Hospital food, airline food, that sort of thing

[PlutonianEmpire]

Yes, unless you were fed mostly freedom fry and big Mac as a kid.

Who says "freedom fries" anymore?

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Yes, unless you were fed mostly freedom fry and big Mac as a kid.

Considering the nearest fast food place was over a kilometer away, that would have been a more privileged childhood. At least from a financial standpoint. No, the best option was meals cooked at home with ingredients from the nearby wet market. In any case, I find the fact that my avoidance of dishes that look like coagulated blood stews bothers you deeply to be quite interesting and a little bit puzzling.

Anyway, back to the discussion at hand.

In my experience, Air France and Iberia food isn't that good, but it is eatable. British Airways is usually delicious, though.

That's pretty amusing. Shows that airline food quality can be independent of the nation's culinary heritage.

 

[Leoreth]

Really horrible food I've only eaten in our universities cafeteria. They served several times undercooked fish which is from health aspects a total no go, so I had to dump it. (I am in general against throwing away food that is still eatable). We also had ants baked into our strawberry cakes....

Ugh, what kind of university was that?

 

[Samez]

Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg the cafeteria of the engineering department. (Mensa TechFak/Südgelände)

 

[Old Hippy]

I once got a serious warning from customs for trying to bring Qantas airline food into the country, my name is now on a watch list and i will get prosecuted if it happens again....

the food on the London to Melbourne flight was very good, should not have put that apple in my day pack for latter...

 

[classical_hero]

The last time I travelled by plane I did not eat too much on the plane and I brought with me some chips and ate those an had a few drinks while on the plane, but noting serious, but I could have had a proper meal if I wanted to, but I did not want to pay the extra money. Plus when I had breakfast I had it at the Airport when I had a lay over to my final destination. I also took the red eye, but I did not need to do that an I was very tired when I got to my hotel.

Now recent I have been in hospital and I had mixed reviews of the food. I was in there overnight and the meal I had for dinner was quite nice, but breakfast was ordinary. The porridge they had with my breakfast was flavourless and looked odd. I have never had to stay too long in an hospital, so I have not had too much hospital food, but one time when I was younger my brother was in hospital and he was felling groggy so I ate his meal, but that was a private hospital and thus the food was delicious.

 

[GoodGame]

I've had decent food on Lufthansa and United.

The only hospital food I've had in recent memory was a sort of cracker, but I'd just gotten my back cut open - hadn't had any solid food since the night before, and was heavily medicated to boot, and pretty much immediately threw it back up again.

Trans-atlantic flights usually have good food. And I remember getting a real hearty grain bread and ham sandwich on a Lufthansa flight---something you might get at a Whole Foods or what not.

Hospital food is pretty good in the US Army.

 

[Dachs]

Trans-atlantic flights usually have good food. And I remember getting a real hearty grain bread and ham sandwich on a Lufthansa flight---something you might get at a Whole Foods or what not.

Yeah, but I've been on a few Lufthansa shuttle-type short flights from one part of Germany to another, too. Didn't really think the food was all that bad then, either.

 

[warpus]

How up to date are they? What kinds of games?

Mostly multiplayer games you can play with other people on the flight: Who wants to be a millionaire, chess, tetris.. uh.. I forget the rest. There were maybe 10-15 games. And now that I think about it only some of them were multiplayer, so nevermind about that. They were simple games. Let me see if I can remember any others.. minigolf.. trivia.. hmm.. yeah, stuff like that.

I’ll keep them in mind. How are they on price?

Pretty good, and they don't charge you extra for your checked in luggage either. The thing is that they mostly service south america. (Although they do have connecting flights in cities like Miami)

 

[Thedrin]

You say that now, but what's better than drinking wine and playing tetris? They also give you access to tons of free movies, tv shows, movies, and other games you can play during the flight.

It's my 2nd favourite airline ever, after Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand are superb. They also have a great selection of movies, TV shows, etc. I put them on a par with Emirates and Etihad, which are probably a bit more expensive, but I don't think I've ever flown a route that with the latter two that Air New Zealand also ran.

On that topic, avoid Qantas. Dreadful entertainment selection.

Edit: Actually in 2005 I flew to Auckland from London (and return) with Emirates.

 

[Quintillus]

So yes, a thread about complementary meal service. This includes free school lunches, complementary breakfasts at hotels, and other examples I may not have named. What's your overall impression of them? What was your best experience? Your worst experience? Feel free to discuss other related things about these meals.

As for my experience with hospital food, I remember only having one, during one of my eye operations as a child. Squid fried in its own ink. Needless to say, my parents opted for take-out.

With airline food, I can only remember getting served a light meal of crackers and sweets on a connecting flight to Hong Kong. The meal on the longer trans-Pacific leg to Alaska was completely forgettable. All I could remember was that it didn't have rice.

Unfree school lunches - it depends. Elementary school was occasionally good, occasionally not good, and I varied between buying lunch and packing. Middle school was all-around pretty bad, so I almost always packed. High school was fairly decent, so I quite rarely packed. That there was always a sandwich option which was reliably good helped quite a bit. The spaghetti days were the best.

Free hotel breakfasts I usually find fairly good. Cereal, toast, sometimes more filling options like potatoes or ham... there's almost always something decent, whether you've just getting up or coming back from working the night.

I've actually had fairly good, though limited, experiences with airline food. I've flown both United and Air Berlin transatlantic, and actually liked the food on both. Even airline German potato salad is better than regular American potato salad! I remember one leg of the United flight had pretty good pasta; the other I don't remember the details but it had some nice camembert as a side.

Hospital food I have less experience with. I've eaten at hospital cafeterias a couple times, and while the food was nothing to call home about, I never had anything awful, either. And it was fairly inexpensive. Squid fried in its own ink sounds intriguing. I'd rather try it at a Valencian restaurant than a hospital, but if I were feeling adventurous I might try it at a hospital, too. Of course, if I were the patient I might not be feeling super-adventurous.

Of those airlines, I try to avoid United because of their propensity to leave me stranded (though the transatlantic flights were fine), but was happy with Air Berlin. They even gave out free chocolate upon arrival in Berlin.

 

[carmen510]

I recall having complementary breakfast at the Hilton hotel in Vienna, which was pretty good. Decent breakfast fare.

I remember British Airways having good food, although that might be because I got a free upgrade to Economy First Class on account of the check-in lady taking pity on me and giving me extra leg space to account for my height.

I remember Continental Airlines having terrible food, and I seem to recall Delta also have terrible food. United Airlines was a step up, but it was still bad. I once flew China Eastern and they served us instant noodles, which is actually a step up from your standard airline food (which is kind of sad). I think Northwest Airlines had the best food overall, at least when I flew before their bankruptcy in 2007.

 

[warpus]

Speaking of "continental" breakfast, who invented that crap? It's just carbs and sugars, and there's NO BACON.

Seriously, is this an American or European thing?

 

[amadeus]

Are you saying that hotel breakfasts ain't worth a continental?