London Series: British Airways Inflight Meals

I went on a two-week trip in Europe a few weeks ago. During that time, I had amassed over 30 blog entries on the travel and the food I tried. This means that I’ll be blogging the next one month and Suanne will have a long hiatus from blogging … i.e. no recipes or cooking class for the next little while.

I had a scheduled 4-day training in London. I thought that I take advantage of the free flight there to visit a bit more of the parts of Europe that I had never visited before. Over the 16 days, I was in London and the cities in the “Low Countries” — Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. It was a great trip.

I bought some new photographic toys for the trip. Besides doing the normal touristy stuff and trying out the food, I planned to have a great time taking lots of pictures. So, I went and get myself a new long lens, the Canon 70-200mm 2.8L. The lens is a classic among the extensive Canon lens lineup. I also got myself a new Manfrotto tripod and a new software that allows me to make HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures.

The picture below is taken at the YVR Airport of the Spirit of Haida Gwaii. It is extremely difficult to produce a shot like this in a dark indoor but with the HDR technique, one could bring out the details all round.

Enough of photography. I traveled for the first time on British Airways from YVR to LHR. Overall, it was much better than Air Canada. Trust me, if you travel in this sector choose BA over Air Canada anytime. It is an economy flight. During the 9 hours flight, they serve drinks, a main meal and a snack box.

The main meal is pretty normal, consisting of bread, salad, dessert, chocolates and coffee. British Airways does not publish their menu on the inflight magazine like other airlines. So, I had no idea what was really served except that there is a choice of chicken or beef.

The bread as usual is nothing to shout about. Airline bread for some reason is just soft, dense and not crusty.

The tomato and cheese salad is OK. I like the cheese though. It’s a tasteless type but am not sure what this type of cheese is called. What is this called anyway?

The main dish looked unappetizing. The mash potatoes looked so flat. The beef, I think, is the pot stew beef. Taste wise, it is OK … I had tasted worse airline food.

Here is the dessert …

… and ended up with coffee and a bar of Kit Kat.

About an hour before we landed, they came around and pass us the “All-Day Deli” snack box. It is meant to be the breakfast for the day.

As the name implies, the All-Day Deli is a general purpose meal. It consists of a pastry, energy bar, yogurt and juice.

For drinks, wine is served in mini bottles. I am not much into wine but did try their red wine (red wine with red meat and white with white, right?). I don’t know what great wine tastes like. I think this is the cheapo type … I did not like it a lot.

I landed in London and headed to the city immediately after I checked into the hotel. How do you like this shot of the Big Ben? It’s a HDR shot. Under normal conditions, this shot would have been impossible. It’s a simple technique really. Let me know if you want to know more. Go on … click on the picture below and see the amazing details captured using HDR.

This is it … day 1 of day 16.