A WOMAN I KNOW never eats in the jet stream. She is French and cooks sublimely herself. Her argument is she cannot swallow food that is less than the best.
You have heard all the jokes about airline food - about tough steak, prison mush and plastic chicken. Since the days of woven basket chairs in prop-driven clippers, airline food has garnered bad press.
So journalists - including your correspondent - are constantly asked to say nice things about what is served in the air just to get a bit of reverse spin going. Well, I for one am delighted to.
The truth is I am always surprised by how good dishes are on-board the world's airlines, bearing in mind the difficulties of preparing and serving food at 40,000 feet.
Of course, no one in the galley is peeling potatoes or balling melons. No steaks are fried mid-air (you simply cannot have naked flames inside aircraft). So let us understand that, for reasons of safety and convenience, what you eat in the jet stream has been cooked in an enormous kitchen on the ground at or near an airport. What cabin staff do is simply reheat it, using sophisticated ovens.
So the choice of dishes is always surprising. In June, for instance, in Cathay Pacific business class on some routes, you could choose for main course from beef fillet, steamed snapper and a classic Indian butter chicken. But not just steak, fish and chook. This beef was served with a jus and polenta enhanced with cheese. The snapper came with black beans and soy sauce, and the chicken was partnered by steamed rice, spicy cauliflower and green peas.