The French triangle, day 0: Air Chance surprise

I'm off to France for a few days, eating and drinking my way around 3 cities across the country. I had a simple, early dinner tonight for my last bites of Asian food, and headed off to the airport to board my flight to Paris.

I normally don't bother with dinner on flights departing late at night, as I've made sure to eat something nice before boarding. However, I haven't flown Air Chance in a long, long time... and do remember that their food was decent even in cattle class. I was too cheap to upgrade myself so I stayed in premium cattle, which meant I'd be eating cattle food. Anyway, I was curious so I decided to try it.

Dinner came like this...

The salad came with julienned jicama, spinach, tomatoes, and broad beans. This was decent.

The hot dish was some kind of pork, and there wasn't exactly a detailed explanation... I guess it was some kind of meatloaf that was sliced thinly, so this was pretty tender and came with some white sauce. The tomato-flavored rice, though, was a FUCKING DISASTER. It was soooo soggy that I wondered whether it had been cooked in Paris and flown to Hong Kong with the plane before it was served on the return flight. The button mushrooms were as expected, but those green beans were cooked to death... and only less soggy than the rice due to their natural fibers.

The rice was so bad that I resorted to eating that generic bread roll that we find on so many airlines. Yes, that was MUCH better with the little pad of beurre doux from Paysan Breton.

The cheesecake with passion fruit coulis was OK.

The highlight of my dinner were the petits sablés au Cantal AOP et au piment d’Espelette AOP from Petit Bleu. I could taste the cheese and even a hint of piment d'Espelette.

Well... at least Air Chance is always generous with their alcohol. I started with some Champagne, which had a decent nose with some toasty brioche, that was slightly bitter on the finish.

2022 Madame de Sainte-Hélène Cabernet Sauvignon, airplane size - pretty ripe with black fruits, and definitely oaky on the nose.

Breakfast service was just before landing. This time the hot item was a savory pastry with onions and a little cheese. Much better than dinner.

Well, having shit airplane food will provide a real contrast with the next meal once I land in France...