I don’t know about you, but I love Greek food. From gyros to spanokopita, moussaka to pasticio, melitzanosalata to just a plain ol’ Greek salad, I’m a sucker for the Mediterranean flavors of the Greek Isles. Here in LA, our Greek options are severely limited. There’s Taverna Tony in Malibu and Petros in Manhattan Beach, but they’re both far enough away that they’re not on the menu for regular visits. Even The Great Greek in Sherman Oaks is beyond my normal boundaries, so I’m left with wishes for a closer Greek place of note and dreams of amazing Greek meals from long ago in Chicago.
I’ve never been to Greece. It’s high up on my list, but I’ve never been able to actually put a trip together, so I don’t know just how good the food there really is, but I have an imagination and in my mind, the feta is the perfect balance of creamy/tangy and the lamb is so tender it disappears into vapor on the way to your mouth. Does that mean the Greek food on a Greek airline would be just as good? Maybe!
The folks over at Inflight Feed (one of my few compatriots in the airline food blog world) put together a video of a recent Aegean Airlines flight and the food looks delicious. I wish they had actually bothered to describe the meal, but the video is more than enough to get me salivating. Check it out:
Those tomatoes look like they’re — gasp! — actually fresh! It also looks like there’s a pasticio served in international economy (to make a crass American comparison, it’s kind of like beef-a-roni) and some lamb in international business. Lamb is a perfect choice for an inflight meal. The fatty nature of the meat combined with the fact that it doesn’t have to be served at a specific temperature (like medium rare) means that it won’t dry out by the time it gets to you. This whole series of meals looks pretty good to me.
There’s a certain value in flying smaller airlines affiliated with distinct cultures. The food on-board gives you a small glimpse into the food culture of their home country and I’ll take that over another bland sandwich any day of the week.
Have you ever flown Aegean? I’m dying to know if it’s as good as I hope it is.
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As a greek I am inviting you to visit Greece simply awesome 🙂 /cough cough/ !
As for the food I must say that in Greece it tastes much better than anythinf you will find outside 🙂 as an expat myself I feel your pain for no Greek food around. On the airline food actually it is not too bad much better than many other airlines and one of the best airline food I was with Olympic airways years ago. It was the closest to proper home cooked meal.
As I am in Greece now, Aegean Airlines is my “home” airline. They are pretty great! The service is fantastic and the food is pretty good. Even on 40 minute flights to Athens, they still deliver some type of food for the whole plane. Their pasta dishes to/from Germany are quite tasty and you can forget that you are on an airplane (except for the foil container 🙂 ). Come on over for a visit! 😉
I am overly impressed by the hospitality of my Greek commenters! Thanks, Charlie and Elena! I promise I’ll try to get there soon.
As a Greek living abroad, I fly quite often and Aegean is still the only airline I’ve found that serves decent food. I actually look forward to having it! Although good and definitely better than what other airlines offer, it still isn’t as good as real Greek food… I’ve spent my last two summers in LA and I know there are a few Greek restaurants there, and some Greek festivals too, but I still haven’t found really good, authentic Greek food so I totally feel your pain. I hope you can visit Greece soon and enjoy the food and the hospitality!
The lack of Greek food in LA makes me so terribly sad.