It’s easy to make fun of airplane food but frankly I’ve always (mostly) liked it. As a kid traveling on PanAm I looked forward to the Chicken Kiev, a scrumptious dish I never saw offered in a restaurant. If I’m traveling on Jet Blue Mint, I’m treated to a multi-course of mini-bite samplings of very tasty treats. Unfortunately, they often forget to microwave them and you’re basically stuck with the bread, cold salmon and ice cream to make do with. And God forbid you’re in the back of the plane. Not only will you not be fed a hot meal, you’ll be lucky to be able to buy water and chips for less than twenty bucks. It wasn’t always this way. Eating on planes used to be a wonderful experience for the first class passangers as well as the coach losers. Witness the above videos depicting two different airline’s offerings. In the first, we see the dining choices for the first class passengers. Frankly, it’s hard to recognize some of them–I believe I see Lobster Tail slathered in cream as well as Medallions of Beef served with Fries and nice little tomatoes, fruit cocktail, deviled eggs and Champagne. (No wonder they provided barf bags–an item that doesn’t seem to exist anymore). The Second Class offerings aren’t really pictured and perhaps there’s a reason for this. We are told that they serve wine but that they charge ‘duty-free prices’. The plates the food is served on have a somewhat ‘TV-Dinner’-ish vibe. Then we are onto the next video which is sound-free. This makes for some amusing viewing opportunities as you can feel free to make up the dialogue between the stewardess and travelers. I see what appears to be stuffed Chicken breast and a small potato, but it turns out this isn’t the main course, simply am oversized appetizer.  Before the passengers can even try the food a menu is presented. On it we read that the main course begins with cold smoked salmon with Mayonnaise sauce, and moves onto a roast saddle of Lamb with cauliflower, peas and potatoes. We get a brief glimpse of some very lemon-tart’ like deserts and then we are pulled out of the silent vortex of airplane travel of the past and dumped back into our current day life, a time when we are told that the healthiest things to eat are seeds, nuts and legumes (whatever they are). Seeds? Who eats seeds? Birds. That’s who…