Up in the air
I chose Cathay Pacific for my flight to New Zealand, and found the food in business class to be very good. There were two long legs to the journey: London to Hong Kong, and then after a wait there, Hong Kong to Auckland. Both were night flights, so they started with dinner and finished with breakfast. The actual starter was a glass of champagne, which I was delighted to find was a Billecart Salmon (their brut rose is a favourite). The first dinner began with a chicken confit terrine with puy lentil salad. I just picked at it because there is always more food on planes than I can eat. (The circumstances were not right for taking photos, I’m afraid).
For my main course I chose a spinach and ricotta tortellini with a lemon cream sauce and balsamic tomatoes. To my surprise the pasta was about right, al dente, and the sauce nicely piquant. With it I drank a Waimea Estates Spinyback sauvigon blanc. I declined the raspberry chocolate brownie torte with raspberry compote, as I did the cheeses and the Dow’s late bottled vintage port. Perhaps as a result I had a fair night’s sleep and was more than ready for breakfast.
The tropical fruits were very fresh indeed, and there was something called “bircher muesli” I hadn’t met. It was like a mueslui mixed with yoghurt, and contained some cruchy chunks of something like celery. I didn’t eat the goat’s cheese and herb frittata that was offered, but did enjoy fresh-squeezed orange juice and coffee.