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Malaysia Airlines; A Meal With Your Linen, Perhaps?

Andy · January 2, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Malaysia Airlines' 60-minute flight time offering

As you know, I’m a firm believer that flights’ within the 60-minute range simply don’t seem to offer sufficient time for the cooking, plating and serving of a meal of much decadence – and this flight was absolutely no different, with a presentation that not only rivalled, but also lost to a dog’s dinner. But to my great amazement, it tasted really quite delicious with the exception of the long beans, and not actually having a proper drink to wash it down with.

Airline: Malaysia Airlines MH795
Route: Phuket – Kuala Lumpur (Approx. 1 hour)
Class: Business

Kicking off the afternoon refreshments today was a starter of an entire tray-load of white linen tablecloths, napkins, and then more linens. I’m not entirely sure what the purpose behind this was, although I graciously accepted – letting the Irish in me show clearly – even though I had no clear idea why I was thanking the crew for bundling a laundry bag worth of linen on my table.

Malaysia Airlines’, on short flights such as this, curiously do not serve any alcohol in business class under the pre-tense of local cultural sensitivities. I do not want this to be considered acceptable practice, so I will just say this; serving alcohol on long-haul Western-based flights (London/Australian destinations) is a clear play towards appeasing the needs of high-yield Western business travellers; but there is absolutely no point attempting this, if you will disappoint many of them refusing to serve them a drink when they then use Malaysia Airlines to connect to an Asian-based destination. Rant over.

Malaysia Airlines Short-Haul Meal

With my grumblings out of the way – and a lingering hangover from New Year to put me off continued drinking anyway – and instead a lovely glass of guava juice in hand, out came the meal.

OK, I think we can probably all agree that this is definitely a meal upon which we should metaphorically not judge a book by its cover; but to my great astonishment it actually tasted pretty great – though my strong affinity and admiration for a good beef rendang is certainly a matter of record at this stage.

I, unfortunately, did not quite enjoy the weird coconut milk-stewed vegetables with the same vigour and enthusiasm, but despite the almost Tetris-like packing of the meal, I had already quite attained elegant sufficiency.

In conclusion, this meal – for a 60-minute flight – was as good as one can possibly expect, and was definitely agreeable both in terms of portion size and taste. Unfortunately, Malaysia Airlines’ continued refusal to serve an adult beverage in business class on short-haul flights for cost ‘cultural sensitivity’ reasons just frankly cheapens the entire experience and is something – even if I don’t want a drink – that just has to go to move this meal into the ‘outstanding’ bucket.

Filed Under: Average, Featured, Inflight, Lunch, Meals Tagged With: kuala lumpur, lunch, malaysia airlines, mh795, phuket

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Who Complains So Much?

Andy

Hi, I'm Andy - Irish world traveller, with a penchant for dissecting and complaining about global inflight cuisine.

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Gramtastic Memories

Slow service but hearty refills, and a meal that t Slow service but hearty refills, and a meal that took ages to present itself but was delicious were the hallmarks of this contradictory service.
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QR19 / Dublin - Doha ✈️ / Business ✨
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Today's fine dining aboard #QatarAirways QR19 service to #Doha kicked off, as it should, with a glass of champagne and a ramekin of warm nuts. Given that champagne wasn't served on the ground, I had developed a unquenchable thirst by the time this first glass arrived.
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To start, only the Arabic Mezze would suffice, and I have zero regrets. It was delicious, hearty, and a must-have when flying Qatar.
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Crewing however was a major issue on our flight and this pervaded service speed throughout. I sat, mournfully looking at my empty plate and empty glass for an interminable amount of time - all on the other aisle had long since been served, eaten, and now having their tray tables cleared away.
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Finally, as I started to swing dangerously back to full sobriety, the Osso Buco was presented - and was delicious. Real hearty food, finally served alongside a hearty glass of wine, as requested long ago.
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With most other former-diners now settling in for the flight ahead and heading to bed, I found myself being one of the last to wrap up my culinary experience - and with that, and the crew now unburdened, wine from thence forth was kept permanently topped up in the manner that I'd have appreciated from the start, but was nevertheless grateful to accept, even as I attempted sleep.
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Later on, as I tried my best to put a stop to the now gushing flow of wine, it was explained to me that crew numbers were down, and working a larger business cabin than originally scheduled - hence the slow service. Understandable, but regrettable from a premium airline.
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Conclusion; What a meal of contradictions. Overall, it was delicious, very well presented (including a fake candle with an apparent never-ending battery life), tasted great and - eventually - came with all the alcohol you could attempt to drink. Crewing meant the experience was a little sub-par, and I dread if everyone really elected to dine on demand.
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#eatsbythewindowseat #inflightmeal #businessclass #airplanemeal #inflightcatering #qr19
This afternoons' lunchtime spread was anything but This afternoons' lunchtime spread was anything but satisfying, punctuated by entirely mistimed service.
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#MH1149 / Penang - KL ✈️ / Business ✨
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This afternoons' quick hop back to #KL from #Penang near-guaranteed a less than delightful lunchtime feast, but what transpired was a truly grim affair.
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For reasons I do not yet understand, @malaysiaairlines crew now commence serving from the back of the business cabin, which might be OK with a full compliment of 2 business class staff.
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Unfortunately our cabin manager - looking very important indeed in his grey jacket - never once showed his face to do any actual work, only to have a look at the cabin while taxiing for departure and then secondly for whatever purpose, to explain to me what the meal was. But only me.
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Nevertheless our remaining one crew member did her best, making it to row 1 flying truly solo, where I was seated, about 2 full minutes before the announcement was made to prepare the cabin for landing.
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The meal of the day was none other than a Chee Cheong Fun. I wouldn't have been able to tell you at all what it was but thanks to the unexpected reappearance of our cabin manager, I can now inform you that it's some kind of Chinese flat noodle-like dish with two sauces, one sweet and one spicy.
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Because I don't know what one should normally taste like, it's difficult to comment but I will say to me it tasted lukewarm, very bland and unusual. After adding the spicy sauce, it then tasted spicy, unusual, lukewarm and after a few bites...bland.
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Within a total of 5 minutes from being served, no doubt thanks in part to our very elusive cabin manager, it was time to hand back this dish with only time to receive a glass of water (the first and only) before landing.
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Conclusion; To me, the food on this flight was just cheap and unbecoming of a national airlines highest domestic product, while the beverage arrived after the meal. Let's be honest though, that comes down to the fact that our ever-evasive cabin manager was incredibly passionate about passenger interaction-avoidance. Not to be repeated.
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#eatsbythewindowseat #windowseatpreferred #inflightmeal #meal #businessclass #airplanefood #airplanemeal
Things I have missed – flying, and having anythi Things I have missed – flying, and having anything to post on this account. Things I have not missed – large lumps of fruit and bleeding beef
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MH161 / Doha - KL ✈️ / Business ✨
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Starting us off this morning – and I say morning, because while the flight was scheduled at 01:20, @malaysiaairlines only got us going about 4:45 – was a typical, very delicious plate of satay. I can’t complain, because that would be just moaning to attract attention and I’ll get to that later.
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Up first next morning, we had a ‘breakfast’ (but is it really breakfast if it’s 4pm local time) consisting of seasonal fresh fruit. They must have been fresh, so much so in fact they hadn’t had time to cut them, and the slice of pineapple, honeydew and melon each nearly broke my fork trying to raise them off the plate and towards my mouth, by now hung open like a seal trying to catch a thrown herring.
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Next was the ‘braised beef’. As you know by now, my levels of sophistication and civilisation do not unfortunately extend to many things, including understanding what ‘braised’ is supposed to be like - and I have come instead to appreciate it as a term applied to food that is supposed to be fancy, flavourful and tender, yet frequently disappointing. While the rice was truly that – flavourful, the beef, to me at least, seemed worryingly raw and perhaps ready to take to a field and moo once again.
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Uncharacteristically – based on my previous experiences – our crew seemed ready and willing to serve alcohol but our late departure and sunrise outside the cabin meant that I – equally uncharacteristically – could only muster the energy for an iced water.
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Conclusion; Service on this flight was very well-meaning, friendly and the food overall not too regrettable by any means. I’m very confident I could have gone on a drinking binge if the time – and my hungover self – had allowed. All in all, more than making up for the frayed edges of my seat, the lacklustre business class product and the delay leading to a missed cocktail hour at the hotel on my first night. Kudos!
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#eatsbythewindowseat #windowseatpreferred #inflightmeal #meal #businessclass #airplanefood #airplanemeal #flight #mh161
Friends, it’s been a while - and sadly Air Franc Friends, it’s been a while - and sadly Air France’s dismal short-haul economy offering doesn’t offer us much to discuss…
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AF1017 / Dublin - Paris ✈ / Economy 💺
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On this early morning voyage to Paris, we are offered - and when I say offered, I actually mean thrown - an extremely dry, packaged croissant, which comes complete with zero jams, marmalades or even butter. This, for me at least, really helped ensure that the full dryness of the croissant and the likelihood of it having been stored on the plane overnight in Dublin, was able to more quickly and thoroughly reveal itself.
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Beverage service was offered at the same time and came served in cardboard drinkware. As can be seen, I opted for a water and a - thankfully, strong - cup of coffee. Let’s be honest, there’s very little one can say about either beverage other than that they quenched the extreme thirst I now experienced from devouring the croissant.
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Overall, sad to say, a typical European shorrt-haul affair in which the complimentary snack and drink serves more to break up the flight clearly into two halves than to provide appropriate nourishment; and ensure that you can never read more than 4 pages of a book at a time without being interrupted for the service, and then again to collect the trash. Having said that, I am somewhat impressed that Air France has even continued with a complimentary offering at all given the frugality with which all other European national carriers approach their intra-Europe offerings.
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Ah, it’s good to be back…
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#eatsbythewindowseat #windowseatpreferred #airfrance #shorthaul #inflightmeal #breakfast #meal #af1017 #economyclass #airplanefood #economyfood #inflight #flight

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