My partner works for an airline - so to fly, we are always on Standby tickets. What this means for us, is a lot of wait, anticipation, running around, and flying to different cities before getting to our final destination.
To get to Seoul, we flew through Tokyo. To get back from Seoul, we flew through HK. So yes - that means a few more hours flight time and a few more hours in intermittent countries. But what it also meant for me was - more food!!! :)
At Narita airport in Tokyo, we stopped by for breakfast. My partner was a bit sick at this time, so foodwise, it was just me eating. I walked around and was AMAZED by the variety of jap food available. After much deliberation, I chose this little takeaway joint which offered what I thought was a GIANT sushi (for just ~ $12).
This GIANT sushi was made fresh and wrapped delicately in multi-layers. The sushi had many fillings (eg. egg, crab meat, cucumber, pork floss, capsicum etc etc etc). It was basically impossible to fit in my mouth. It was pretty crazy. It was extremely tasty and extremely filling. After eating three pieces, I was pretty much gone LOL. Yummy though - so I pushed on and expanded my waist line :)
GIANT sushiOn the way back, in HK airport, my partner ordered a pork-chop rice from Maxim. The pork-chop was actually very tender. Super tomatoey in terms of the sauce and overall, seemed well-balanced and was super delicious. Not bad really.
baked pork-chop riceI opted for something that I miss from Sydney - good quality asian dessert. At the airport, there was Hui Lau San dessert house. My partner chose the pompello mango coconut sago dessert. It was really rich in coconutty flavour, had lots of mango in it, and also a mango sorbet which made the dessert nicely icey and added another texture element. Delicious!!!
pompello mango coconut sagoBut not as delicious as my drink! My aloe, mango, coconut sago drink is simply AWESOME~ I could drink this daily. The aloe jelly is smooth, the mango puree is thick and rich and sweet and the coconut flavour really blends and pushes everything together to make what possibly is the world's best drink :)
aloe, mango, coconut sago drinkSo that was our airport adventure. What did we get served on the plane?
On the way to Tokyo, upon Qantas, we had a choice of mushroom chicken with pumpkin puree and beands or the pork udon. I chose the pork and udon. The pork was sweet and sour but the udon was bland and somewhat rubbery. Mmmm... not that great. Hence, I stole bits of my partner's chicken and mushroom. This was creamy and tasty. I didn't touch the pumpkin though :P
dinner on Qantas
pork with udon
chicken and mushroom with pumpkin pureeAs it was an overnight flight, we also got breakfast on the plane. There was a choice of salmon fish cake with rice, or the hot breakfast with egg, sausage, potato stacks, sauteed spinach and roasted tomato. The asian salmon fish cake pattie was... umm.... weird? Fishy in taste but the texture was rough and not quite right. And the rice was stickier than normal. My western breakfast was not much better. No escaping from the airplane type feel - oily yet bland.
Jap style breakfast
Western breakfastSo airplane food on Qantas didn't meet my fancy, but on the way to Seoul from Tokyo, we boarded JAL. The meal on JAL was pretty WOW. We actually got a bento box comprising of diced salmon, pickled veges, egg and salmon roe, egg and fish cake on the bottom right hand corner, and a japanese green tea jelly and tin peach on the upper right hand corner. I was pretty blown away. It was tasty. It was yummy. It was definately above my expectations for plane food. It also came with miso soup or green tea! Now if only their entertainment system was better...
miso soupOn the way from Seoul to HK, we went on yet another airline carrier - Cathay Pacific. The meal here was either beef with rice or chicken with rice. The rice on Cathay was better than that on Qantas. And the meat was tender and tasty. But still was oily and not 100% appetising.
meal on Cathay Pacific
beef with rice
chicken with riceOur last leg was from HK to Sydney. Being an overnight flight again, we got dinner and breakfast. Luckily for us, we were able to get upgraded to business class. The quality of the food upon business class was much much much better than that in economy and, it was Rockpool inspired.
For dinner, entree was a choice of either drunken chicken salad or mushroom soup. My partner's drunken chicken salad was really lovely. The chicken was tender and juicy and smooth. Rich with xiaoxing wine flavour and eaten with fresh greens, it was a delight to eat.
drunken chicken saladMy mushroom soup was likewise - divine!!! Filled with mushroom flavour there were tiny blended mushroom bits throughout. This gourmet mushroom was really smooth and really creamy and really really mushroomily tasty. The accompanying salad was fresh and the bread was soft and fluffy and worked well with my soup.
mushroom soupNext was the main. My partner opted for the beef fillet. He said that his steak was better than some he'd eaten from restaurants. That's a big call! The beef was cooked medium and had lots of beef taste and was rather juicy. He liked it and gobbled all of it.
beef filletI chose the salmon fillet encrusted with herbs. The salmon was good but not excellent. A tiny bit dry and slightly bland, it was still pretty good for airplane standards. I liked the veges though. The potato was yummy and the asparagus was clean and non-oily.
herb-crusted salmonAnd for dessert, my partner ordered the cheese platter whereas I ordered the fruit platter. Fruit platter is pretty norm - watermelon, rockmelon, pineapple. The cheese platter was also pretty good. I liked the tasty cheese. But the blue cheese was waaaaaayyy to strong for my liking :)
Cheese platterIn terms of breakfast, we could tick as much or as little as we liked from a list of food. My partner's choice breakfast was beans, sauteed spinach, smoked salmon, tomato, toast, fruit salad, orange juice and coffee. My choice was similar - sausages, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, spinach, pork and chive bun, juice and coffee. Everything was pretty decent. However, my eggs were slightly overly creamy and the bun was really thick floury.
breakfast on QantasSo all up, we've had some good and some bad plane meals. And though we had to wait excess time at different airports, we got to sample meals from Japan and Hong Kong :)
Fish cooked 2-ways
Prawn with vermicelli
soy sauced chicken
tofu hot pot
pork-chops
