Originally Posted by TMOliver

Well, I can certainly expect that the steak will be poor, therefore should any of the alternative choices not be "poorer", I'll order them.

As for the red wine, 55 years ago, I arrived, not much of a wins drinker at 22, in my first Italian liberty port. On an ensign's modest pay, I often opted by "cheaper wines", out of the barrel over the bar or the "crown-capped' market variety which back then, the lira at 640 to the dollar, sold for about 300 lira for a liter bottle. At 50 cents you could go wrong, but soon developed a broadly inclusive palate.

Later in life, my income still modest, I regularly bought wine from the "bathtub" just inside the front doors of "Fiesta" markets, truly discriminating vintages for $2.00 or less, and later found a couple of drinkable sorts of "2 Buck Chuck", Trader Joe's principal offering.

Yes, I've encountered some less than grand wines on airlines, but never one incapable of dulling the pain and easing the boredom, always better than the steaks.