Thursday, May 11, 2006

SQ's Hindu (Non-Vegetarian) Meal

The Hindu meal on SQ

A Chinese friend of mine once told me that she'll pre-order one of the Indian meals on SQ when she can, not only because you get served ahead of everyone else, but also because it is oftentimes better than the normal meals served from the carts. Seeing that I've been getting a bit sick of airplane food lately, I figured that I'd give this strategy a shot.

Boy, did that totally pay off. This was awesome. Not only did I get served first, but the food was really good (I opted for the "Hindu (Non-Vegetarian) Meal: No beef/veal; contains other types of meat, may include pork" variety). The starter was some kind of a spicy fish salad that didn't go overboard in the curry flavor, while the centerpiece of the meal was a kickass combination of rice, spicy dal, and a fish with a surprising overtone of garlic and a very mildly sour touch. The meal ended with a sticky rice and coconut-based cake that really sealed the deal. (I wonder if that last one was more Thai than Indian though...the labels on the food actually said that this meal was packed by Thai Airways catering).

What's interesting too is the huge number of "Special Meals" that SQ has available for pre-ordering, ranging from religious (Kosher, Muslim, and Hindu) to six varieties of vegetarian (to account for vegan and ovo-lacto varieties as well as different cooking styles like Chinese vs Indian vs Western and even "raw") to a mindblowingly long list of medical types (low sodium, low fat, non-carb, diabetic, and even "ulcer diet" and "bland" meals, among others - wow!) as well as child/infant, Japanese, and even Chinese-style meals. Geez - this stuff is more than what is available from Raffles Class Book the Cook!

Well, I won't try to abuse this too much since these are obviously provided for very legitimate reasons that I really don't qualify for (I did feel a bit guilty for ordering it), but I've gotta say that I did like this enough that I wouldn't mind trying to get one of these meals from time to time. It sure looked better than my neighbor's "chicken with potatoes" (the other cart alternative was "fish with rice" - ugh!).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dunno when you will see this post, but the lovely dessert u had is pretty common on TG flights.

tanya said...

I'm guilty of this, too! Now I regret when I forget to pre-order the Hindo meal and inevitably end up with black pepper chicken stir-fry.

We did it recently on a flight Singapore - Cairo and got dosa masala for breakfast!

http://www.idreamofdurian.com/2011/12/hindu-non-veg-meal-on-singapore.html