Elevating Air Travel: Passenger’s Lavish Inflight Picnic Turns Heads
A passenger brought their own picnic on board a flight, laid out a table cloth and even a battery-powered candle. They had a table tent with their name. And then they laid out a charcuterie board with sliced meat, cheese, crackers, pickles and it looks like maybe some mustard?
People often forget that you can bring your own food on a plane! You don’t have to buy it at the airport. Most airport food is horrible, anyway!
Unfortunately, pâté and mustard (indeed, anything spreadable) is treated as a liquid by TSA so you’ll need to limit that to 100 milliliter packages, and one quarter total (your clear plastic freedom baggie). If you’re a little more low country, just remember that (to TSA) peanut butter is a liquid.
I’ll never forget a flight from Baltimore to Phoenix about 24 years ago. My boss was seated in the aisle, turns around and offers some food. “Pâté?” he asks.
This was way better than buying lunch at the airport. Airport restaurants are generally bad.
- Airport space is at a huge premium, you can store very little.
- Knives are usually chained to the wall, and inventoried between shifts.
- Most places are limiting to cooking with electric, not gas.
- You can’t just bring supplies down the airport corridors when you need them. Items need to clear security.
- It’s often a third party that’s engaged to do that, and it has to happen at off hours.
- Working with the third party can make sourcing ingredients challenging.
- Customers have varied tastes and need to be served quickly.
- Despite the high rents and challenging operating environment airports often require ‘street pricing’ (charge the same in the airport, perhaps plus 10%, versus what same item would cost on the outside).
- And it’s not even the restaurant that’s managing the operation, usually they are licensing the concept. Usually it’s just one company for the entire terminal. You may see their brand on uniforms or name tags, but that restaurant name you know is probably Delaware North, HMSHost or OTG.
Now, your tastes buds up in the air are dulled by cabin pressurization, low humidity, and noise. For years I’ve recommended tomato juice as an onboard drink as a result, with the added benefit that it’s an excellent source of vitamin C and vodka.
So consider salty foods, and interesting textures. And if you want to eat well on a plane, bring your own food or pick up Tortas Frontera at Chicago O’Hare.
