Cathay Pacific is upgrading its inflight meals on flights between Australia and Hong Kong, introducing what the airline calls 'Signature Chinese Dishes' for business, premium economy and economy class passengers.
The dishes "feature Hong Kong specialities, authentic Chinese recipes and traditional tastes", according to the airline, and "capture the true essence of traditional local Chinese cuisine in terms of cooking style, ingredients, taste and appearance."
The meals will be offered during lunch and dinner on Cathay's flights to Australia, Europe, North America and Johannesburg, and will include new tableware – such as rice served in a traditional rice bowl in business class, and the main's hot entree presented in a china serving dish in the premium economy cabin.
Six signature Chinese meals are on the menu through to the end of October.
In business and premium economy these include Hong Kong-style curry prawns...
... and slow-cooked pork with preserved Hakka mustard greens.
The next menu rotation will include wok-fried prawns with ginger and shallot for business class.
Back in economy, travellers can tuck into braised beef in chu hou sauce on steamed jasmine rice...
... braised fish with ginger, spring onion, mushroom and steamed jasmine rice ...
... and braised minced pork with eggplant in mild chilli sauce on steamed jasmine rice.
Hungry for more on inflight food? Check out some of this year's Australian Business Traveller Food Week:
- Virgin Australia's celebrity chef Luke Mangan reveals how he thinks up meals and makes sure they'll work on the plane
- Ordering your business class meal before your flight with Singapore Airlines' Book The Cook
- Bringing an airline's home cuisine specialties onto worldwide flightswith Asiana, Lufthansa and LAN
- Four course meals on three hour flights: the best "medium-haul" food in the sky
- Qantas' Rockpool consultant Terry Higgins shows how menus get from a chef's brain to your tray table — and shares a recipe for the popular business class dish of snapper with coconut milk and garam masala
- Dr Ron Georgiou, Malaysia Airlines' wine consultant, on the best wines to choose in the air
- Cutlery, crockery, salt and pepper shakers...the story behind everything else on your business class meal tray
For the very latest news for business travellers and frequent flyers, tune into @AusBT on Twitter.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
24 Oct 2011
Total posts 159
just like what i cook at home LOL
except my steam barramundi with ginger and shallots would beat Cathay's fish dish anytime.I've been told my steam barramundi is as good as the flower drums.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
So it's settled - AusBT dinner at airtraveladdict's place! :)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2199
Slow-cooked pork? Sounds like my family LOL wonder how the pork will do againt my dad's? ;)
15 Aug 2011
Total posts 33
Game On airtraveladdict. My steam porkmince with mushroom, bamboo, corriander, chillie and vermecilli noodles cook in crab shell served with coconut scented rice and asian greens against your steam barra;-)
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
Sounds like my seared marinated sashimi-grade tuna steaks with Persian rice won't stand a chance against JohnnySFO or airtraveladdict!
Cathay Pacific - The Marco Polo Club
07 Jun 2012
Total posts 32
I had the braised beef in chu hou sauce two weeks ago on a HKG-BNE flight... surprisingly the meal looked quite similar to the glossy PR shot (ha!). Nonetheless, it was a little bit of a dissapointment. The traditional way of serving it in hong kong is to serve the braised beef brisket with tendon - unfortunately this was overloaded with tendon, as opposed to actual beef brisket (the proper 'meat' in the dish) and the chu hou sauce was quite bland.
Sorry to burst anybody's bubble!
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
Thanks for sharing that real-world experience, LHRBNE, it's always good to hear how the food actually stacks up compared to what the airlines promise!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Nov 2011
Total posts 186
The meals look good, but they seem more akin to a premium ecconomy, or domestic business in terms of their presentation. Is this how Cathay serve J class meals?
Cathay Pacific - The Marco Polo Club
07 Jun 2012
Total posts 32
for CX, if it's served in a tin-style container (i.e. the curry) then its Y class, and is served in the exact same configuration as what you've seen here. if it's a J class meal then it's always served on chinaware (similar to the ones picture here - see the prawns), but instead of being served directly on a meal tray, the FAs lay a small table cloth out first before serving your meal so that you can 'spread out' your meal across your table if you wanted to.
for PE, it's in the middle - everything is serve in the same manner as Y but your main meal is a J class meal. so presentation is the same but for the mains rather than the tin-style container you get J chinaware.
sorry for the long-winded explanation!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Nov 2011
Total posts 186
Thanks for the explanation! It just seems from the pctures to not quite be as high class as say QF or BA in J. But the meals look great, and every airline does it differently!
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