Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Not sure on International flights, but all of the flights I've been on lately have eliminated food, other than snack packs, where you pay some outrageous price for chips, crackers, and trail mix. If you're lucky, you might get a 50 calorie bag of pretzels. Continental might still give food. Last Continental flight I was on, I got a 3" diameter mini pizza (if you want to call it that) on the way out, and a weird little slider sized burger thing that I think they pulled out of a frozen dinner. I pack sandwiches when I fly.

My mother told me she flew on Air Japan about 20 years ago and was served cold soba noodles with grilled salmon, best airline meal she ever had she says.

When I was young I remember once eating chow mein (actual chow mein, not crunchy orange noodles) with shrimp and broccoli. I remember it being pretty good. I also remember once getting shrimp cocktail because our landing time got delayed a few hours because of weather or something so we got an extra meal. Again this was probably 10-15 years ago.

I flew United to Amsterdam and Argentina within the past year and a half and the food was alright. I wasn't really flying for the food on the airplane, I was flying for the food in these two cities! :)

I had the privilege of sitting in business and first class because I flew with a United employee. There they served menus written by Charlie Trotter. The menus sounded good but the actual food I ate did not seem to be within his caliber.

Hillary
Chew on That

@jcrisco: so www.airlinemeals.net's posts are mostly years old ... too bad, as it's a great idea. Okay then, my only recent transatlantic experience is Coach class on Delta and KLM. Delta in Coach is really bad--the cliche rubber chicken sort of thing. KLM was marginally better. My girlfriend flies United in Coach fairly often between Washington and Brussels, and she says it's really bad as well. I've never flown Virgin.

Other than flying Business class, my best advice, if you have time, is to eat a good dinner before the eastbound flight (which I assume leaves in the evening) and skip the nasty evening meal on the plane. If you have time to prepare one, you could indeed bring a snack and/or something to eat in the morning if you're the type who's picky about breakfast. I'm content to have coffee and the banana, muffin or yogurt that's often offered as the sun comes up (at least that's what Delta seems to offer, along with a hot breakfast item), as the plane will be landing in a couple more hours. The rubbery omelette or whatever hot breakfast item is offered is easily skipped, knowing that there's only a couple more hours to go.

Personally, I wish airlines would stop trying to serve these farcical restaurant-esque meals and just offer sandwiches on transatlantic flights, as it's harder to screw that up. A turkey sandwich for "dinner" and some bread and cheese for breakfast, with a piece of fruit as a snack, would be just fine.

When living in the UK, I traveled on Virgin, which had pretty good food. Continental (3rd class, anyway, was wretched). I usually sleep and don't eat during flights, but I did like to get a sandwich from Boots or Pret a Manger beforehand.

Last spring I flew British Airways, and while the food wasn't fantastic, it was at least recognizable. Nothing was too horrendous, but I guess with my low expectations, that might not be saying much. As far as packing food, think light and un-smelly, but personally I would make sure that you have both sweet and savory, like some crackers and cheese, but also maybe fruit snacks or chocolate. Nine hours is a long flight, and you don't want to limit your snacking options. =)

Oh also -- bagels! Especially if you can get some kind of schmear on the plane without the TSA having a cow. Bagels are great because they're completely portable (and totally delish!).

The last flight I was on, it was supposed to be a 2-hour flight and we got beverages and small packages of something. Maybe pretzels.

We ended up on that plane for nine hours. Me, in a middle seat between two strangers. I had impulsively purchased bottled water and some snacks before I got onboard, and boy was I happy to have them. Except of course, that I was in a middle seat between two hungry strangers.

At about hour five, they ran out of everything, including drinking water. At hour seven, I would have jumped, if they offered a parachute.

If I ever have to fly again, I will pack as much food and beverage as they will allow.

a proscuitto sandwich with olive oil and arugula and plenty of water -- a couple of oranges cut up in a zip lock bag .... and whatever little treat that makes you happy.

British Airways business class food was quite lovely, and I actually had an amazing meal on the Chunnel of all places.