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.
The title actually says it all. I never expected to be eating sushi and chicken katsu at 8:00 in the morning while flying from Germany to Iraq on Lufthansa. But that’s exactly what was served.
I’m focusing on this meal in hopes of drawing you over to my Iraq trip report. It’s a three-part series on my trip to Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and particularly salient in light of recent news events.
Frankfurt to Erbil is a 4-hour, 30-minute flight. That makes it too short for longhaul service and too long for shorthaul service. While I wouldn’t call it a “Goldilocks” dilemma, Lufthansa responded by offering an interesting no-choice menu from around the world.
The mix of dishes can only be described as eclectic.
The hot dish included scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, and beans. I’d say British Airways does a much better English breakfast, but this wasn’t bad.
Another dish included pastrami, chicken katsu, cucumbers, Brie cheese, strawberry marmalade, and butter.
Next to it was was sushi with salmon and a single slice of grilled bell pepper and zucchini. Soy sauce on the side.
Then dessert, which included an apple tort with vanilla cream, raspberry sauce, and a chocolate straw.
Fresh squeezed orange juice, tea, and choice of bread as well.
It made for quite a diverse breakfast…
CONCLUSION
Lufthansa tries too hard, it seems to me, to be creative. I would have been happier with a larger portion of eggs and some Vollkornbrot (whole grain bread, which Germany–as a nation–makes beautifully) or pretzel bread.
In any case, Lufthansa wins here for most interesting breakfast…
I hope you enjoyed Erbil, is a fantastic City!
Was that really one meal? Or did you just order all three choices?
One meal. No choices.
Probably miscaterered?
Quick question. If one visits Erbil (for a day or two), do you have to go through hell and back when you come back to the US and face customs and immigration? I have a US passport but am Iranian originally and am just wondering whether anyone has experience with this?
It’s like they just emptied the refrigerator leftover bins onto the trays. At least you didn’t go away hungry.
If you stop in Turkey you will get the ssss even if it is a layover in the fight schedule and you go out for the night to stay in a hotel. Very likely you will get SSSS if you fly to Iraq.
Was there maybe meant to be a breakfast service, and then a snack (katsu/desert) before landing?
That would have been smart, but I think it’s just the way LH does things.