This isn't very original, but I feel I just have to write about the best meal I have ever had on a plane (by a long way), namely the Kaiseki meal served this morning as brunch in Cathay Pacific First Class from HKG to NRT.

For those of you who have not felt adventurous enough to try this previously, you really should summon up the "courage" - there is nothing too "distressing" for a reasonably cosmopolitan western palate, and while I am by no means an expert on Japanese cuisine, if I had had this meal in a restaurant I would not have blinked at a bill of, say, US$100+.

And for those of you who have only ever experienced US airline meals then I guess it's hard even to imagine what you are missing!

Here, in all its glory, is the menu from today's flight:

*****************************************

Canapes
Fried Ginkgo Nut ... Fish Cake with Chestnut ... Deep-fried Persimmon Slice
Shaped Fish Paste in Maple Leaf ... Sea Tangle Roll with Fish
Skewered Gingko Nut and Cheese Ball ... Shiitake Mushroom Cake

Liquer
Plum Wine with Soda

Appetizer
Salmon Tataki Style ... Egg Sheet Roll with Cuttlefish
Sushi Roll with Toro Paste

Clear Soup
Fish Cake with Autumn Vegetable ... Purple Chrysanthemum

Braised Dish
Yam Paste Ball with Chrysanthemum ... Sticky Sauce with Buckwheat Seed

Hot Dish
Broiled Snapper with Chestnut Slice ... Broiled Scallop

Vinegared Dish
Braised Vegetable with Bean Curd Skin

Noodle
Yuzu Orange Noodle and Green Tea Noodle

Rice Dish
Steamed Rice or Congee ... Miso Soup

Assorted Pickles

Fruit
Fresh Seasonal Fruits

Beverages
Ginjyo-sake ... Green Tea ... Mineral Water

*****************************************

I suspect some people find it daunting because they think they have to choose items from this menu, but, no, you get all of it. The only choice is "rice or congee"? (I would take rice unless you have acquired the taste for congee)

The canapes are served first, before they set the table.

Then after laying up, the liquer and appetizers together: I could drink a lot of that plum wine - it goes very well with the food.

The third tray is the Soup and braised dish together.

The fourth contains all the other dishes except the fruit.

Two different types of soy sauce are served as appropriate for the different courses.

All of this is impeccably presented, and the quality of the food is very high (as, of course, is the usual superb Cathay service). I particularly liked the Orange Noodle which was a very nice taste I hadn't experience before.

Of course one of the great things about Japanese food is although you seem to be eating a lot it all sits very lightly on the stomach.

And although this was the morning flight, I reckoned the sun was over the yardarm by the time we were an hour out of Tokyo, so I couldn't resist having my arm twisted by the lovely Stella to take a glass (or two) of the excellent Chateau Lynch Bages 1997. (I find it easier to drink on its own than the 1994, which they also have onboard and which would go well with something like roast lamb since it has much stronger tannins.)

So here I am sitting in the lounge in Tokyo waiting for my return flight this evening (free mileage run on a OW RTW ticket). And guess what I'm going to have for dinner?


[This message has been edited by christep (edited 09-21-2003).]