1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Hi everyone, welcome to Pudluck Food Talks. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:14,000 We're in a special live episode in a car driving to the airport. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,000 And we're going to talk about airport food. 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,000 So airport food. What do you think of when you think of airport food? 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Well, I think you're always like this prisoner customer, you know, in an airport. 6 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,000 I think that sums it up pretty well, yeah. 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,000 Yeah, so they can sell you shit for expensive and that's what they usually do. 8 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:35,000 That is what they do. 9 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Yeah. So my general opinion is I hate airport food. 10 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:40,000 Yeah. 11 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,000 You know, like there are exceptions, but usually it's like that. 12 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:44,000 Usually it's really, really shit. 13 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,000 But have you had experience of like airport food where you were like, wow, this is actually really good? 14 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,000 I would have to think about it. Yeah, yeah. 15 00:00:52,000 --> 00:01:00,000 Yeah, some maybe Madrid, I remember like some restaurants. I remember also one of Danny Garcia's places in Malaga. 16 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000 It was also okay, but not so many, to be honest. 17 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000 I've actually had a few. 18 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:16,000 Like I remember going back to Spain like after like a long time and being in the, I think it was like the Barcelona airport or was it the Madrid airport? 19 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:25,000 But like and then I went to this like little like airport tapas bar and had a piece of tortilla and it wasn't the best tortilla of my life, obviously. 20 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:33,000 But it was still a tortilla and I was like, fuck yeah, you know, like no bullshit like wiener sausage or like no bullshit. 21 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,000 I don't know. Just always Burger King McDonald's. 22 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:41,000 It was just kind of nice because it was like a little sort of like local kind of thing. 23 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:50,000 But I've actually, you know, like I had really good experiences in airports in Asia, like especially, I mean, Tokyo, great. 24 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:59,000 Hong Kong, really nice. Like there's this like it's not really a fast food chain, but it's kind of like a chain and they do like breakfast stuff. 25 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:08,000 So they do like tea and especially dim sums and, you know, like the lotus leaf with the steamed glutinous rice and stuff like that. 26 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,000 And you can buy these like little trays of like kits. So you like choose a kit. 27 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,000 You get a soup, you get a tea, you get like a dim sum or like whatever. 28 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:19,000 And that sounds amazing. And it was super nice. 29 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:28,000 Eight o'clock in the morning, like steamed glutinous rice and a bit of tea like gets you going way more than like a shitty Parma Chocolat and like a crap coffee. 30 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:34,000 I remember having a super good New York pizza. It was like a Brooklyn pizza company in New York. 31 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,000 And that was really nice, you know, like charcoal oven in the airport. 32 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:41,000 Yeah, that was super nice as well. 33 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:48,000 Oh, you know, also one thing is like I'm a big fan of like fast food restaurants, you know, like. 34 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:54,000 Yeah, yeah, questionable. But I'm a I'm, you know, outspoken fan of Raisin Canes. 35 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:00,000 Okay. You know, Raisin Canes is a fried chicken fast food chain from the States. 36 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:12,000 And when I was living in the in the Emirates, I used to often fly over over Abu Dhabi and they had a Raisin Canes there. 37 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:18,000 And the thing with Raisin Canes is that it's always like whenever I get it, like it was the first time I had it, 38 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,000 I thought it was because it was in the States and was right in the morning. It's piping hot. 39 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:25,000 It's super fresh and it's super delicious. But there was the same in Abu Dhabi. 40 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:31,000 I had it twice and it's sort of like super crispy piping hot chicken. And it's just super good. 41 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:37,000 I actually know that they brine their chicken in like a like a salt brine with a little bit of MSG in it. 42 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000 So the good stuff. So that that helps. But it's just always really good. 43 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:48,000 What about airplane food? Like have you ever like nice experiences? 44 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:57,000 Not really. I feel like like airplane food is just like it's it's just bound to be shit, you know, like like how are you supposed to make it good? 45 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:03,000 It shouldn't really be that difficult to make it good, right? Like cook like a nice like beef stew, like a bef bohmenu. 46 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:09,000 I mean, I think you're underestimating the whole catering process to put food on a plane. 47 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:20,000 Like I went once to the headquarters of Do & Co, which is I would say the best catering company for airplanes in the world. 48 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:25,000 Well, not their headquarters because they're Turkish Austrians, the company itself. 49 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,000 But I went to the headquarters in Madrid. So it was like this place. 50 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Imagine a place like the size of 10 football fields, you know. And this was a kitchen, man. 51 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,000 Well, like with hundreds of workers, it was more like a factory, you know. 52 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:51,000 So there was like assembly lines where you would see like normal untrained people just assembling salads and stuff, you know, like building a nice caprese, putting the slices properly. 53 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:58,000 And then for me, the interesting part was the the place where where the actual chefs would work. 54 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:02,000 And how do you how do you say chipa in English? 55 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:10,000 Oh, I don't actually know. Yeah, yeah. So that's basically like imagine like a big square sort of machine. 56 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:17,000 That's basically one big frying pan slash stirring pot where you can cook like hundreds of liters at the same time. 57 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:23,000 Exactly. You can stew like, let's say, a half a ton of goulash in one of those machines. 58 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:36,000 Right. Yes. So it was funny because on one side you saw like factory workers, you know, like ladies disassembling salads. And on the other side was these machines and they were all tattooed chefs with neck tattoos. 59 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:43,000 You know, you could tell that they came like from from hard kitchens and they were cooking, you know, like 500 liters of demi-glace. 60 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:47,000 So imagine how to do that. Yeah, yeah. Pretty cool, actually. Yeah. 61 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:53,000 I think like a kippa, whatever that's called, I think it's a really underrated piece of equipment. 62 00:05:53,000 --> 00:06:00,000 Yeah. Because like nowadays they're like so precise, like you can like simmer things at a perfect temperature and stuff like that. It's really, really cool. 63 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:09,000 Yeah. And also they're multifunctional. You can use the same machines to steam, to fry, to pan fry, to stew, like to completely different things in the same pot. 64 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:14,000 You know, like you could actually run a restaurant with just one of those machines for sure. 65 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:19,000 If you're smart enough to do that. True. If you're smart enough. 66 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:26,000 I don't know, did you used to take like food on airplanes, like pack your own lunches and stuff? 67 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:33,000 Not really, not really, because I mean, for me, the airplane food is not good, but I mean, it's edible. 68 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:40,000 You know, like I go for that sometimes there's pasta with cheese. OK, you can't go wrong with that. 69 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:48,000 Well, you can. But I mean, the whole operation, going back to this place, because then you everything was cold there. 70 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:57,000 So they would assemble everything, put it on the trolleys. Then these trolleys go to the plane and they start heating them like I think like half an hour before. 71 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:01,000 So that everything is hot at the moment, you know, not delivering like for 200 people. 72 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:09,000 And actually something I learned that is interesting is that the, how do you say, Ariomasas, the stewards, the stewards on the plane. 73 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:24,000 They're not just servers, they're also officials, you know, like they can put your handcuffs and put you in jail because, you know, they're the people that in that jurisdiction, micro jurisdiction, which is a plane. 74 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:29,000 They're the responsible, first of all, of your life and that nothing happens to you. 75 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:34,000 And everything else is secondary, you know, like food and all that, you know, like, yeah. 76 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:42,000 So it's kind of like a tricky role they have, you know, because towards the public they look like stewards, but they're actually much more than that. 77 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:50,000 Yeah, for sure. I often feel like that when like people get upset when it's kind of like, you know, when they go through the aisles and sort of like, please put your seatbelt on. 78 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:56,000 And then some people, they're just like, oh, fuck these guys. And then they stop and they're sort of like, sorry, I really need you to put your seatbelt on. 79 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,000 Exactly. And then people get upset by that. 80 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:05,000 It's like they feel like they're just like a waiter or something. Exactly. And it's like, no, no, no, like you're in my house. 81 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:09,000 This is my house. And they shave. Yeah, exactly. It's like that. 82 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:13,000 Going back to food, what about bringing food to the plane? 83 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:25,000 Like I lately in these like last couple of years, I've been really bad at doing that, but also because I've been living for the last couple of years in like Arab countries and sort of like Asia. 84 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:36,000 And there I was kind of like, you know, like going to Singapore airport. I was like looking forward to eating airplanes, like airport food, because it's like a whole hawker market in Singapore. 85 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,000 I'm going to Singapore next Saturday, man, for 10 days. 86 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,000 Yeah. So like, be careful what you eat. 87 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:44,000 Do you have any recommendations? 88 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:45,000 Man. 89 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:46,000 In Singapore? 90 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,000 In Singapore, no, because I wasn't in Singapore. I was just at the airport. 91 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:50,000 Okay. 92 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,000 Go to the butterfly garden. It's very beautiful in the airport. 93 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:54,000 In the airport? 94 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,000 Yeah, it's a butterfly garden. But not a place to eat. 95 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,000 You can eat butterflies? 96 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:03,000 You can eat butterflies. I don't know how they would feel about you eating the butterflies. 97 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,000 Tastes a little crunchy. 98 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,000 Self-delivered snacks. 99 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:09,000 Okay. 100 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,000 But you can eat laksa. You can eat what else do they have. 101 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:15,000 Yeah, I don't know. 102 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:23,000 But even like places like Burger King, I feel like they're just kind of better in these like Asian countries, you know, because they have like spicy options and bond and like, 103 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,000 it's like kind of like more fresh and more hot, I feel like. 104 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:32,000 Yeah, I don't want to name any of these big, big changes, but that's actually my go-to options in airports, you know, because you know what it is. 105 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,000 You know what to get. You will get what you know you will get and that's it, you know? 106 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:42,000 Yeah, but I used to be much better with like bringing food to the airplane, especially sort of like fruit or something like that, you know, just like a little bit of like cut up fruit. 107 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:43,000 Yeah. 108 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:45,000 Or like even just like a nice sandwich, you know? 109 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,000 Yeah. 110 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:53,000 It makes a big difference actually and it just feels really good. It doesn't matter what shitty crappy cheap airline you're flying. 111 00:09:53,000 --> 00:10:12,000 If you bring out your little box of like cut fruit and like your little sort of rye bread and brie sandwich with a little bit of like thick compote, you know, like everybody else just looks like at you, like, you know, their plebs and you're just a little bit better than them. 112 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,000 You can show off, you know, like, yeah, exactly. 113 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:15,000 Loser. 114 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:29,000 Yeah, you have this moment where you just pack it out and you look at the fucking, you know, and you look at the like stinking mess of like chicken and mushroom sauce and you're just like, you enjoying that? 115 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,000 Is that nice? Yeah? No? 116 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:36,000 That sucks. See, I am an adult person that shit together so I attacked my own nuts. 117 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:41,000 I think the most iconic person bringing airplane food was probably Hannibal Lecter. Is that a real person? 118 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:44,000 No, it's not. It's not a real person. No, I don't think so. 119 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:49,000 I hope not. But what did he used to bring to airplanes? 120 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:58,000 Man, there's this super cool scene where I think it's in the second movie where he dissects the guy's brain and fries it in like caper butter. 121 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:04,000 And then there's like he escapes basically and then he is on the airplane. 122 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:08,000 He packs out this like really beautifully packed lunch with like a little bit of brain. 123 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:14,000 And there's this like I think it's like this little Asian boy who's kind of like peeking at him and then like starts talking to him. 124 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:17,000 And he's sort of like, what's that? What's that? What do you have there? 125 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:25,000 And Hannibal is like, Dr. Lecter. It's like, oh, you wouldn't like that, you know? 126 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,000 And the boy's like, would you like to try some? 127 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:33,000 And the boy's like, yeah. And then he gives him something to try and he's like, is that tasty? 128 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:39,000 And the boy's like, mm hmm. And he's like, you're a special little boy. 129 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,000 It's an amazing scene. The Hannibal movies are really good. 130 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:50,000 You know, I don't think if I mentioned this before in the podcast, but the Hannibal series was the consultant chef was Jose Andres. 131 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:53,000 Did we talk about this? Probably not. 132 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,000 He does fucking everything. 133 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:59,000 But like peel strawberries in the series or? 134 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:08,000 It's super cool to have a chef like, I mean, and it has to be like a super fun thing to do, you know, like, oh, I have to imagine, you know, like Hannibal recipes. 135 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,000 But that's the show with Matt Mickelson, right? 136 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:15,000 Like I never saw the show. I've never seen the show either. What people rave about it. 137 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:22,000 Yeah. And I guess the food scenes have to be interesting if they were developed by Jose Andres. 138 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:26,000 I also know that the food scenes from Ratatouille were developed by Thomas Keller. 139 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,000 Thomas Keller. Yeah. But you can really tell. 140 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:33,000 Yeah. Yeah. Also that the Ratatouille, the iconic Ratatouille, that's Thomas Keller, you know, the oldest style. 141 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:38,000 But that's like, I mean, you know, like it's iconic, you know, that's kind of why. 142 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,000 I don't know why, but like Thomas Keller style just has the certain magic about it. 143 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,000 Yeah. And it's super simple, right? Super simple. 144 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:52,000 It's kind of even hard to identify what it has to be because everything is very, you know, like filled with blocks and very simple, like, 145 00:12:52,000 --> 00:13:00,000 bam, sauce, protein, topping. That's it. I think he's the only chef who can put like a chive tip on top of a dish, like a single chive tip. 146 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:05,000 And it's kind of cool. Yeah. If anybody else would do that, you'd be like, what the fuck are you doing? 147 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:15,000 Just stop. Well, and also going back to this catering company I was talking about, they're also the ones that they have met. 148 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:23,000 I mean, like most major airlines are their client and one of their clients is Emirates. Yeah. 149 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:29,000 It's probably the airline with the most expensive flights in the world. And they have chefs on board. 150 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:37,000 So they have like 800 chefs on their staff to put chefs on board for Emirates. You know? 151 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:42,000 Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. For the first class, there is a chef. I don't know what they do. 152 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:48,000 I used to fly Emirates like a lot of the times and it was like by far like the best service I've ever had. 153 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:54,000 So what are you going to eat today? No idea, man. I'm super pissed off with my airline. They just fucked my flight. 154 00:13:54,000 --> 00:14:01,000 You're just nurtured by anger and rage, right? Yes. I'm just rehearsing what to tell them once I arrive to the airport. 155 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:05,000 And then you're just going to get a burger and just eat it with the anger. 156 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:12,000 While I talk to them. Spray. Spray.