Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.
When done right, a grilled cheese sandwich and cup of tomato soup is hard to top at 40,000 feet.
Coming back on my mileage run from Sydney, I encountered jet lag and found myself awake for longer than I wanted to be. About halfway through my 13-hour flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup on United.
This “hot bites” snack is offered on just about every inbound intercontinental United flight to the USA over eight hours. As such, I’ve had it a lot, but always out of Europe, where it is A-L-W-A-Y-S served lukewarm and soggy on cheap whole grain bread with a horribly cheap cheddar (begging the question why I continue to order it and hope for a different outcome).
This is what I expected when I ordered it ten hours into the flight, but figured at least I’d have a good cup of soup.
However, I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that the grilled cheese sandwiches out of Sydney are far superior. The sourdough bread was perfectly toasted and rather than a low-grade cheddar there was a Muenster cheese that was simply fabulous. Great soup as well.
It reminded me again that sandwiches are so delicious when done right and actually well-suited for an airplane.
If you’re flying out of Sydney in United business class, I’d even consider this as a main course. It is highly recommended.
Have you tried the grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup on United?
I had it SFO>PEK. It was a highlight of the flight! https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49288973858_b36a464be2_b_d.jpg
Looks great!
Would you pick off the little spot of burned bread? Or am I crazy? Don’t answer the latter.
I ate it all!
You must have got lucky. My sandwich was beating stale.
Soup on an airplane is generally not a good idea.
I’d have to disagree. I’ve found soups on my FC/Biz flights very good. Sometimes a bit salty, but an enjoyable course.
From SYD?
Soup is always nice.
Sandwiches in any form or state make me gassy.
@Matthew – I have a question about Award Expert, but don’t see a Contact Us link. I want to fly SQ suites at saver price to or from the USA with my wife at some point in the next 2 years. I’m flexible enough to be able to plan this out a year ahead and pretty much just want to try out the product. How do I talk to Award Expert to get them to find my wife and I space? Their request parameters seem way too rigid to ask this. Thanks.
Hi Christian, send an email to award at upgd dot com.
Regards,
Matthew
“begging the question why I continue to order it and hope for a different outcome”
Insanity?
Hey, at least it paid off this time…
The burning question that must be answered: Do you dunk the sandwich into the soup and then eat it?
Question begging is a logical fallacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
Nice. TIL.
Yep. SYD/MEL catering team hit a home run with the Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Tomato Soup.
It’s probably the quality of the cheese. Australian dairy produce is some of the best in the world whereas cheese in the US is at the oppostite extreme.
FWIW I had an aunt of mine here in the UK a couple of months back. She was a war bride and moved to Boston in 1946 but now lives on the coast of Maine. She hadn’t been here for fifty years. She was amazed at the food and choices but most of all at the cheese which she said tasted amazing!
I’ve found catering ex-SYD is one of the best in the UA network, this from an economy point of view too.
Agreed!