I tend to view the Lufthansa “Heimat” menu in regional business class as a downgrade over what preceded it, but I enjoyed a very nice lunch in business class on my short sector from from Copenhagen to Frankfurt including Semmelknödel, one of my favorite German specialities.
Can Lufthansa Pull Off Semmelknödel?
Semmelknödel are German bread dumplings. Throw together a bit of bread stuffing with milk, butter, eggs, and onions and you have a lovely side dish which can often be the highlight of the meal. This dish is a speciality of Bavaria.
For reasons that puzzle me, Lufthansa has stopped printing menus on regional business class flights so you are served a dish (there is generally not a choice on short haul flights) and might not know what it is. In my case, a nice dish was put before me that included a colorful array of sliced roast beef, Feld salat, eggs, a cherry tomato, and of course the Semmelknödel sliced and topped in fennel.
It was really a perfect lunch, even after my rather large meal in the SAS Lounge, and I thought the flavor of the dumplings was just perfect. It was served with a warm bread roll and butter on the side as well as a chocolate cake for dessert, followed by more chocolate.
Perhaps I liked it so much because it is something I absolutely never get at home…like fondue. My father-in-law is a great cook and these dumplings are eaten in Baden-Württemberg as well (the state bordering Bavaria), but he rarely makes them. It had been years and the novelty was such a treat.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some cooking to do…
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.
I’ve always thought knödel was Swabian. I guess it doesn’t matter. That’s a solid lunch on LH.
Especially considering the flight was only 422 miles!
I thought they would be doing away with Heimat from the beginning of the winter schedule. It really is luck of the draw whether you get an awful, passable or good meal in LH European business. Probably best to stick with SN and their tapas platter (intended for BoB in economy but served to business class passengers on request, or when they do an op-up and haven’t loaded enough C meals!).
@Jerry. You are partly correct. Schwaben falls partly in Bavaria. In any case Semmelknodel is a southern German dish. Northerners don’t use the term “Semmel”; they say “Brotchen.” My grandmother used to make soup with a great big Semmelknodel in it. Very good.
By Lufthansa inter-European standards, that actually looks good.