I hope DL people that look through this site pick this up. I just took an Asia flight with a PDX-NRT segment. I usually go through SEA or LAX but commuter flight to PDX was better scheduled. The PDX outbound flight I was on had the worst airline food I can remember in the last 15 years. I have very very low standard when it comes to economy food and this was 10 levels below that...

Main meal was a choice of two nasty-tasting Asian options. It's not the Asian flavor that's the issue, it was the preparation. The rice was about to turn sludge but not congee-type of good sludge. They used long-grain rice and used so much water, the rice was barely holding its shape. Once in your mouth, it turns into liquid powder. The beef was bland, chewy as rubber and the external breading of some sort was soaked in grease. The bread was some sort of pretzel bread - rock-hard both inside and outside. It was served freezer-cold which make it even harder. The bread was hard enough to scuff the plasticware used to serve the meal.

The arrival meal was even worse. It was a bagel sandwich that probably has been sitting in the heating area much of the 8+ hours. The bagel surface was wet and soggy from the condensing of the steam in the plastic bag. The processed cheese was separating and dripping all over. The plastic bag was so hard to open, that when you finally rip it apart, you have the liquid condensation, separated cheese grease and clasping egg flying everywhere...

I would usually finish the inflight meal because of the small portion and I would be hungry after many hours of running around prior to the flight. I left much of the food uneaten. My seatmate barely put a dent in her food and complain it was not edible. I also overheard some Asian passengers cursing in Chinese and Japanese that the food was completely inedible and they would not fly Delta again. The only edible items were the prepackaged cookie and Yoplait greek yogurt, which most passengers ate.

On my next segment, the NRT-originating Japan-prepared food was much much better and fall in more closely to the normal Delta standard.

NRT-bound flights are flagship products for Northwest and when Delta acquired Northwest, it did a reasonably good job and kept up the quality, so DL can be competitive against the Asian airlines. Everything is mostly acceptable until this flight. In short, DL needs to fire the catering service used in at PDX. If they cannot find decent cooks in PDX, they should probably get rid of all PDX-departing international flights. Airline meals are never good, but the Delta PDX-departing meals are truly a new low and disgrace to Delta and US airlines.