Korean Air: The Limits of Food on Air

Korean Air is known to offer one of the best airline foods. My expectation wasn't too hard nonetheless because it is extremely difficult to cook delicious food that had been pre-cooked and heated prior to being served.

During my 10:20am flight to JFK, lunch was served about 90 minutes into flying. The passengers were given a choice between bibimbop with "Gondre" vegetable rice or beef dish. I don't trust pre-packed, mass produced meat so I easily went with the former option.

In the large bowl were three different types of vegetables (radish, spinach, and some other greens) and ground beef.

On the way to Incheon, I had a regular bibimbop with white rice, but this one had the added Gondre vegetables. The white rice also tasted seasoned.

Put them all together and mix! Sadly the rice was way too sticky and it kept clumping together. I had to put some spoonfuls of seaweed soup in the rice to make it easier to mix. The bibimbop tasted average. I have a spoiled taste in bibimbop because I usually eat it in a hot stone pot that keeps the dish warm throughout the entire meal.

About four hours before landing, we were served dinner. The meals on the plane is so systematic: you eat and drink when you are offered. At first I chose the "Korean rice cake" dish because the stewardess said it had no meat. When I opened the package, the first thing I saw were pieces of beef. I changed the menu to the Chinese style seafood dish with fried rice.

Without an exaggeration, this was absolutely inedible. The fried rice was bland and flavorless, and the "seafood" rice had 3 pieces of jerky squids and a huge, FRIED, and extremely dry fish in awful black/brown sauce. I could taste extreme amount of sodium.

The jellyfish on the left was also very tough that I kept chewing and chewing but it won't disappear. The lychee had weird texture.

Underneath the fried surface was disgusting scales. I can't believe Korean Air would serve such thing.

Mediocre In-Flight Meals from Korean Air

During the 13 hours and 50 minutes flight to Korea via the Korean Air, I was served two meals of mediocre quality. The Korean Air is known as an airline with one of the better in-flight meals. About 90 minutes after boarding, the stewardess served us lunch. I had a choice among bibimbop, beef, and chicken, and of course I--craving some Korean food--went with the good ole Korean food.

The meal consisted of Korean pickles, pineapple pieces, sticky rice, a bowl of ground beef, spinach, bean sprouts, mushroom, and squash, and seaweed soup. I started with the instant soup, which was surprisingly tasty. It warmed my body. I then had the pineapple, except I spitted it out because I got the hard pieces without any sweet taste. Instead of putting the rice into the bowl and mixing all the ingredients together with the red paste, I mixed the rice and the vegetables separately. I am a huge fan of bibimbop, my favorite Korean food, so the meal itself tasted pretty decent. I prefer the bibimbop served in a hot stone pot, but of course that won't be feasible 10,000 feet above ground.

Five hours before arrival, we had dinner. This time there was no Korean food on the menu. Instead I was left with the choice among beef, chicken, or fish. I eliminated fish right away because I didn't want some old dry piece of fish to ruin my love for it. I also wanted to eat rice, so I chose the beef dish, which had a side of rice with some sesame seeds. Sadly, this was one of the worst airline meals I have ever had. The beef was extremely high in sodium and the rice tasted bland without any flavors. The orange pieces were smothered in mayonnaise so I didn't even touch it, while the chocolate cake was 3/4 cream and 1/4 super dry chocolate cake. The pretzel bread was nice because it was warm and tasted like it just came out of the oven!