Fullboy - Not all airplane food is bad!

I’ve flown with Emirates before, two years ago when I left England to go and teach in Korea and one thing I remember about the flight is of course, the food. This is because the food was actually pretty good and if you’ve flown economy class on any other airline before, you will know that this is not usually the case. So, with expectations high and belly grumbling, I was ready for the first meal of my travels. I can’t remember the exact wording of the rather glamorous menu because I forgot to take one with me but the starter was a good old fashioned prawn cocktail with a piece of smoked salmon. This was gone in seconds because I was so hungry and it was only a small portion but from what I tasted, it was good,. The prawns were fairly big and juicy and the marie rose sauce wasn’t too overpowering. The main course was a lamb and spinach curry with saffron rice and butterbeans, coconut and ginger. It was a generous portion of lamb and the chunks were large, tender and very tasty. The sauce was rich, thick and aromatic and all in all, it was a really good airplane meal.

It wasn’t long before I was hungry again and I decided that I wanted more food in Dubai airport. Melissa was gently trying to dissuade me from eating as we were going to be fed on the next plane to Kuala Lumpur but, as on so many previous occasions, my belly won. In fact, I already had my mind set on eating at the airport because the last time I was there, I ashamedly have to admit that I went to McDonalds, which wasn’t that great. The only reason I went to McDonalds is because they had a burger called a ‘McArabia’, which was in essence a pitta bread stuffed with three hamburger patties, lettuce, tomatoes and a mystery Arabian sauce. I just had to try the ‘McArabia’, my stomach regretted it later though.

This time we tried to look for something a little more local. This proved to be harder than we thought as we walked past the ubiquitous chains such as Starbucks, McDonalds (still serving the McArabia), Costa Coffee, etc, etc. We needed a drink so we stopped a little café called Cozi. Scouring the menu looking for anything remotely local we decided to settle on hummus as this was the most authentically Arabian thing we could find on the menu.

I had 30 United Arab Emirate dirhams leftover from my last trip to Dubai airport (around a fiver), and the hummus came to 15 dirhams which meant I could afford a large coke as well… yeah! Eating hummus is a favourite past-time of mine and Melissa’s and this meal took us back to our student days in Manchester where I would buy a crusty baguette from Sainsbury’s and a tub of hummus from the deli and we would sit in front of the TV and watch nonsense. We always associate hummus with the first series of ‘Big Brother’, oh… the lazy student days of bliss. Anyway… back to the real hummus.

When you’ve eaten real hummus, you realise that the stuff you eat from your the supermarket is not real hummus. A generous tub of hummus arrived at our table with a few whole chickpeas resting on top and a lovely puddle of light green olive oil waiting to be mixed in with the mass of pureed chickpeas. It was lightly flavoured with cumin and garnished with olive oil. The flatbreads were light, warm and perfect for dipping and both Melissa and I fully enjoyed our pre-plane snack.