Something tasty in the air?

Economy class doesn’t provide either the space or the service to stretch out – so one has to unwrap the dinky foil covered packages without prodding elbows into the neighbouring passenger or dropping  the plastic cutlery pack – which  becomes completely impossible to retrieve as you can’t bend down to reach anything on the floor without upsetting the tiny pull-down table and everything on it.
Some airlines make a big effort for the food to reflect national cuisine and culture but it is usually only in first or business where you get a fancy menu, real plates and napkins and silver cutlery. The French offer you French cheese and wine and I have had authentic Greek Food on Olympic.  The Middle Eastern airlines (Emirates, Qatar) have a reputation for luxury and hospitality  (and certainly Qatar offered the best in-house entertainment I have ever had on an airline) and, along with Ethiopian, vegetarian options are a standard, not something you have to pre-book if you don’t eat chicken or beef.
Some years ago I was upgraded to business class on an Air Zimbabwe flight to London. I was sitting with a French colleague who naturally needed wine to go with his meal. The stewardess produced a 750 ml bottle of Private Cellar – (there was only a very brief period when an enterprising Zimbabwe winery produced airplane size bottles) with a firm fitting cork – and no corkscrew.  Nothing daunted my companion who attempted to open the bottle with a kitchen knife (kindly produced from the galley). He did succeed in getting the cork out but slashed his hand and blood was everywhere necessitating further help from the crew and their first aid kit.  Understandably they refused us a second bottle! Food on Air Zimbabwe was always okay – even on the short haul routes – but it has been a long time since I have dared trust my schedule to Air Zimbabwe and friends who have actually managed a flight recently have reported a sad decline in service. 
Mostly my route is between Harare and Johannesburg where food on SAA has been very strange to say the least. I remember an abomination of a sandwich – standard SAA fare – pear, spinach and cheese on a very strange brown bread. Virtually inedible. Then there was the beef and pasta served frozen – or icy chopped vegetables on yellow coloured rice masquerading as a vegetarian special. 
I have just been to Joburg – a short flight – but the early departure out  of Harare means one has been up for at least three or four hours by the time breakfast is served. I was hungry, so it was a reIief to get a steaming foil-covered container with an omelette and sausages and separate containers of fruit salad and yoghurt on the side. Even the sausages on SAA come in a choice of chicken or beef.
With prices for the short trip to Jo’burg now averaging over US$500 (I had to fork out $550! ) it is a good thing the food has improved. On the way back, an afternoon flight, we got a sandwich – a much better combination of cheese and mustard mayo with tomato as well as a piece of sweet blueberry cake. And we arrived half an hour early into a different season – welcome warmth after icy Joburg.
– g.jeke@yahoo.com