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.
Who offers better satay in first class, Singapore Airlines or Malaysia Airlines?
Satay is is a dish of seasoned, skewered and grilled meat, served with sauce. It is popular in Southeast Asia, including in Singapore and Malaysia. Not surprisingly, both airlines serve satay to their passengers.
In light of the raw satay story I covered earlier today, let’s compare first class satay on Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
Singapore Airlines
Singapore’s satay tasted freshly grilled. Peanut sauce was served on the side along with skewers of sliced cucumber and onion.
> Read More: Singapore Airlines 777 First Class Dinner from Seoul to Singapore
Malaysia Airlines
Malaysia Airlines dedicated a whole page of its menu just to satay. It noted:
So what’s the secret to our satay? Some attribute it to the high quality cuts of meat we use. Others, to our marinade of fresh shallots, turmeric, garlic, galangal, and lemongrass. Still others maintain that it’s due to the constant basting and hand-turning while being chargrilled over original mangrove wood charcoal, and then of course, there’s our traditional crushed peanut sauce which is gently cooked for hours to achieve the right consistency and flavour.
This satay also included cucumber and onion as well as nasi himpit or compressed rice cakes. The peanut sauce was already poured on top…good thing it was delicious. I’d rate the meat as tasty but the sauce a tad spicier than on Singapore Airlines.
> Read More: Malaysia Airlines A350 First Class Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo Review
The Winner? Draw.
Both satay courses were delicious. I’d give a slight edge to Singapore Airlines on the meat itself and to Malaysia Airlines on the peanut sauce.
This course is not to be missed on either airlines and yes, the meat was fully cooked.
Do you like satay on an airplane?
My mouth was watering reading thru the whole post. The meat and sauce are both crucial. Delicious draw.
Have we reduced ourselves to this level of discussion..? Seriously…?
Having tried both, Malaysia Airline wins hands down. I always find the meat on MH more tender than SQ and the sauce is more flavorful. Always go for the chicken as the beef or lamb can be tough in texture
I agree with Jeff. The meat texture and the peanut sauce of MH’s satays are closer to the real deal that are sold in the food stalls in Malaysia and Singapore.
Nothing like grilled meat fresh off the coals. Too bad this isn’t what airlines serve. Airline food is at best good and you should feel fortunate if it is acceptable.
I prefer safety while I eat so SIA wins for me. Plus I connect in SIN vs KUL and avoid benefiting the corrupt Malay government. This is even though my friend is married to one of the Malaysian royal family.
What an ignorant comment.
Malaysia First Class seat and service was a complete joke. They also did not cater the caviar on my flight since I was the only passenger.
I’m sorry you had a bad experience. I enjoyed the recent A350 first class experience very much.
Funny you compare satay from MAS and SQ while satay is actually comes from Indonesia. So why Garuda doesn’t make it their signature? Indonesia is rich on cuisine, unlike malaysia or tiny singapore. What kind of satay should be presented on Indonesian airlines as signature dish? Sate madura? Sate maranggi? Sate padang? Sate lilit? And others…
Oh yeah, peanut sauce is just one kind of sauce. Properly served, you can choose the sauce like sweet soy sauce with shallots, etc.
As a superior white guy privileges, your ignorant is understandable. Lol
I flew Garuda First and was not offered satay:
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2017/03/04/review-garuda-777-300er-first-class/
It wasn’t even on the menu.
Thanks for playing.
As a typical sore Indonesian , your ignorant is understandable as well. Lolz