I fly BOS-SFO today. And had a pretty glorious meal, although I should have heeded
dw warning about the fish
. The pork shoulder though was restaurant quality, as in, *good* restaurant quality, as was the raddichio salad. Highly recommend both.
Welcome Snack: Grissini.
To start, we finally had something other than a bag of nuts! Not that grissini is all that exciting, and I really do miss the days of fun root veggie chips and dips, but, this was a step up from nuts. The grissini were crispy, slightly cheesy, and kinda fun, although they desperately called out for wanting a dip.
Pretty please JetBlue, can we go back to yucca or taro chips, and that insanely delicious caramelized onion dip? Please!
**+.
Lunch! As always, meals are served on one tray, including the melty gelato. It is always a frantic prioritization question for me, particularly as I had two hot dishes (I generally go for the two salads).
I was fairly pleased with my selections, although I do wish I had heeded the reviews of others who said the fluke was not a winner, and selected the lasagna or butternut squash salad instead. The others though, both very, very good.
Radicchio Salad.
"Apples, prosciutto, apple cider vinaigrette, walnuts."
Bitter radicchio, juicy sweet apples, crunchy walnuts ... this sounded like a very well composed salad! And, bonus, prosciutto! That said, I've had some horribly overdressed salads on my JetBlue flights lately, so I was cautious.
Although it wasn't quite what I expected, I was quite pleased with the dish. My second favorite of my choices, and I'd gladly get it again.
The radicchio was large chunks, fresh, crisp, and super bitter. I loved the radicchio, although I think that it would be a more approachable dish if it was mixed with something like frisee. I appreciated the large chunks.
The apple wasn't actually fresh crisp apple slices, rather, it was roasted? Soft, kinda mushy, but, I liked it. I didn't find any walnuts, so the crunch I was expecting from those too was not present. The prosciutto was also not quite what I expected, it was crispy little bits, almost bacon-like, but, "fancy". The prosciutto had good flavor.
And then, the dressing, which at first did look possibly over-done, was quite good. I don't normally go for vinaigrettes, but this was a creamy vinaigrette, and was a nice match with the rest of the dish.
So, overall, definitely good. Crispy fresh radicchio, creamy dressing, interesting toppings ... I'd gladly get it again, and it was certainly restaurant quality. Walnuts would have improved it though.
****.
Brown Butter Fluke. "
Capers, brussels sprouts, lemon vinaigrette."
Next up, the fluke. I was happy with this dish in concept. Sure, airline fish is always dried out and overcooked, but, fluke! What a treat! And I am one of those people who actually likes brussels sprouts, so, this sounded fantastic. Although ... of course I wanted a creamy aioli or tartar sauce with it (which, yes, I brought!).
Reviews I had read said this dish was not good, and, sadly, I agreed.
The fish, very thin fillets, was very, very dry. And, yes, it really needed a sauce. I didn't find the lemon vinaigrette anywhere, and it certainly would have benefited from some acid from the lemon. It also was rather salty, and I like a high salt level. The brown butter taste was there, but it was actually just too greasy from it.
I did like the brussels sprouts, but, there was only 2 small pieces. The capers, slightly crispy, were great in concept, but also were too greasy.
So, yeah. Nothing about this I particularly cared for.
**.
Pork Shoulder. "
Red pepper mostarda, tuscan spices, cracklings."
And lastly, the pork shoulder.
I had such fond memories of the pork shoulder from earlier in the year, particularly the cracklings and very flavorful broth, so I was pretty excited for this, although I don't generally care for mostarda AND I dislike red pepper.
And ... this delivered! A nice hunk of pork, juicy, not dried out, the fat rendered decently. Pork shoulder really can be quite glorious. It was well seasoned with "tuscan spices". It didn't even need a sauce, not something I often say.
The sauce though was good too. There seemed to be both the red pepper mostarda on one side of the plate, and a lighter broth on the other, that intermingled. Both were flavorful, and the mostarda was not as thick nor acidic as others I've had, instead, it actually was more like a sweet chili sauce? It was lightly sweet. I dunked some of my fish, and my raddicchio in it as well, as the pork really was so flavorful it didn't need it, but I didn't want to "waste" the delicious sauce. I bet it would be great to dunk bread into too ...
And ... the cracklings! Crispy and so very flavorful. Loved them. Points for the plating of this dish too, with the cracklings along the side.
Overall, just a slam dunk, fantastic dish. I'd be happy getting this in a restaurant, a nice restaurant at that.
****+.
Vanilla Gelato (#1). "Passion fruit jam, coconut shortbread crumble. "
So ... yeah. The gelato. I'm a huge ice cream fan, and miss the old offerings from a local ice cream shop in the city of departure, but, I do like the idea of a real composed ice cream sundae, and the gelato had always been very high quality before. That said, I've had pretty mixed success with the toppings, as most had sauces that just tended too sweet.
This one ... yeah. Actually the worst ice cream/gelato I've had on any JetBlue flight, ever. The passion fruit "jam" was a thin, watery sauce, and was shockingly bitter. Passion fruit should be sweet! And the "coconut shortbread crumble" was just ... coconut shreds?
For once, I was glad it was just a single scoop (it used to be 3!)
**.
Vanilla Gelato. (#2).
The gelato left me so sad ... that I asked for another, this time, without the passionfruit sauce. I did still want the crumble, but alas, it came as just the scoop of ice cream. I added my own sprinkles (yellow!), and caramel sauce (not pictured), because, um, yes, I had them with me.
I liked it better this way, and the gelato really was a lovely texture, it melted beautifully, and wasn't served too hard, but it didn't taste like much. I remembered it being far more vanilla forward before.
**+.