Your sense of taste (and smell) works very differently at the very low air pressure that planes have to have at 35000 feet, and so dishes which taste great on the ground may taste not so good at 35000 feet. So airlines (to varying degrees) put some thought into designing in-flight meals which will taste reasonable in-flight (not caring how they taste on the ground).
This hunt for things that taste better at 35000 feet (rather than how they taste on the ground) is part of what leads to what some people find to be "strange" dishes.