Whenever I head into a travel day, I brace myself for the worst. Long security lines. Huge delays. Lost luggage. Getting stuck behind a crying child. Expect the worst, be pleasantly surprised by the best. A motto that has served me well over the years. Am I a realist, pessimist, or just your average anxiety-riddled millennial? I suppose the answer depends on the day.
I headed into our trek from Milan to New York City fully anticipating something to go wrong.
Both of our intra-trip flights were near disasters. The first (from Milan to Budapest) coincided with the world wide network outage. The airport was in total chaos, but the hand written boarding pass makes for a good story to tell. On the second (from Krakow to England), we were informed that the flight was moved to a smaller plane, meaning we were on standby because there wasn’t a seat for us. Mind you, we had woken up at 2:15am and I was extremely under-caffeinated—the prospect of being bumped didn’t sit well. However, we ended up making it on no problem.
Flickers of airport travel trauma crossed my mind as we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Milan train station.
To my shock, the day was as smooth as can be.
We walked right onto the train to the airport. There was no line at the Emirates check-in counter. Security took 10 minutes tops. Passport control was no problem. Although, we did witness another traveler screaming at an immigration officer yelling “YOU CAN’T TREAT FOREIGNERS LIKE THIS.” Police escorted her into a small security room. Of course I did my due diligence of watching— had to be ready to film any misbehavior, right? The only qualm was that there weren’t any water fountains so I had to shell out €2,50 for a water bottle. But hey, you can’t have it all.
As per usual, I wasn’t about to buy airport food. Lucky for me, 9 hour flights come with meals.
Let’s dive into my Emirates Airlines economy class food review!
The Journey Began With a Menu
I love it when you get a menu on the flight. It’s fun knowing what’s to come, and it means you don’t have to loudly whisper “what??” to the flight attendant 5 times to understand the options.
Emirates Airlines Meal One: Lunch
As meal one came down the aisle, it was clear that the menu was totally wrong.
Rather than breakfast, we were getting lunch. And rather than the choice of chicken or beef, we were given the choice of lamb kofta or chicken with potatoes.
I went with the chicken. The tray came with a dish of chicken, potatoes, and creamed spinach, a serving of quinoa, a roll in a plastic bag, a cube of cheese with two crackers, a chocolate chip cookie, a pillow chocolate, and brownie mouse fudge concoction.
It was one of the best airplane meals I’ve had in a while.
The chicken was mega juicy and tender, and I didn’t mind the potatoes and spinach. I appreciated the quinoa, as it’s a good source of protein and fiber. The cheese and crackers were a nice snack. And the dessert of a brownie topped with a chocolate mousse and caramel sauce was divine. My one grievance to air is that the rolls in a plastic bag are no-good. Turkish Airlines serves warm rolls, which are a million times better than an old hard roll that’s been in plastic for lord knows how long (get my review of Turkish Airlines food HERE).
Emirates Airlines Meal Two
We were presented with the next meal/snack a little before landing. It was a choice of two sandwiches. I have no clue what the options were, but I ended up with a ham and cheese sandwich. The cheese was melted and it was nice and toasty. It tasted perfectly fine, and meant we didn’t have to procure dinner upon landed.
It came with a small salted caramel brownie, which was delicious.
Final thoughts on our Emirates Airlines economy class food experience…
This food on the flight from Milan to JFK was far superior to our meal from JFK to Milan. And as far as airplane food goes, it was pretty darn tasty!
