Airline food

Martin Yan’s Longevity Noodles

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Chef Yan Longevity Noodles

This is a special Chinese New Year menu item on all AirAsia flights. They’re made specially by Martin Yan for the Lunar New Year and features longevity noodles in an inventive recipe that includes a delicious thick sauce Chef Yan created himself, along with fresh minced chicken and a variety of vegetables like pickled carrots and radish, as well as green zucchini and red chilies.

Martin Yan AirAsia

Martin Yan’s Longevity Noodles by AirAsia goes for RM 15 a la carte or RM 16 as a combo with a 350 ml bottle of mineral water. The spicy chicken meat sauce goes very well with the crunchy texture of the julienned vegetables and the cooked-just-right longevity noodles with the perfect amount of soft-firm bite.

AirAsia Martin Yan

The hot sauce whets your appetite and the amount of sodium can probably kill a small horse but yet I was looking forward to eating this when I boarded. I forgot the pre-book the meal coz of the 24 hour minimum requirements and made sure to remind the cabin attendants (two of them, in fact) to let them know I wanted it so please hold one Martin Yan meal for me if possible.

AirAsia CNY

I finished eating it with satisfaction and asked the lady next to me to take a photo. Let it be known that I strongly approve of this particular meal! I’ve eaten food cooked by Chef Martin Yan before and I don’t usually go crazy over airline food (not even 1 Michelin star ones) but the Martin Yan’s Longevity Noodles had me licking the microwave foil container clean while not being too obvious about it. smirk

Martin Yan Longevity Noodles

I pondered ordering another one but I thought having a second 241 gram meal right after the first wouldn’t taste as good. It would be overkill and my taste buds are saturated anyway but it was an awesome festive lunch 30,000 feet in the air before I came back for Chinese New Year! 🙂

AirAsia Airline Food Review

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air asia food

I took the 9:15 am flight out of Sibu to head over to KL for the weekend. My sister is getting married later tonight in PJ so that’s why I took three (3) days unpaid leave to extend my support over here. Anyway, I bumped into a friend on the flight (actually bumped into quite a few people) and sat beside her and decided to sample the new AirAsia menu.

air asia platters

AirAsia has come up with some nifty marketing that ties in their menu with brands like 1901 hotdogs and other franchises. The Snack Attack hot meals packs have also been given a facelift, with standardized features. The hot meal packs now come with full color transparent heat seals with photos and the name of the dish.

fried rice

This is 1902 Gourmet Food Asian Fried Rice with Chicken Satay (RM 9). AirAsia has a history of partnering up with established catering establishments for their meals – Sri Melur Jaya is a renowned restaurant in Selangor that provides a large portion of their hot on-board meals.

aa food 

I had the 1902 Gourmet Food Asian Fried Rice with Chicken Satay (it’s actually mini satay sticks) while my musically inclined friend opted for the Sri Melur Jaya Nasi Briyani with Curry Chicken (RM 8). We both shared the Sri Melur Jaya Roti Jala (RM 6).

aa roti jala

The Sri Melur Jaya Roti Jala turned out to be the best dish of all – taste and presentation wise. It’s quite spicy, which is always a plus point for me.

aa food final

The total came up to RM 27 with a bottle of mineral water. I could have eaten better for less, but eh, it was fun to binge on food on an airplane and I’ve wanted to check out the new menu for quite a while.

P/S – sixthseal.com is still a bit messed up from the backups. Some images are missing but I promise I’ll get that fixed once I go back to Sibu. I’m currently in KL. Cheers!

Snack Attack Pak Nasser's Nasi Lemak

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jb snack attack

Snack Attack is the Air Asia in flight menu system and it has changed since the last time I reviewed the Snack Attack line [sixthseal.com].

jb snack attack menu

There is a flagship dish called Pak Nasser’s Nasi Lemak (RM 8) available for consumption and I opted for that on my flight to JB. Described as “Traditional Malay favorite. Tender chicken rendang with fragrant coconut milk and pandan rice. Served warm with accompaniments and Snack Attack’s special sambal sauce.”

jb snack attack food

I was quite excited about this considering the superlative “…word has it that one of the best nasi lemak to be had is on Air Asia’s morning flights” on The New Straits Times.

pak nasser nasi lemak

Product may not be illustrative of the photo depicted in the menu.

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Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Business Class review

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business class check in

MAS Business Class seats were the only ones available for my trip home since Economy class tickets have all been taken up. I decided to go for Business Class instead and expected to pay double the fare. However, my ticket agent told me that it’s only a surcharge of RM 30 per route. It seems that Business Class for short haul domestic flights (30 minutes) is not as expensive as I thought. I’ve always looked at the people seated in front with a little contempt (what’s the point in having a premium ticket for a short haul flight?) and now, I have become one of them. Alas!

business class martina

However, it seems that there are perks to Business Class seating in short haul domestic flights after all. First of all, I noticed that the ground staff damn chun. This is Martina, the Coordinating Agent for First Class/Business Class check in. There is also usually no line at the First Class/Business Class check in counters.

business class boarding

You also have the luxury of not boarding until the rest of sardine class boards coz Business Class seats are to the front and overhead compartment carry on luggage room is assured. There is no First Class on the Boeing 747-200 used to service the Kuching – Sibu – Kuching route.

business class seats

There are four (4) rows of Business Class seats located at the front of the plane. The seats are in two’s with spacious body and headroom being afforded by the 2 x 2 seating (two seats on each extreme side of the plane) in Business Class versus the 3 x 3 seating in Economy Class.

business class pillow

There is a pillow to rest your stiff neck on after a hard day’s work shuffling papers around and delegating tasks or doing whatever it is that people who fly Business Class do.

business class hot towel

Hot towels are provided before takeoff for your freshening needs and a complimentary glass of juice (this is Mango Juice) is furnished to sooth your parched throat after a long day yelling at subordinates for no reason at all. The juice is served in proper glasses, which Business Class flyers are implicitly trusted with, while the standard OJ served as the “refreshment” after take off in Economy Class uses disposable plastic cups, lest they take glassware away (those thieving heathens).

business class papers

Naturally, a selection of our finest English dailies are provided in the seat in front of you, so you don’t have to rush into the plane when you board just to get a copy or nick one from Business Class. 😉

business class cabin crew

The cabin attendants in Business Class tend to be more aesthetically pleasing than the ones doing the aisles at the back too.

business class napkins

Snacks and drinks are served with a napkin coz you’re supposed to be more culturally refined. Economy Class passengers do not get food on short haul flights, only the obligatory orange juice.

business class tray

Being the unrefined heathen than I am, I did not realize I was supposed to use the napkin as a tray liner of sorts before eating my sandwich.

business class food

The sandwiches are served on a dish and consist of an egg sandwich, a tuna sandwich and a ham sandwich, with a quarter of a tomato on the side.

business class juice

Business Class grants you access to a variety of free flow juices, which you can drink as fast as possible, before the plane lands…which is pretty quick.

…and you just have to pay RM 1 per minute for this service. 😉

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Air Asia’s Snack Attack – Chicken Congee

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air asia kl

I managed to sample Air Asia’s onboard cuisine (which is an opt in
menu that you pay for) when I took the AK 0340 flight from KLIA to Sibu
yesterday. I had been staring blankly at the seat in front of me for
the past 40 minutes or so and one of the cabin crew went “Sir, would
you like anything to eat or drink?” I was rather scattered so I went
“What was that?” and she repeated her first statement and I thought
yeah, some food would do me good so I asked what they have on their
menu. I couldn’t make out anything from the food choices she spieled
out but I heard “(something) chicken” so I said “Yeah, I’ll have that
chicken thing.”

snack attack chicken congee

It turned out to be chicken congee. “Congee”, of course, is just a
word people use instead of “porridge” to be pretentious. 😉 Anyway,
this was called Snack Attack Chicken Congee and cost RM 5. Upon further
inspection I noticed that:

food exclusively air asia

It was made exclusively for Air Asia.

air asia chicken congee

The chicken porridge was in a polyester (?) tub which was quite big
and deep. It looks like one of those premium ramen containers, one of
the larger ones, but not the super premium huge ones. It didn’t look
like much, but add some salt and pepper:

air asia food

and it tasted pretty good actually. That is saying something,
considering I wasn’t hungry at that time, but it could be the salt and
pepper that made me think it was better than it actually was.
Nevertheless, the portions are generous and the ingredients are
satisfactory.

porridge chicken pieces

The chicken congee contains relatively large chicken chunks, mushrooms, and some other things I couldn’t readily identify.

sibu customs

I arrived in Sibu and breezed through the typically lax (practically
non existent) customs. Excuse the guy that got into the shot.

sibu airport sars check

There was a booth before the exit with several doctors checking
people without Malaysian identification papers for SARS before the exit
though. Oops…this shouldn’t have been in a post about food should it?
My apologies. Heh.

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