To be honest, this whole Business/First menu thing that bloggers like to obsess about and post pictures always seemed pretty silly to me... you're eating airplane food regardless of what ticket class you fly. I don't care what airline you're traveling with, you're getting a plate of microwaved slop and it's going to be disgusting. I'm flying Business with UA in 3 weeks and frankly, I don't care if they roll out a porterhouse steak... I'm not touching anything they serve me on an airplane. If you want a good meal, eat before your flight or pack it yourself. Even a mediocre and overpriced meal in an airport will more often than not, be better than what you're getting served on the airplane, regardless of what class you choose to fly.
Originally Posted by
sdsearch
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.
Good food will taste good 35,000 feet in the sky or 20,000 leagues under the sea. What leads to "strange" dishes is 100% about cost and bottom-line for the carriers. They're outsourcing meals to catering companies that provide similar meals for all the airlines based on cost efficiency; simple as that.