Hi everyone, welcome to Pudluck Food Talks.
We're in a special live episode in a car driving to the airport.
And we're going to talk about airport food.
So airport food. What do you think of when you think of airport food?
Well, I think you're always like this prisoner customer, you know, in an airport.
I think that sums it up pretty well, yeah.
Yeah, so they can sell you shit for expensive and that's what they usually do.
That is what they do.
Yeah. So my general opinion is I hate airport food.
Yeah.
You know, like there are exceptions, but usually it's like that.
Usually it's really, really shit.
But have you had experience of like airport food where you were like, wow, this is actually really good?
I would have to think about it. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, some maybe Madrid, I remember like some restaurants. I remember also one of Danny Garcia's places in Malaga.
It was also okay, but not so many, to be honest.
I've actually had a few.
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?
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.
But it was still a tortilla and I was like, fuck yeah, you know, like no bullshit like wiener sausage or like no bullshit.
I don't know. Just always Burger King McDonald's.
It was just kind of nice because it was like a little sort of like local kind of thing.
But I've actually, you know, like I had really good experiences in airports in Asia, like especially, I mean, Tokyo, great.
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.
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.
And you can buy these like little trays of like kits. So you like choose a kit.
You get a soup, you get a tea, you get like a dim sum or like whatever.
And that sounds amazing. And it was super nice.
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.
I remember having a super good New York pizza. It was like a Brooklyn pizza company in New York.
And that was really nice, you know, like charcoal oven in the airport.
Yeah, that was super nice as well.
Oh, you know, also one thing is like I'm a big fan of like fast food restaurants, you know, like.
Yeah, yeah, questionable. But I'm a I'm, you know, outspoken fan of Raisin Canes.
Okay. You know, Raisin Canes is a fried chicken fast food chain from the States.
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.
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,
I thought it was because it was in the States and was right in the morning. It's piping hot.
It's super fresh and it's super delicious. But there was the same in Abu Dhabi.
I had it twice and it's sort of like super crispy piping hot chicken. And it's just super good.
I actually know that they brine their chicken in like a like a salt brine with a little bit of MSG in it.
So the good stuff. So that that helps. But it's just always really good.
What about airplane food? Like have you ever like nice experiences?
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?
It shouldn't really be that difficult to make it good, right? Like cook like a nice like beef stew, like a bef bohmenu.
I mean, I think you're underestimating the whole catering process to put food on a plane.
Like I went once to the headquarters of Do & Co, which is I would say the best catering company for airplanes in the world.
Well, not their headquarters because they're Turkish Austrians, the company itself.
But I went to the headquarters in Madrid. So it was like this place.
Imagine a place like the size of 10 football fields, you know. And this was a kitchen, man.
Well, like with hundreds of workers, it was more like a factory, you know.
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.
And then for me, the interesting part was the the place where where the actual chefs would work.
And how do you how do you say chipa in English?
Oh, I don't actually know. Yeah, yeah. So that's basically like imagine like a big square sort of machine.
That's basically one big frying pan slash stirring pot where you can cook like hundreds of liters at the same time.
Exactly. You can stew like, let's say, a half a ton of goulash in one of those machines.
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.
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.
So imagine how to do that. Yeah, yeah. Pretty cool, actually. Yeah.
I think like a kippa, whatever that's called, I think it's a really underrated piece of equipment.
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.
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.
You know, like you could actually run a restaurant with just one of those machines for sure.
If you're smart enough to do that. True. If you're smart enough.
I don't know, did you used to take like food on airplanes, like pack your own lunches and stuff?
Not really, not really, because I mean, for me, the airplane food is not good, but I mean, it's edible.
You know, like I go for that sometimes there's pasta with cheese. OK, you can't go wrong with that.
Well, you can. But I mean, the whole operation, going back to this place, because then you everything was cold there.
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.
So that everything is hot at the moment, you know, not delivering like for 200 people.
And actually something I learned that is interesting is that the, how do you say, Ariomasas, the stewards, the stewards on the plane.
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.
They're the responsible, first of all, of your life and that nothing happens to you.
And everything else is secondary, you know, like food and all that, you know, like, yeah.
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.
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.
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.
Exactly. And then people get upset by that.
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.
This is my house. And they shave. Yeah, exactly. It's like that.
Going back to food, what about bringing food to the plane?
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.
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.
I'm going to Singapore next Saturday, man, for 10 days.
Yeah. So like, be careful what you eat.
Do you have any recommendations?
Man.
In Singapore?
In Singapore, no, because I wasn't in Singapore. I was just at the airport.
Okay.
Go to the butterfly garden. It's very beautiful in the airport.
In the airport?
Yeah, it's a butterfly garden. But not a place to eat.
You can eat butterflies?
You can eat butterflies. I don't know how they would feel about you eating the butterflies.
Tastes a little crunchy.
Self-delivered snacks.
Okay.
But you can eat laksa. You can eat what else do they have.
Yeah, I don't know.
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,
it's like kind of like more fresh and more hot, I feel like.
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.
You know what to get. You will get what you know you will get and that's it, you know?
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.
Yeah.
Or like even just like a nice sandwich, you know?
Yeah.
It makes a big difference actually and it just feels really good. It doesn't matter what shitty crappy cheap airline you're flying.
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.
You can show off, you know, like, yeah, exactly.
Loser.
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?
Is that nice? Yeah? No?
That sucks. See, I am an adult person that shit together so I attacked my own nuts.
I think the most iconic person bringing airplane food was probably Hannibal Lecter. Is that a real person?
No, it's not. It's not a real person. No, I don't think so.
I hope not. But what did he used to bring to airplanes?
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.
And then there's like he escapes basically and then he is on the airplane.
He packs out this like really beautifully packed lunch with like a little bit of brain.
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.
And he's sort of like, what's that? What's that? What do you have there?
And Hannibal is like, Dr. Lecter. It's like, oh, you wouldn't like that, you know?
And the boy's like, would you like to try some?
And the boy's like, yeah. And then he gives him something to try and he's like, is that tasty?
And the boy's like, mm hmm. And he's like, you're a special little boy.
It's an amazing scene. The Hannibal movies are really good.
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.
Did we talk about this? Probably not.
He does fucking everything.
But like peel strawberries in the series or?
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.
But that's the show with Matt Mickelson, right?
Like I never saw the show. I've never seen the show either. What people rave about it.
Yeah. And I guess the food scenes have to be interesting if they were developed by Jose Andres.
I also know that the food scenes from Ratatouille were developed by Thomas Keller.
Thomas Keller. Yeah. But you can really tell.
Yeah. Yeah. Also that the Ratatouille, the iconic Ratatouille, that's Thomas Keller, you know, the oldest style.
But that's like, I mean, you know, like it's iconic, you know, that's kind of why.
I don't know why, but like Thomas Keller style just has the certain magic about it.
Yeah. And it's super simple, right? Super simple.
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,
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.
And it's kind of cool. Yeah. If anybody else would do that, you'd be like, what the fuck are you doing?
Just stop. Well, and also going back to this catering company I was talking about, they're also the ones that they have met.
I mean, like most major airlines are their client and one of their clients is Emirates. Yeah.
It's probably the airline with the most expensive flights in the world. And they have chefs on board.
So they have like 800 chefs on their staff to put chefs on board for Emirates. You know?
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.
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.
So what are you going to eat today? No idea, man. I'm super pissed off with my airline. They just fucked my flight.
You're just nurtured by anger and rage, right? Yes. I'm just rehearsing what to tell them once I arrive to the airport.
And then you're just going to get a burger and just eat it with the anger.
While I talk to them. Spray. Spray.