Airport and Airplane food

My orders of the entires are all wrong because I totally forgotten about these pics I took of the journey from Hong Kong to Tokyo. Amazingly, the airport has a wide variety of food at the airport. They have the traditional Chinese (i.e. noodle & congee) to dim sum, to set meals, to Burger King. I thought I saw Italian and seafood bar as well. So you'll definitely not starve at the airport, not only that, you would be pleasantly surprise how decent the food and food choices are.

That said, one of the 'fast food chains' in Hong Kong set up shop in the airport food court. I had to highlight the fact that they are 'fast food' like that is because their fast food is not the run of
the mill fast food you and I are used to in the States. We have the McDonald's, KFCs, Burger Kings. Don't get me wrong, they have those too, but their version of fast food is really a cooked meal fast. They have rice dishes, noodle dishes, play on traditional Chinese dishes but fast. So, yes, they are 'fast food' but not as bad for you as the other ones.

I got the soy sauce chow mein, which is very traditional dim sum dish. It's oily and greasy, but that's kinda the charm of it. I'm not quite sure why they put a slice of ham on top like that's giving me the protein I needed. My mom got the set breakfast. As you can see, that's a ton of food but seems to be just right. Urm, hello, they still have this thing called portion! The set breakfast comes with macaroni and ham, broth style, cup of coffee, sausage and egg. For about $40HKG, which is a little more than $5USD you get all that food. It's really a bargain.

The other surprise I had when going to Tokyo was that the other airlines are still serving the food meals we once know and love on the plane. Yes, you can insert the airplane food jokes here, but look at the presentations, even if the food is not that great, you don't see these in the States anymore. You do see something similar on International flights by US airline companies, but let me tell you, something about the foreign airlines that they are doing it up right and you do feel special flying like they do back in the glamourous days.

That said, since alot of Japanese fly that flight, they suit the menu to the audience. They have chicken w/ rice and some veggies, soba noodles (yes w/ wasabi) a cake and a roll. Yes, it's weird, but that's part of the lunch. I would say that the entree and the noodle is good enough to fill you up. That's 2 starches so on top of the cake and the bread, you're really starched up.

Upon arrival, it was dinner time after we settled down. Across the way from the hotel is this cute little restaurant, and again this is the Asian Fast Food... you put money in the vending machine, turn that into the counter and they give you food. The problem is that we don't speak a lick of Japanese, the pictures we see at the outside of the store, which lured us into the restaurant doesn't have a picture inside. So when we tried to paid we don't know which one to pick.

How nice was this little lady who spoke more English than the front desk of the hotel, came up and helped us. Except, she picked the Special they're offering instead of what we wanted. But it was late, we were greatful someone spoke English and helped us. So, we ended up with tempura over rice, which by itself is already tons. But the special came w/ soba noodle, which is another style of making it than the one from the plane. This is w/ warm soup and usually soba is w/ cold sauce, and that gives it a different flavor. And again, that's tons of starch. But since that little old lady was so nice to us, we felt very much obligated. Most of these places offer you water for sure, and they do have tea bags for green tea, not much of a soda nation, altho most of them for extra $100yen, you can get a small cup with your meal.

Going International

This new few entries will be Patty going international. I have a leave from work, so decided to go 'home' for the time I have. Home is actually Hong Kong, but we'll be side tripping to Tokyo as well.

That said, let me just tell you that nowadays airline service not only horrible, they don't give you peanuts or pretzels anymore. But for the low low price you too can get whatever you want, just select it from a menu. No, seriously, we went on board and the front pocket has your usual barf bag, the airline's magazine, the SkyMall, and now this menu. It cost $2 for a prepackaged muffin, and by the way, they don't take cash. So the 'correct change is always appreciated' is no longer needed. They only take charge anyway. They have anything from breakfast such as muffin, parfait to classic snack box that cost $5. Yeah, it's not exactly worth my money. For now, soda and water are still free.

Now, International flights on the other hand, night and day difference. We are served 3 meals and free movies. I must've watched 4 movies, 5 tv shows and just dozed off in between. But don't worry, I didn't missed the food portion.

Dinner wasn't half bad. I had the beef and rice w/ salad. It's very no frills. Beff w/ sauce and rice. You have some

vegetable and that's about that. They had a triple brownie on the tray, but I kept it for later.

Almost till about 4 hrs when we are getting ready to land, they served 'snack'. Which was cheeseburger and ice cream. Don't get me how they came up w/ that combo... but such as it is. I skipped the burger and stuck w/ ice cream; and added my triple brownie. So, here's the thing... the ice cream is good, but the brownie wasn't so much, which was disappointing because I had hope it'd be yummy and good. But it wasn't.

An hour before we land, they served 'breakfast. It was either omlete or Chinese noodles. They were trying to mimic the Chinese street noodle where it is essentially fried noodle plus soy sauce to give it that flavor and color. Now? Well, the airplane meal was hard and crunchy. They did come w/ dumplings except it was totally dried up.

Overall, I say it's not the best food ever, but for airplane food, you can't ask for more... sad, but true.

Service/Menu by Continental Airlines.