Summer 2009 Upper Class Menu UK-USA

OUTBOUND

Starters
Seasonal leaf salad with smoked salmon, spelt and balsamic dressing
Pea, mint and fennel soup

Main Courses
Chicken breast on pea and broad bean broth with new potatoes
Steak and mushroom pie with champ potatoes and sauteed savoy cabbage
Creamy asparagus risotto with parmesan cheese

Light Bites (VS 7, 17, 19, 23, 43, 55 only)
Roasted vegetable wrap
Bucatini pasta with chorizo, tomato, basil and black olives
Cottage pie

Desserts
Baked Sussex honey cheesecake with fruit compote
Strawberry and cream roulade with wild berry coulis

Cheese
Oxford Blue
Tasty Lancashire
Cornish Brie

Afternoon Tea (Not VS 17, 55)
Selection of bloomer sandwiches - smoked ham and English mustard, coronation chicken, cheddar and gooseberry chutney
Sultana scone with jam and clotted cream
Victoria sponge cake

INBOUND

Starters
Seasonal leaf salad with five spice chicken, crispy wonton strips, cherry tomato and sesame ginger dressing
Soup of the day

Main Courses
Grilled flank steak with red bliss mashed potato, roasted parsnips and carrots with demi glace sauce
Eggplant rollatini with sauteed spinach with yellow teardrop cherry and sun blushed tomato sauce
Chicken roulade with sun dried peppers, vegetable barley and jus lie (VS 16, 28, 44, 74, 76 only)
Parmesan crusted cod with sea salt roasted fingerling potatoes, green beans, roasted tomato and tarragon beurre blanc (Not on VS 16, 28, 44, 74, 76)

Desserts
Chocolate molten lava cake with vanilla mascarpone
Caramel apple cheesecake

Cheese
Buttermilk Blue
Knight's Vail
Double cream brie

Breakfast
Cereal - Cornflakes, Weetabix, Fruit and Fibre, Special K
Plain bagel with cream cheese and a selection of preserves
Cinnamon raisin breakfast bread with a selection of preserves
Lemon pound cake
Seasonal fresh fruit with organic yoghurt
Bacon roll with either tomato ketchup or brown sauce
Herb scrambled egg with sausage, roasted potato wedges and blistered cherry tomato (Not VS 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, 22, 46 and 56)

WINES

Champagne and Sparkling
Champagne Pannier
Berrys Extra Dry Cremant de Limoux

White
Le Coq D'Oc Blanc - France
Cortello Branco - Portugal
Monte Verde Sauvignon Blanc - Chile

Red
Cuvee des Oliviers Massamier - France
Malumbres Tinto - Spain
Berrys' Australian Shirz - Australia

[:X]

[Scrooge]

Well yet again the inbound is slightly better than the outbound.

[Darren Wheeler]

Can this be sticky'd and the Winter 08/09 unsticky'd?

[honey lamb]

quote:Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
Can this be sticky'd and the Winter 08/09 unsticky'd?

'Tis done

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
Well yet again the inbound is slightly better than the outbound.


Clearly, and miracles of miracles, a vegetarian dish not involving pastry, rice or pasta. Don't see that one all that often, even on the supposedly better menus with other carriers.

[Scrooge]

I agree, even for a total meat eater like myself the egg plant would probably be my choice.

Will report on the inbound tonight, eh, well tomorrow.


David

Sure hope you tried the molten choc cake, it's harder than hell to get those right even in a regular over, thirty seconds too long and the centre goes solid, and there goes your lava ... [;)]

Looking forward to the report.

Tinkerbelle, any light bites on the inbound menu? Been a few months since I've flown and I forget whether they have been removed from the longer flights too on the night time flights.

Decker has penchant for quality food (and wine !) together with a palate to appreciate it - given his thumbs up for the menu following his recent trip I am now looking forward to trying it myself next week. I believe it must be tastier than it reads.

quote:Originally posted by MarkedMan
Tinkerbelle, any light bites on the inbound menu? Been a few months since I've flown and I forget whether they have been removed from the longer flights too on the night time flights.


They've been removed from the US-UK flights home (ie. LAX, SFO) for quite a while now hence why they're not listed. [:X]

I think I'll be taking a good few shortbreads from the CH to supplement my intake when we go to Washington in a few weeks.

Miopyk[8D]

[Neil]

How long will the menu run for Tinks?

quote:Originally posted by Neil
How long will the menu run for Tinks?


For three months so I'd expect it to change in the first week of September.

[Neil]

quote:Originally posted by Tinkerbelle
quote:Originally posted by Neil
How long will the menu run for Tinks?


For three months so I'd expect it to change in the first week of September.


Phew, hope the one for our MIA trip in October is better.

quote:Originally posted by Tinkerbelle
They've been removed from the US-UK flights home (ie. LAX, SFO) for quite a while now hence why they're not listed. [:X]


I've not done a SFO/LAX-LHR for a few months now, that'll be why I've not missed them!

A shame for two reasons:

a) Sometimes you don't want to go to sleep on a full meal, but a nice sandwich or hot snack hits the spot. I'd often choose a light bite and dessert instead of a full meal.

b) I occasionally wake up in the middle of the night with the munchies!

Hardly surprised it's happened though, because I often thought they would get thrown away.

Still, it's another sad devaluation of the Upper product, especially in the light of the midflight sandwiches and snack meals available in the 'Club Kitchen' on BA.[n]

Mike

[Scrooge]

Mike, you beat me to the point, BA is improving their product, same goes for AA and UA, now is not the time to be making these cuts, I understand the postion VS is in, but in my mind when your fares are amongst the highest your product has to be better than most, this is where SQ does so well and has such a loyal following.

Couldn't remember if they were on the menu in Feb. I understand why they might have removed the hot snacks, I suppose, I'm sure the demand was low, and to be fair it is not common to see these on C menus. Of course most C menus start off with BOTH a salad and a 'light' snack - on a May US-UK flight on United it was a rather large amount of both prosciutto and smoked salmon with a nice aioli to spread on your bread, could have ended the meal there, and we're most definitely not talking SQ here.

I'd like to see some flexibility, though. Fine, remove the light bites but maybe provide some snacks such as are common on other airlines. On the same said flight on UA they had some decent sandwiches to be heated (much better on the ex-US than ex-UK, has to be said) as well as helpings of desserts and cheese plates, and some nuts and biscuits. Easy to put together even just with the remaining portions from the meal service, with a few extras, and shows some thought and effort.

I came up with an thought just now... doubt VS would ever implement it though, but hey, I'll mention it here, in case a VS cabin service lurker likes it (I'll expect payment in T10 if they do... [}:)]).

I thought back to the 'wow' factor the first time I got on a VS plane in UC - '3 starters, 4 main courses, 3 snacks, *and* afternoon tea. Amazing!' That's what's gone missing. Getting it all back in this climate is probably unrealistic, so what do you do?

So, here's my thoughts for those flights where you get 2 starters, 3 mains and that's it:

* 2 starters - soup and a salad

* 2 'flexible' snacks - they could be served as a starter, as a light option in the main meal, or a midflight snack, and ensure one of which could be served in a double portion as a full main meal (i.e. like you see with pasta in an Italian restaurant).

* 3 mains

That would bring back the main elements of the impression of choice you used to get, but without the replication and probably less waste. I suggest this would also apply to *all* flights, and not just the longer sectors.

Obviously continue to carry afternoon tea on flights which warrant it, and a wider selection of 'light meals' or full-on second services for flights which need that.

If anyone at VS is reading this, and taking it seriously, something like the above would probably make me a happier customer than I am right now.

Mike

[HighFlyer]

Good suggestions Mike.

I do remember when we had four main meal choices (usually red meat, white meat, fish and vegetarian) and do wish that we could see that return but I know its unlikely, other than DXB who still seems to operate with this variety.

Thanks,
Sarah

quote:Originally posted by HighFlyer
Good suggestions Mike.

I do remember when we had four main meal choices (usually red meat, white meat, fish and vegetarian) and do wish that we could see that return but I know its unlikely, other than DXB who still seems to operate with this variety.

Thanks,
Sarah


The outbound flight to Dubai has offered the GNF service for quite some time offering a choice of three hot meals.

A choice of three hot meals is also offered on the flight from Dubai to Heathrow.

However on the LHR-HKG-LHR flights, there is still a choice of four hot meals.

The NRT flights also offer four choices (one of which is a Bento Box).

On the VS50 Friday night I had the Seasonal leaf salad with five spice chicken, crispy wonton strips, cherry tomato and sesame ginger dressing, which was absolutley lovely [y]

Main course was the Grilled flank steak with red bliss mashed potato, roasted parsnips and carrots with demi glace sauce, which needed a chainsaw [n]

Unfortunately I couldn't attempt dessert as my jaw was to sore after trying to chew my main course.

Breakfast was the scrambled egg thing which was very nice, but you wonder why they didn't finish it off and stick some bacon onto the plate as well. [?] (and why only 1 sausage [:?])

David

quote:Originally posted by David
On the VS50 Friday night I had the Seasonal leaf salad with five spice chicken, crispy wonton strips, cherry tomato and sesame ginger dressing, which was absolutley lovely [y]


Thought it sounded okay when I read it.

quote:
Main course was the Grilled flank steak with red bliss mashed potato, roasted parsnips and carrots with demi glace sauce, which needed a chainsaw [n]


Basically, grilling is not the best way to cook flank, unless you are serving it seared on the outside, rare inside, which is the typical French Bavette. However, we know for a fact on here that VS can't serve red meat which is still pink in the middle to save their lives (though I've been served chicken which still pink before!).

The other option is to thoroughly marinate it beforehand to break down the toughness muscle fibres, which is why it's used in Asian and Mexican cookery often - it's the steak you might commonly find in stirfries, Carne Asada or fajitas.

Do people here think they would have been better off with a braised short-rib? Or if they wanted to use flank steak what about a beef stir-fry, or Carne Asada, with rice?

quote:
Breakfast was the scrambled egg thing which was very nice, but you wonder why they didn't finish it off and stick some bacon onto the plate as well. [?] (and why only 1 sausage [:?])


Well, VS used to have bacon in their brekkie...

http://www.airlinemeals.net/meals/VirginAtlantic.html

I know, I know, I'm on the warpath. I'm sure I'll be uber-critical and ready to pick holes in everything by the time Tuesday rolls around. Or, I'll have set my expectations so low, I'll be utterly delighted.

Mike

'"Grilled' steak is an issue

Any idea when the menu will change?