Restaurant: Air China First Class
Location: somewhere over Alaska
Date: March 20, 2014
Cuisine: Chinese?
Rating: not bad for a plane
So to open up the first meal of my 2014 Asia trip what better than some plane food, in this case, Air China First Class (yay miles) on the way over Alaska.
‘nuf said.
Our menu this afternoon.
2011 Hospices de Beaune Volnay 1er Cru Cuvée Blondeau. 88 points. The nose was dominated by oak, which continued to distract on the palate. But to find a 1re cru Burg on a plane? Way too young, but nice pinot notes.
A number of small appetizers.
Shrimp with prosciutto.
A number of cured meats, mayo, cheese, etc things which tasted decent but are a bit odd to the modern American palette. The left might be pastrami!
And a tuna and salmon one.
Then round two, more Chinese style.
Baby octopus. Quite tasty, but not for the squeamish.
Cured duck (tasted like ham).
Fungus salad.
Double boiled winter melon soup.
I don’t know what is melon about this, but it has ham and mushrooms in the unami broth.
Sea bass with black bean sauce and Mongolian beef. The beef was good, but the sea bass was too mushy (not so surprising on a plane).
Rice.
A coconut cake.
Fruit.
And a gorgeous view of Mount McKinley (on the right of the two peaks). Tallest mountain from base to top in the world!
As we approached Beijing, a light snack.
Smoked salmon with salad.
Roasted duck noodle soup. Good stuff!
More fruit.
And a view of the Beijing smog! Kinda pretty when you can’t smell it.
Overall, a great start to the trip! Air China gets an A+, as that was a great first class. Now, I wouldn’t stack it up against a great restaurant, but it was solidly pleasant and compared to most plane food…