AS 140 -- ANC-PDX
6/13/13

Lunch

Warm (pressed-formed) turkey sandwich with small green salad, cilantro dressing, and a white chocolate lemon candy.

The salad was crisp romaine, a nice switch from the often limp mixed baby greens that are frequently served.



(I seem to be having trouble with photo uploads this evening. Please use your imagination ... )

I want to try that lemon drop chocolate. I need to fly more evening flights. I'm always on the morning ones

At least the cheese did not stand alone.

13 June, DFW-SEA 7:30 PM departure.

Cheese ravioli with red sauce and spaghetti squash on the side. I thought it was excellent. For an airplane meal. Warm nuts before and cookies after.

AS 137 -- PDX-ANC
6/17/13

Rotini pasta topped with a meaty red sauce, accompanied by lemony broccoli rabe and a white-chocolate lemon drop candy from Seattle Chocolates.

This was billed as a snack (this is consistent with #137) but in reality it was more like a light supper. Seat mate and I both thought it was tasty and - dare I say it? - it didn't even need the salt/pepper that came on the tray.

AS387 SFO-PDX. The usual vanilla flavored yogurt with homemade granola, blueberries, and half of a strawberry . I opted out of the yogurt, took the rest with milk.

June 26, 2013 AS Flight 154, ANC-LAX 11:30 AM Departure. Meal service was lunch.



Salad



Main Course-Baked Cod



Dessert



The salad was fresh with ripe watermelon. The cod was cooked perfectly, very flaky & moist. The Peach Cobbler was a complete disappointment. The peaches were so hard & flavorless that I gave up on them. Overall a very good & substantial lunch

July 1 2013 AS Flight 149 LAX-ANC 7:30 PM departure. This turned out to be a full dinner service and the food was very good overall:

Menu


Salad

Entre-Beef Provencal


Dessert


Sorry about the photo quality. The glass in the picture had something to do with that

6/29 SEA-SJC
Departure: 6:00am
Scheduled flight time: 1:57

Low fat vanilla yogurt with a mountain of granola on top, with 9 blueberries and a quarter of a strawberry, stem removed. No salt and pepper.

6/30 SJC-PDX
Departure: 6:45pm
Flight time: something like 1:37?

Hot pressed parts turkey sandwich with 17 leaves of spring mix lettuce and raspberry vinaigrette. Salt and pepper provided. Seattle Chocolate too.

7/1 PDX-SNA #584
7/3 SAN-PDX #577

Both flights had the same snack. Chicken thigh and side salad. Smelled nice but did not eat on either flight.

Chocolate was the lemon.

I've been telling myself I should post more, and even taking pictures to do so, but I never seem to put the posts up, so, while I'm on AS 648 today, I decided to put up a few of the more memorable (i.e. ones I remembered to take pictures of) ones from recent flights.

AS 28 SEA->FLL May (23?)



Light (turkey?) half sammy and small salad. No chocolate :{. Slept until landing so I don't recall if they did breakfast.

AS 27 FLL->SEA May 27



Menu



Fruit plate with the always lovely touch of the hollowed out orange shell.



Quiche, it looked and smelled good, but I didn't try it.



Beef Hash. I was very skeptical about this entree, but it was what was left. As it transpired, it was VERY good. Indeed, I was quite disappointed that it wasn't an option when I took AS27 again in June.

Chocolates were served both directions, of course.

I've had some of the other transcon meals that have been posted in here and they're fine, and some of the Hawai'i meals look downright delicious.

How, then, has AS managed to go so wrong on their medium haul? My staple (read 2-3x monthly) is TUS->SEA (or reverse). In the past year I've had a variety of decent sammys, including the turkey breast sandwich. While it was getting a *bit* old, it provided a solid meal.

In the past month, I feel I've been the butt of a cruel joke perpetrated on hapless AS F class passengers by the health food movement. I don't have pictures of all of the travesties, but in order of ascending criminality against good eating:

Exhibit A:

AS 677 DEN->SEA (June 30)



I'm not sure exactly what part of the chicken this piece of meat came from, as it looked inedibly covered with gristle. On the upside, it was so well cooked that the gristle was (more or less) edible. On the downside, wayyy too much pesto. I noticed a number of passengers who saw the food and didn't eat it after seeing it. At least it had a chocolate.

I saw a repeat of this (or something substantially similar on AS 370 SEA->SMF and on an SFO->PDX flight (don't remember which one).

Exhibit B:

AS 369 SMF->SEA (July 13)



Quinoa Salad!!! Quinoa is quite possibly the cruelest culinary prank ever played upon a gullible public, and Alaska's preparation did it no favors. On the upside (I guess) it came with salt and pepper packet. No chocolate, and it was served on a plate not on a tray (no cloth napkin, just a paper napkin and the plate). The steward on this flight was excellent, though. I also saw this from PDX to LAX, I think (didn't get it).

Exhibit C:

AS 648 SEA->TUS (July 14 *today*)



And this, ladies and gentlemen of FT proves beyond a reasonable doubt that this summer's menu is some sort of an evil test, designed to see what depths the flying public is willing to tolerate before they stand up and demand "I want one of those delicious smelling Reuben sandwiches from the back". This flight did it for me. On a 3+ hour flight, leaving before 10am and getting in at 1pm my lunch was to consist of a dollop of hummus, and a few sticks of vegetables?

I have not asked for a meal from coach in a long, long time (It's a kind of high maintenance thing to do), but for once, I broke down to the delicious smell of warm Rubens from the cart in the back. Many thanks to the FA who refused to take my money after I explained that I was extremely hung over and that vegetables quite simply weren't going to cut it and I needed protein and carbs.

All kidding aside, I sort of get the quinoa salad on some of the ~ 90 minute west coast routes, but on the Tucson flight, especially over lunch time, a real, solid meal is needed.

Also, as I've said before, they should really cater more chocolates, especially on the late flights, when I'd like nothing better than to nibble a few chocolates with some coffee. Yes, I know I can buy my own, but the whole point of the F food is that I shouldn't have to bother with bringing my own.

In any case, to sum up a very busy 45 days of flying for me, AS customer service and crew have been exemplary, the food ... not so much.

SEA-SJC 11 July (4:10pm departure). Quinoa salad with small green side salad pictured above. No chocolate. It looked like about half the cabin passed.

SJC-SEA 14 July (6:50pm departure). Small BBQ sandwich, a little larger than a slider, with cole slaw on the side. Mimosa chocolate. The sandwich was pretty tasty, the bread crisp and not soggy. I'd have liked a larger portion but OK for the length of flight.

AS #140 ANC-PDX
7/15/2013
11:00 AM Departure

Lunch in F consisted of warm, BBQ pulled pork on a roll accompanied by a peppery cole slaw and a "mimosa" flavored Seattle Chocolate.

The sammie was filling but could have used a better pork-to-bread ratio. From what I could see, most of the cabin opted into having the lunch and it seemed like a reasonable right amount of food for most folks on the 3 1/2 hour flight.

Verdict? Keep the BBQ pork on the rotating lunch menu -- it's a keeper.



On the other hand, if they ever try to feed me that nasty-looking quinoa salad that WhIteSidE posted I'm going to throw a tantrum so loud it will be heard across the entire AS route system.

July 7th 2013
BLI-HNL
F
5.5 hrs
Dinner service


(Haven't identified if it is chicken or not)


This was pretty good. The fellow next to me had the pork dish, and it also looked good. I should have asked if I could take a picture! lol


SO YUM!!!


Sorry for the big photos! Will try to reduce!