Mmmm good

Airplane food ... years ago it used to be served on flights in the U.S. It was salty, tasteless, and smelled up the plane worse than a Diet, Low Sodium, Half the Calorie, Roasted Salmon Budget Gourmet meal smells up the lunch room at work. However, times have changed ... nowadays if you want to eat on your flight, you have to pony up $14 for 6 Triscuits, 2 Fig Newtons, and a box of raisins that are all congealed together.

Chinese airlines, however, have not yet adopted the "pay to eat" concept on their domestic flights. You get a meal on EVERY flight ... even a short 45 minute trek provides one with a little sustenance for the descent. The food, though, leaves a bit to be desired. The choices from the lovely flight attendants are often "meat or fish." Now, we don't know about you but the definition of meat in our book can take on a number of possibilities. It could be beef, chicken, pork ... heck maybe even lamb. The definition in China, though, can be even broader. Thus, we typically stay away from the entree and just take the box of goodies that accompanies the fragrant meat or fish.

On a recent flight, the meal contained two staples in the "box of goodness" ... apple chips and a plain roll. Both aren't bad and all of us enjoyed them. The other two add-ons in the box were a bit out of the ordinary ... "Yi Lin Dried Radish" and "Onion Cookies with Original Flavour." We don't know about you, but radishes aren't at the top of our food chain to begin with and when you add the elements of dehydration, random oils, and spices, those puppies are headed straight to the garbage.

The onion cookies were almost tempting just because of the marketing slogan on the outside of the package "First Class all the way. Alliance regal presentation is distinctive both inside and out." Looks like a shortbread tastes like an onion ... that, my friends, is certainly distinctive!