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.
Sandwich (noun): an item of food consisting of two pieces of bread with meat, cheese, or other filling between them, eaten as a light meal.
There’s nothing like a sandwich, is there? Across cultures, languages, and geographic locations stands this simple invention that has also stood the test of time. Over the years sandwiches have represented comfort food in its purest form for me. Even on airplanes, where food is rarely as tasty as it is on the ground.
I recently flew from Warsaw to Munich on Lufthansa. It was a 5:00 P.M. flight and I had eaten breakfast at 6:30 A.M. and skipped lunch. Thus, when flight attendants offered a sandwich onboard, I happily accepted.
The choices were a ham sandwich or cheese sandwich and I chose cheese.
A flight attendant handed me a gouda cream cheese sandwich with herbs on sunflower bread. It was fresh and tasty: the bread itself (very “German” tasting), the sliced gouda, and the herb cream cheese spread. What a perfect little treat. And unlike some airline sandwiches with a shelf-life of several months, this one had a “use by” date of only three days later.
While the sandwiches have changed over the years, I admire Lufthansa for its consistency. The first sandwich I had onboard a Lufthansa flight was in September 2006 from London to Frankfurt aboard an A300-600.
It was a ham sandwich which I also fondly remember because the bread was so tasty (it’s easy to impress an American when it comes to bread…).
And perhaps that is why Lufthansa simply hasn’t changed its snack in well over a decade: why not just leave well enough alone?
CONCLUSION
I’m not always hungry when I fly Lufthansa and routinely skip the sandwich, but when I am hungry a sandwich always hits the spot.
Do you appreciate a sandwich on Lufthansa or would you prefer something else?
What exactly is the benefit of doing these ‘meal of the week’ articles? You don’t say when this occurred so it may or may not be relevant – wonderful. I read a couple of your first ones but stopped after realizing they were largely meaningless. Likewise, I didn’t bother reading this one; just wanted to ask, why bother?
I like these posts a lot! And I agree with Matthew that it’s easy to impress an American with bread!
@Aztec: YMMV, but I always include the dates. The flight took place earlier this month. I compared it to a flight I took in September 2006.
But these posts, as the opening paragraph each week suggests, are not meant to be time-sensitive.
Matt,
“I’m not always hungry when I fly Lufthansa…, but when I am hungry a sandwich always hits the spot.”
That so planted an image of the dos equis guy in my head… LOL
LOL!
Maybe 12 years ago, Continental Airlines served sandwiches but other airlines had ended meals in economy class. Guess what airline I flew somewhat often? Continental. My stomach decided.
(but don’t think I am a CO fan. I wish the livery update for United was a tulip)
Haha, I had practically that exact same cheese sandwich in Lufthansa Y from LHR to FRA last month! I agree, it wasn’t bad, especially for a Y meal. My general issue with airplane sandwiches is the bread is too often soggy. Nothing’s a buzzkill like soggy bread.
Absoutely agreed with Matthew especially for less than an hour flight. Sandwich please! :))
Love the sandwiches Lufthansa serves. One of the reasons I always fly an airline within their group is the staff and the nice food that is served.
Lufthansa have served sandwichs on short European journeys since about 1998 but it’s not quite true to say it hasn’t changed because they’ve certainly ‘enhanced’ the size and it’s now about 20% of the sandwich it was 20 years ago!
Living in Munich for 2.5 years and flying Lufthansa so much, I stopped accepting the sandwich on board. I always found the bread to be stale and they aren’t the healthiest of sandwiches. I always preferred to eat something in the Senators lounge before my flight. Even worse are the morning flights with the pastry. Those things were terrible.
I had a similar experience but on SAS flying from Stockholm to St. Petersburg. This was about 15 years ago and they served this very nice smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich on a potato bun in Economy Class. It hit the spot! I generally dislike airline meals and will usually skip hot meals in economy class (even on ultra long-haul flights). But a nice, decently made sandwich is always welcome and I used to have good experiences on European airlines with this. Z
I love the Lufthansa cheese sandwich too. I don’t usually care for their selection in the lounges but then regret it when I’m on my 2-3 hour connecting flight and could use a snack. So much better to eat and more satisfying than many other airlines offerings. At least they offer something decent even on the shortest connecting flights- unlike US carriers!!
And btw, I like these little glimpses into food on airlines!
I had that same sandwich on one of their flights from Croatia to Munich. The sandwich was so fresh and delicious that I decided to search for any reference to it online. Does anyone know what herbs were in the cream cheese and the full list of ingredients? I’m guessing there was more than just rye bread, gouda slices and herb cream cheese. Mayonnaise or tomato, perhaps.
My experience with the Lufthansa sandwich was less than good. The bread was cold, soggy, and the filling was a sliced carrot. That was it. No mayo…. no spice. Just raw sliced carrot on cold soggy bread.
Diana when did you experience that? Which type of flight? Unfortunately after covid, lufthansa changed the sandwiches for tiny chocolates
I’m also a big fan of their sandwiches! So I hope they will come back 🙂
I disagree, had that sandwich, it is a joke, and certainly not good in any way.
Imo lufthansa provides low cost service for high cost price. At least in low cost I can buy a sandwich, and most if them are much much better.
To each his own, of course, but I find the sandwich quite worth the calories.