Air Malta's Aeroplane Food!

I've just come back from my hols in Malta and I am OBSESSED with the place- great food, fab weather, trendy shops and cute old buses- I want to live there! As I previously mentioned, veggies don't fare bad here- food is exciting (see above pic of Stuffed Marrows) and you don't get served cheese sandwiches like in Spain and Portugal. Sure, the locals are fond of rabbit but it's not rammed down your throat. Maltese salads are substantial and with bite; a beautiful contrast of Gozo Cheese (similar to feta) and tangy capers. I went to some beautiful eateries on the island and being the Vindaloo Queen, I simply had to squeeze in an Indian visit which was a disaster of Tippoo Sahib proportions. And don't mention the Chinese. Or the aeroplane breakfast with an Imodium chaser. Armed with my camera and my equally photographic memory, I am about to provide you with a barrage of hoilday reviews.

I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to travel- I believe in dressing nice to fly and flying with a 'proper' airline; getting a nice meal, watching a bit of telly and having enough room to stretch out! I cringe when I see scruffy chavs at the airport in their tracksuits- helloooo! It's an airport, not a bus station. And goodness knows why some of the budget airlines decided to fly to Turkey and Cyprus and other destinations slightly further afield and think it's acceptable to fob their passengers off with a tube of Pringles. I'd be dropping down with hunger!

I flew with Air Malta, a good 'proper' airline and with much anticipation, I was looking forward to my meal. You see, in my previous life I was an air hostess so I have a strong,professional interest in such important matters. Although my airline wasn't 'proper', it was of the Pringles variety, one of the benefits of my job was to get fed a proper meal each day! Sometimes even twice...Maybe that's where my love of restaurants comes from, the fact that I ate a chemical explosion of plane cuisine for 5 and a half years.

The first meal was an evening meal, a beautiful rich pasta served in a plummy tomato sauce with aubergines, olives and onion. The quality was fantastic and I was impressed to see my fave veg- the aubergine- make its airline debut. Unfortunately, the bread roll was stale and not warmed like other airlines, so I fed it to a cute family of duckies next to the hotel. It also came with a yummy muffin!

On the way back however, the meal posed the threat of gastroenteritis. It was breakfast but looked more like the bins at the back of my local greasy spoon. Even my local rough Greasy in Edinburgh looked more appetising. It consisted of beans, mushrooms, tomato and an omelette/poached egg hybrid. The beans were more sauce than actual beans, the tomato looked dehydrated, the mushrooms were floating round in water (the whole breakfast tray had an inch of water in the bottom) and the egg looked beautiful but was cold in the middle. This smorgasbord came with a stale roll but to compensate, a beautiful fruit salad balanced it out. The fruit salad consisted of melon and pineapple, not the budget fruit salad of apple n orange.

To wash it all down, I opted for coffee (weak) and water, plus the Maltese soft drink called 'Kinnie'. This is an acquired taste- it looks like Dr Pepper but is in fact a bitter orange drink and ever so refreshing. I recommend it for fans of bitter lemon, Campari and Cranberry juice.