Got it, Cook it: Business Class Airline Food

I'm very lucky to be able to fly business class on occasion for work.
I know that.
I appreciate it.
Very much.
Once you fly business class, it's very hard to fly Coach on your own dime.
But you power through it.

It may be obvious, but in business class, you get a ton more room, a much better seat and mostly yummy food.
It's pretty expensive, however, you've got to remember that you have 3-4 times more space, therefore, your ticket is going to cost 3-4 more than economy tickets.
I'm sure that makes it easier to swallow. (gulp). Yeah, right, easier.

I just took a big trip in May.
And, In case you didn't know, May is spargel time in Germany.
Spargel?
Isn't that fun to say?
Weiss Spargel was everywhere.
White Asparagus.
Special Spargel-Karte (asparagus menu) at every restaurant I went to (on the ground, btw). I must admit I ate it everywhere I went, I mean, why not? It tastes good, more subtle and delicious and less stinky than the green kind we get here in the US.
You know what I mean....
However, I didn't expect to get it on my German carrier flight too.

As you can see, this is a pretty big serving of veggies, potatoes and a veal chop.
A totally delicious dinner. For the record, it was ME that shook pepper all over that whole plate before I remembered to take a picture.

Photo below, an appetizer for the meal above.
A very tender poached salmon with a green asparagus and radish salad and mustard sauce. I have to say, that might have been the best poached salmon I have ever had. Maybe it was the altitude (38,000 feet will do that to you).
A nice salad with a dried tomato slice on top. That roll was the bomb too, with lots of seeds and cheese and wonderfully toasty fresh out of the oven. Dressing in a cute little jar.
Nice.
In case you are wondering, you get real silverware and nice linens in business class too.
And cute little ole' salt and pepper shakers too. And wine.

I took it easy on dessert because I just ate a whole lot of food, ya know?
Just a little fruit salad and some chocolates.
A little something on German fruit salads.... they are were notoriously uninspired (airline or anywhere) usually, containing a bunch of apples and pears (two things I don't belong in a fruit salad, for the record!) and melon, if you are lucky.
This was the first German fruit salad I had with a strawberry, so I was darn sure going to enjoy it.

Even on a short business class flight, you'll find yourself with a pretty darn good meal.
This was on an early morning flight of 1 hr 20 min duration from Rome to Frankfurt.
It included yogurt with fruit puree and raspberry, Italian proscuitto with celery (not sure what's up with that combination), fresh fruit, a bunch of very good cheese and pretty much the best roll I ever ate- - on an airplane. Must be some sort of fancy bun warming contraption on that plane in business class.

This is probably the worst meal I’ve had on a business class flight (below)
Curry Wurst.
I’m thinking this must be a soup, or a stew… or who knows WHAT?
It was "lunch time" on the flight, which is a nice way of saying the airline is forcing you to adopt the time zone of where you will be landing and it is lunch time in Seattle. It's really the middle of the night and you want them to go away. You can tell by my photo it is dark in the cabin, yep, lunch in the dark.

Yikes, slices of whitish sausage sliced and thrown in a soupy curry sauce.
Saving grace?
A fresh pretzel roll that I was able to dunk in the sauce and eat.
I ate one piece of sausage. I thought about offering the rest of my dish to my German neighbor who obviously relished his dish. I thought that was a touch too familiar and wife-like, so I kept my mouth shut.
As for that salad? It was OK... a little wilted, but not bad and considering how few salads were offered to me in Germany, I ate every bite of that one.

Onto one of the Asian Airlines, I've flown a few time before. The service is delightful and the flight attendants the most attractive and pleasant of any I have encountered.

This is the appetizer, fresh, awesome, loveliness.
Melon, proscuitto and arugula or watercress.
It was fantastic. Who even dreamed you could get that perfection in the air?

I have this dish every time I fly on Korean Air.
Bibmibap!
It's like some sort of national dish available, that happens to be on every flight.
It's just rice and mixed veggies with some meat.
You get lots of cute side dishes of condiments, mainly pickled veggies and kim chee.
You can mix it up and make it what you want.
The Korean flight attendents always look a little concerned when I order it, like I don't know what I'm doing. I think they are impressed when they come back to my clean plate club.
Oh yum.
And in case you are wondering that small tube on the lower right hand side of the photo it is NOT toothpaste.
It's gochujang, a hot pepper paste.
Can I tell you happy it makes me to have a tube of hot pepper paste on my flight?
I may have even kept the tube from meal #1 and used it on meal #2 in order to bring tube #2 in its entirety home with me. Because really, wouldn't you feel special and could take on anything if you had a tube of gochujang in your purse?
Yes.... I may have become my mother at last.
In all truthfulness, I can never remember my Mom pulling gochujang outta her handbag, but she always did have some sort of seasoning in there to fix up a meal so I wouldn't put it past her.

I only have one itty bitty complaint...

This is my itty bitty wine glass.
This is my good size hand.
This the size of the pour.
They do come back to see if you want more, but I would recommend being very polite about your request for a refill, and bow... a little bow of the head wouldn't hurt if you want that pour to hit the half way mark.