good airplane food

I'm a firm believer in credit where credit is due. I have been known to send written letters to restaurants, thank you cards even, when I've had an exceptional experience. All too often, I fear, we gripe about the bad incidents and spread word of them. Any of you done that? Hands up? If so, then step back and think whether you have done the reverse.

We all like appreciation.

That in mind, let me tell you that United Airlines gave me a meal on Saturday that I would have been happy with in a restaurant (albeit plated differently). No, really. Oh, the salad was salad - simple, green, fine. The mai tais?
Tasty to me, but Conrad - ever a stickler after so many work trips to Hawai'i - was less enthused (though we agree that the ones at the Four Seasons Manele Bay poolside bar were just not good). Dessert? A warm chocolate chip cookie. Yum, though not setting the culinary world afire (on the other hand, I have friends who are cookie fiends and who would have wanted nothing more than that soft warm delight).

Ah, but the entree. The entree. Hold on, what was it? Not trying to be funny here. I can tell you that there was salmon, artichoke, tomatoes, potatoes. The sauce had cremini mushroom (in small enough doses that I actually liked having them there). The fish was terrific - cooked through, not medium at all, but moist throughout and flaking apart nicely. No, it's the sauce that eludes us. Sweet, almost candylike, which, I know, sounds dire. But this teetered on the edge of too sweet, flirted with it, and pulled back. Maddening, maddeningly good. Marsala? Not vanilla, I don't think. What was it?

I let the flight attendant know that it genuinely was one of the best dishes I've ever had on an airplane (and I've actually had a few good ones), and she was delighted to hear that. I'll fill out a United survey, too, just so they know.

The snack later in the flight? Much simpler: toasted turkey and cheese sandwich. And even that was good. Two for two United? Nicely done, and with thanks for giving me no reason at all to moan and groan about airline food. A vacation started quite well.