, Silicon Valley, CA
One afternoon, I pulled out my copy of Steve Raichlen's How to Grill book and found the recipe for beer-can chicken. It looked simple enough, so I followed the recipe and set up my gas grill to hot smoke the poultry until it was golden brown. Taking my first bite of chicken, I was utterly amazed by the exceptional flavor and juiciness. I asked myself if I could have actually made that bird myself. It was better than any rotisserie chicken that I had ever bought at a store and it was so easy and simple to make. I even remember calling my mom to tell her about what I had made and how good it was.

The important point of this "Aha!" moment is that up until this point in my life, I considered myself to be an adequate, though unexceptional cook. Sure, I knew how to keep myself well-fed and even improvise a bit on existing recipes, but I never strayed too far from the tried and true. However, at this moment, I realized that I might have some potential in the kitchen. Perhaps I always had it in me, but this moment gave me the confidence to believe in my own culinary abilities and set me off on a course to being a foodie, a path that I'm still following today.

One of my favorite quotes from Julia Child is:

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude."

This moment gave me that "what-the-hell" attitude.

So folks, I'd love to hear some of your "Aha!" food moments. I hope that you will share them with me!

United v. Lufthansa, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been on a road a couple of times in recent weeks. Shortly after my trip to Minnesota, work took me to Europe for another week-long journey away from home. On this trip, I flew United, so I had the opportunity to sample their Business Class cuisine. As you might recall, I wrote about my dining experience on Lufthansa earlier this year, so to be fair, I figured that I should share my thoughts about United's culinary offerings. This time, I remembered to bring my camera so that I could share my experience via pictures.

On its international flights, United offers exclusive menu selections created in partnership with Chicago restaurateur Charlie Trotter. Known for his highly regarded eponymous restaurant, Trotter worked with United to create several different dishes for First and Business class passengers on U.S. outbound flights.

For dinner, we started with citrus-cured smoked salmon with caramelized fennel citrus salad and organic yuzu-miso vinaigrette. This Trotter-designed dish was pretty good. The salmon was tasty, as was the fennel citrus salad. I didn't really see the need for the vinaigrette though; there was enough dressing in the salad and the salmon was fine without a sauce.


For the main dinner course, I chose another Trotter-inspired offering, a mustard-braised pork medallion with roasted banana fingerling potatoes and rosemary honey glazed carrots. This dish was not good. The pork was dry and lacking in flavor. It was overcooked as well; I prefer pork to be cooked to medium, with a just slightly pink center. On the other hand, the carrots were completely undercooked. It felt like I was eating warm, but raw carrots. In hindsight, I should have probably picked the Boursin lasagna instead.


For dessert, I had vanilla and strawberry ice cream. It was quite nice, especially with the glass of port that I enjoyed to help me fall asleep.


After a good six hours of sleep, it was time for breakfast. Once again, I had another Trotter-created dish: Florentine quiche with Hollandaise sauce, pork sausage, and crispy bacon. The quiche itself was decent, but the Hollandaise sauce was quite odd, having a consistency similar to crème brûlée. I had a taste, but it just didn't seem quite right. One of my colleagues got very sick the following day and he thinks that it might have been related to eating the sauce. The sausage and bacon were okay, about what I would expect from airplane breakfast meats. The highlight of this meal was the accompanying fruit platter, which was quite good, especially the cantaloupe.


On the return trip, there weren't any Trotter-inspired items, so I just went with what sounded good. I was flying back on the late flight, so dinner service started soon after takeoff. The starter was marinated prawns and salami with pineapple mango chutney, vegetable ratatouille, artichoke hearts, and stuffed green olives. This plate was good, though I didn't care so much for the chutney.


For the main course, I selected the pan-seared filet mignon with porcini mushroom sauce, roasted potato wedges with rosemary, and lemon brown buttered asparagus. I should have known better than to go with a beef entrée. The filet was way-overcooked, definitely well-done, quite tough, and totally dry, even with the mushroom sauce. I can't even vouch for the claim that it was a cut of filet. It could have been a hunk of round, for all I could tell. The out-of-season asparagus was stringy and overcooked. I should have gone with the herb and cheese stuffed gnocchi with spinach cream sauce.


Since I had ice cream on my previous flight, I decided on the cheese platter for dessert, which included grapes and crackers to go with the Bavarian Blue and Red Cheddar cheeses. The platter was excellent. The cheeses were very flavorful and paired well with the grapes. I would have definitely liked seconds on this dish.


Since I enjoyed the cheese platter so much, I selected the cheese plate for the snack just prior to landing. The plate had Cheddar, Brie, and Chaumes cheeses and a selection of fresh fruit. The fruit was excellent, surprisingly ripe and flavorful. The cheeses were excellent as well. It definitely hit the spot.


The final verdict? Eh, the food was okay, with a few hits and some misses, the Trotter effect notwithstanding. I guess that there's only so much you can do using those heating units in the airplane galley, so even though the concepts might have been good, the execution was lacking. (Of course, the contestants on Top Chef seemed to do reasonably well under those conditions.) One interesting side note is that United has actually gone back to using metal knives in their flatware in Business class. I always thought that it was a bit silly to offer plastic knives when the airlines were still using metal forks.

Finally! Another post!

Wow, has it been nearly a month since my last post? Where has the time gone??? As you might suspect, work has gotten in the way of blogging once again, but the good news is that the project on which I have been working since my very first post is coming to a conclusion. I just need to tie up some loose ends and package up my work and it'll be done. Hopefully.

As it has been my habit, I spent another week in Europe, courtesy of my employer. Work kept me holed up either at the office or in the hotel for a majority of my stay, so I was not able to enjoy the German cuisine in Heidelberg. However, I was able to escape one evening for a fine home-cooked meal at the home of Thomas and Charlotte. Despite being overwhelmingly busy themselves, Charlotte and Thomas hosted a wonderful evening for me and my colleagues and gave us a chance to decompress after a long and very tiring week. I shall hopefully get an opportunity to return the favor soon.

Oh, I might have to take back what I said earlier about airline food. The dinners in the cattle section on my flights were basically inedible. Perhaps our friends at United could just stick to two breakfast services. The breakfast croissants were not only edible, they were in fact quite tasty - for airline food that is.

Food Fight: United v. Lufthansa

Well, I flew back to Germany again this morning, the fourth time since I started my current project at work. However, unlike the previous trips, I decided to fly United instead of Lufthansa. For the last several years, I had been choosing to fly Lufthansa whenever I needed to come to Europe, partially because I had grown tired of the service on United (at least, on their US flights) and partially because of the mediocre food (or lack thereof in many cases) that we've come to expect from our domestic airlines.

However, on my last Lufthansa flight, I was quite underwhelmed with the level of service that I received, even though I was in business class. While served on real plates with real (i.e. metal) flatware, the Lufthansa food was quite unappetizing to say the least (a plate of greasy roast goose, anyone?). So, after chatting with a couple of friends who have had a lot of recent experience on both United and Lufthansa, I decided to give United another shot, figuring that it couldn't be any worse than the German flagship airline.

On this morning's flight, I was refreshingly surprised by the crisp and attentive service that I received from the United flight attendants, though admittedly this could have been due to the plane being half-full; I suspect that a lot of people decided to fly a day later so they could catch the Super Bowl. The food on this flight (beef brisket and mashed potatoes for dinner; egg and sausage croissant for breakfast), while not spectacular, was at least on par with what I would expect from food prepared in a 8' x 10' 747 galley. I can't say that it's fair to compare the food to that of my last Lufthansa flight as I was in coach (though in Economy Plus, which was another reason to go with United), but given my expected air travel in the upcoming year, I should be able to give a first-hand report from United Business class pretty soon. Stay tuned for further updates.