Inflight Special Meal

Food is the second most important thing for me to rate my in-flight experience after seat width and comfort. In the past 5 months, I flew different airlines and I got to see their variety of special meal and its service. I do not eat red meat, so I order either seafood meal or lacto-ovo vegetarian meal.

Life changed after Korea. I take this meal pre-order very seriously and I got really grumpy when I forgot to order one (sigh my recent China Airlines experience). I don't bother thinking about this meal pre-order when flying with my national carrier because they would never have pork and lamb in their options, so there will always be seafood or chicken option. By the way, I would not normally enjoy in-flight meal back home because I often travel with LCCs :P

Korean Air 

KE is my new favorite! Super wide seat, fair mileage reward, and best special meal service. I flew their A380 for my London stopover or ICN-LHR and LHR-ICN leg.

1st meal

My ICN-LHR leg was a very full flight (the only remaining seat was first class) and they had countless special meal requests. They have a very systematic way by sticking yellow sticker to passenger's seats who requested the special meal. They served different bread than the normal breakfast bun to other passengers. I opted for seafood meal this time.

I was delighted with the menu. Pasta with generous salmon. The portion of the salmon was just... Wow. Super fulfilling.

2nd service

My second meal was a different kind of fish. Man, I am really lame with fish name, but this was also a good one. Not a fan of veggie, I liked the first meal better than the second one.

fish with potato and veggie

I loved the potato! 

Now for my LHR-ICN leg, I opted for the vegetarian meal.

The flight was also full, but not many people in my area (because most of them are Koreans) requested for the special meal. I did not see the flight attendants flying with the tray of meals this time. 

first meal

I absolutely love my mac 'n cheese with broccoli and carrot. I have yet to found a good place for mac 'n cheese in Seoul sigh. I felt like this was my second best meal in almost a month, after spending time in Brazil. First best? The chicken in Sao Paulo :P basically Rio food sucks.

second meal

My second meal was a pretty salty omelet. I love mushroom and hash brown, but the mushroom was too salty. Good choice of menu though.

Another good thing about KE is they also serve snack. Standard Korean cup noodles (you have no idea, Koreans love their cup noodles THAT much), folded pizza, onigiri, nuts, and banana. Of course, I got the banana which I really hate.

LATAM Brasil

First of all... After 12 hours of flying KE in A380, my LATAM flight from London to Sao Paulo was just a disaster. Cramped seats, old aircraft and unfriendly flight attendants... The list goes on but lets just focus on the food.

LHR-GRU leg

LATAM does not have seafood option so I am stuck with lacto-ovo. They did not check nor confirm my order with me before hand. The flight attendant almost served the normal meal to me until I asked for my vegetarian meal. So I did not get my meal ahead of others too. Only one service, mac 'n cheese, standard deal with a plain taste. 

My next leg on LATAM was a slightly better GRU-LHR.

First meal

I love that they served real vegetarian food this time! They have soy meat with Brazil rice. I should say 'Brazil rice' because it was not the sticky rice like what I normally eat in Asia. Match the taste, fair taste. I like the cracker snack too.

second meal

My second meal was a bread with spinach and egg filling plus fruits. I am sure this dish has a fancy name, but I just don't know haha. I am not a fan of spinach but this was a good one. The fruits were also nice, I appreciated it more than salad. 

Thai Airways

Thanks to Thai Airways recent huge promo and AirAsia's weirdly expensive price, I got to fly from ICN to BKK via HKG with Thai for the first time. I know it was not the most efficient route, but as a student, I have more time than money :P

I ordered seafood meal for both legs. The flight was relatively quiet and the flight attendant kindly came to me to confirm my order, few mins before they closed the door.

Fun fact: I just nodded even before he finished the sentence because he was speaking in Thai and he thought I was Thai :))

ICN-HKG, Pasta!

I got pasta with fish and cream sauce and a very pleasant sashimi salad.

I never ate raw fish before, really.This one was my first and it was actually nice.

HKG-BKK

I got an oriental style pasta for my next leg. Orzo (yeay!) with fried fishballs and cream. What was unique here is the tofu dessert. This was also really good, I don't know which one I like better. Wow, great job TG!

Oh, they also gave me special nuts with berries with my seat number written on it. They gave nuts to other passengers, though. Not sure why they have a different kind paired to the seafood meal order.

Now for my route back to ICN.

I was not in my best mood after the check in drama. Their system went down for almost 30 mins in their own base. I was really tired and although they sent me to the business class immigration gate to skip the queue, another drama happened.

ICN-BKK Seafood meal

The meal failed to cheer me up. It was a seafood platter (squid, small shrimp and a chunk of fish) with potato and green peas. Korean touch of Kimchi was added. The bread did not taste fresh and warm that night.

Still, better than LATAM. *everything is wrong with LATAM*

Then I forgot to order seafood meal on my recent China Airlines flights so let's keep that for next time. *grumpy*

Overall, KE is still the best with their system in handling the special meal request. I also get my food ahead of others by ordering special meal, except in LATAM. I love Asian airlines for their hospitality and their food certainly didn't fail me. I think the only non-Asian airlines that I have ever flown with are only LATAM and Aer Lingus. I did not like my Aer Lingus meal since... I did not eat them. I regretted my stupidity back then by ordering Kosher food instead of vegetarian so I ended up with sandwich that I could not eat :))

Eating in Gwangjang Market

I never liked going to Gwangjang Market. Maybe I have been in Korea for too long that the 'unique' dishes don't really impress me. Or maybe it was the traumatizing first visit that turned me off. It was a hot day and ajumma who was busy shooshing us, foreigners who flooded the market with phones in hand, taking pictures in every single corner. I prefer the one next to it, Bangsan Market, because it has a better (or quieter) vibe.

I really had no intention to revisit. But few weeks ago, I was sort of 'trapped' to go to Gwangjang Market with AskCulture. I signed up for sannakji but I never knew we were going to Gwangjang Market. This time, I had a totally different impression.

First thing first, it was a weekend evening in the winter. No more weather complain. We also had a very clear purpose, thanks to Sangah, so I do not have to wander around in the market like a lost child.

Sangah took me to the Yukhoe alley and specifically pointed at this super famous place to eat Yukhoe. I thought Yukhoe is all the same everywhere, but apparently, only this restaurant requires its customer to take waiting number (just like in bank or hospital) and has multiple branches.

very famous 'zzamezip'

While we were waiting, Sangah took many videos and countless selfies. I thought I was the only one feeling fascinated but apparently, Sangah and JinAh both think that it was unusual for foreigners to be that-excited with 'weird' Korean foods.

Oh by the way, this restaurant has a very unique 'never give up' tagline. Apparently, it comes from the fact that many people give up queueing for them :)))))

so can you see what is she preparing?

But what is Yukhoe tho?
A red dish?

'fresh' raw beef

This is it. Raw beef. I am not even sure if I want to further explain this dish because to me, it's just disgusting. Even in pictures.

But basically it's pure beef with onion and raw egg. That's it.

Yukhoe and Yukhoe mix rice

Sangah and Jinah had a very 'raw' meal that night. They finished everything and I was just like, ummm...

But hey! I got what I have been craving for months too! Sannakji or the live octopus! Well, it wasn't technically alive. He had been chopped before they serve it to me. Poor octopus, I promise not to eat this often!

In a flash, it looks just like any fresh and raw octopus. Not that I eat it straight from the aquarium. But what interesting is that the octopus was still moving when it was served. Bluntly speaking, it was not the sensation that made me crave for sannakji, but the taste itself!

Look at the short video above.

I did not realize how much I enjoy sannakji that I finished the whole dish myself. Later I realized that it's not a good idea because apparently my stomach kinda resist it :)))

I hope to come again but not sure if I can afford it. These dishes are actually expensive, man. My plate of octopus is worth 15,000 won while the Yukhoe is 12,000 won and the rice is 10,000 won.

tempting tempting

Our eating journey did not end with bowls of uncooked stuff. While we were walking, I told them that I love pajeon so Sangah decided to take us to eat pajeon! Lovely!

Now this is my stuff. SEAFOOD PAJEON.

OMG the visual, the smell... Everything was just perfect. Again, this is not cheap, around 16,000 won I guess. Worth 3-4 times of my lunch.

I was really really happy with my pajeon. This particular dish mean a lot to me because I had a good history with Pajeon.

When applying for Korean scholarship, the Korean interviewer asked me about my favorite Korean food. With no hesitation, I said "pajeon!" and both of them burst out laughing. I did not know until recently why they were laughing. My Korean friends told me it was because they probably expected more popular foods like bibimbap, bulgogi and such.

One of my friends even said, "Just like if you ask foreigner about they favorite Indonesian food. You expect bakso, sate, nasi goreng but what if he say bandeng or cireng?"
Muahaha make sense.

Sangah said I have a terrific smile and I smile even brighter as soon as the pajeon came hahaha. I think I can really do an advertisement for pajeon, seriously.

We parted ways after I finished the pajeon. I was delighted that I came for sannakji but I ended up eating pajeon too. As expected, AskCulture trip is always so much fun!

Check the result of our nonstop filming too on Youtube!

Lapar dan tertantang? Cobain Sannakji dan Yukhoe!