Skip to main content

A Rumination on Airport Food

Folk wisdom among travelers holds that pilots know all the good places to eat on a trip.  The underlying theory, I suppose, is that they have tried everything and know what is good and bad.  If airline pilots were flying chefs, I'm sure that would be great advice.  But airline captains have a tough ladder of training and lowly jobs to get to the top of their profession. They survive it by having a cast iron stomach and hermetically sealed taste buds.  When a pilot says "That airport has pretty good food" he means "I don't know anyone whose cause of death has been attributed to that food."

Airports can be lonely places for hungry people.  As I worked on my private pilot's license, I looked forward to the long three-legged cross-country flight that is one of the basic requirements.  I scheduled the trip for Labor Day, which turned out to be a beautiful day to fly.  I flew from Princeton to Harrisburg for my first leg.  I told myself that I should wait for lunch for my next stop, Cape May, right next to the shore.  I'd heard about a great burger place there that seemed like the perfect way to start the home stretch.  I flew to Cape May on an empty stomach.  I landed and parked the plane only to find a nearly deserted airport.  That cute little restauant was closed for the holiday.  Well, I thought to myself, at least I can get something from the vending machines. Wrong---by mid-afternoon all the other hungry pilots had emptied them.  I finally managed to find a candy bar and limped my way home.

As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my Dad at Jefferson County Airport in Colorado.  The Mooney dealer had a vending machine that fascinated me.  It supplied little cans of dinner: Dinty Moore beef stew, Spaghetti-Os.  Even more amazing, they came out of the machine HOT.  What could be more amazing?  My admiration turned to horror when we finally bought a can.  This poor can had been sitting in the machine for lord knows how long, being tortured by that little heating element.  The food was burned to the bottom of the can.  I drove by Jeffco a few years ago on a visit and noticed that the Mooney dealer is still there.  I wonder if that vending machine is still there, sitting in a forlorn corner of the pilot's lounge, its little cans still hoping for salvation from their private Hades...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course)

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.