Even as I try to broaden my palate, I still find it difficult sometimes to enjoy new and different tastes. Prior to a Japanese meal in ANA business class, I enjoyed some comfort food in the ANA Lounge. Just in case. It was my insurance meal.
“Insurance Meal” In ANA Suite Lounge Tokyo Haneda
During the pandemic, all lounge-eligible ANA or Star Alliance passengers at Tokyo Haneda have been directed to the ANA Suite Lounge. While this lounge is normally reserved for first class passengers, there is not currently sufficient passenger volume to justify opening multiple lounges.
I reviewed this lounge in 2019 and thankfully not much has changed. it’s a great lounge, though certainly not as luxurious as the first class lounges of competitors like Air France, Lufthansa, or Thai Airways. Still, it offers buffet and a la carte dining, showers, and comfortable seating.
After hanging out in the terminal area for 13 hours, from 4:00pm to 5:00am the following morning, I was ready for some food. Already, I had ordered the Japanese meal on my ANA flight to Bangkok at 11:00am, but had six hours before my flight.
The buffet included a menu of cold items, all of them in individually-sized portions:
Drinks were still in larger bottles:
Meanwhile, a number of dishes could be ordered from a cook inside the lounge. You specified which dish you wanted and would be presented with an electronic beeper. When it buzzed, your meal was ready.
I felt like a western breakfast, but there were no eggs on the menu. Thus, my first test of the day: what to order?
While there were a number of options that a more adventurous eater may have ordered, I ordered macaronic and cheese.
Macaroni and cheese in an ANA lounge?
Yeah, yeah. I know. But in credit to ANA, it was very tasty.
And then I ordered a beef hamburger.
Hamburger in an ANA lounge?
Yeah, yeah. Typical white American.
It did bring me a bit of comfort that a Japanese woman sitting next to me also ordered a burger.
Why, Matthew?
As you collectively shake your heads, allow me to defend myself. First, everyone loves their own comfort food. Second, I had resolved to eat only Japanese cuisine on my upcoming flight and so this would be my “insurance” policy if I found the food onboard inedible (I didn’t…it was better than I thought).
The burger was just okay…I probably should have ordered another macaroni and cheese instead.
CONCLUSION
I tend to think Americans get overly-ridiculed for eating “comfort food” while other cultures are not (for example, when I worked in Frankfurt my Chinese colleagues would always want to go to a Chinese restaurant), but I’ll be happy to take your collective scorn here for my “insurance” meal. It was still tasty and satisfying. Thank you ANA!
No judgements here. After I week in Hong Kong a couple years ago I waited 45 minutes in line for a meal at Shake Shack downtown
I was headed to South Korea next so I really just needed a taste of home.
Eat what you like. If it’s available somewhere, there’s clearly a market so why be embarrassed or accept scorn? I lived in Asia, mainly Japan, for the better part of my 30s, and you absolutely NEED to have a taste of home where/when you can get it. When I lived in Tokyo and didn’t want to shell out a ton of yen for Kobe beef (which I don’t like anyway – too fatty), I would find myself at the Outback Steakhouse near Shibuya. It’s not great food…or really even good food. But sometimes you just gotta have a Bloomin’ Onion, a “decent” cut of beef, and a “real” Long Island Iced Tea. C’est la vie.
Burger didn’t look too bad but some LTO would have made it look (and probably taste) much better.
Why certain places have shut down their Dyson hand dryers is beyond me. It’s like some of these places (including airports in the US) make their own decisions of what is and is not a Vid risk. No consistency at all, even in the same state.
Good Chinese food is a unicorn on the European continent, and priced accordingly. Then again, German food (that I’ve experienced) only has so much variety…
Any non-sausage-kraut recs for German food that one should try on a visit?
Pork knuckle. Had it in a restaurant at Munich Airport and it was the best airport meal I’ve ever had.
*rings a handheld bell* SHAME!!! *bell* SHAME!!!
“It did bring me a bit of comfort that a Japanese woman sitting next to me also ordered a burger.”
Yeah but her ordering a burger would be the equivalent of you ordering one of the Japanese dishes.
“I tend to think Americans get overly-ridiculed for eating “comfort food” while other cultures are not”
Other cultures have comfort food. Heck, you could have ordered some of it from the menu that was offered when in the lounge…
Since the food you had in the lounge was a la carte, you could have had a Japanse dish in lieu of one of the other dishes, and if that didn’t satisfy your taste buds, just order a burger or mac & cheese…
After plenty of great local food on a trip to Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong’s The Pier lounge, my go-to meal on CX in business to JFK was the burger. I’d had it before and figured it would be good again. It was.
You won’t have another opportunity to sample a bento box including kinpira gobo.
And somehow he will live.
Hamburger and mac and cheese are comfort food. You were tired and stressed out after hours of waiting and need just comfort food to relax. I understand.
The more you travel the less you identify a particular food with a nationality. You just go for whatever tastes best in the moment. Ramen in New York or a burger in Tokyo – it’s all a matter of eating the food you crave at the time. The greatest mistake would be limiting your choice of cuisine to your childhood.
Yeah, only white people eat hamburgers eh? /sarc.
Speak with Asian tour groups planning trips to Europe who only want to eat (bad) Chinese food each and every night.
Nothing wrong with craving American comfort food now and again. Heck, when my wife and I were expats in India, the TGI Friday’s in Hyderabad was a regular stop on our restaurant rotation. Because sometimes, you just gotta have some cheese fries and potato skins.
I guess I’ve just never quite understood your hankering for American comfort food and Taco Bell when you’re going to be back home in a few days anyway to get the real thing…
After “hanging out in the terminal area for 13 hours, from 4:00pm to 5:00am the following morning, … flight … at 11:00am, but had six hours before my flight.” (19 hours ?) you can eat whatever your heart desires.
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
I enjoy reading your articles…but there is a misspelling or typo in so many of them. I know I’m being too picky! But if you need someone to proof read I will do it for free! Just to check for those things.
Grow up and stop being such a picky eater kid
Thanks Ma.
Didn’t Japan have restrictions preventing overnight connections due to Covid ? How did you bypass that or was that not a thing when you travelled. Asking because I have a JAL trip coming up transiting through NRT.
Overnight transit (even for more than 24 hours) is currently permitted at HND, but not NRT. NRT transits must be same-day since the terminal closes overnight.
Only americans can be such morons. No wonder they are hated the world over. If only they all stayed home always the rest of us would not have to put up with their rude, loud, aggressive and ignorant behaviour.
Sort of like your diatribe here?