025
Photo taken by: SM
Route: London LHR to Mumbai BOM, December 2003
Flight duration: 8h09m
Aircraft type & class: Boeing 747-400, First Class
Meal type: Light snack/supper before landing
Contents of the meal: Chicken Cutlet, Lamb mince with potato patty, Corn croquette, Kachori (vegetarian puff) all served with mint chutney. Fruit salad bowl. Mango shrikhand dessert.
Drink: Water, Coffee
Comments: Catered by "Veeraswamy of Piccadilly", the leading Indian restaurant in Britain. Extremely tasty and a perfect snack prior to a midnight arrival. Only drawback was the plastic cutlery used on all USA routes because the flight had started off in Chicago. A shame because everything is served on elegant custom-designed Royal Doulton bone china.
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 9

016
Photo taken by: Kumiko Tanaka
Flying from: Tokyo NRT to Bangkok BKK, 17 Sep 2003
Aircraft type & class: economy
Meal type: Lunch - Vegetarian: Curry, Rice Pilaf, Spiced Vegetables, Apricot Bavarois.
Comments: Not good. I said "Fish",but ate "Vegetarian".
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 1

014
Photo taken by: NVU
Flying from: Mumbai (BOM) to Delhi (DEL), 16 September 2003
Ticket price: US$140
Flight duration: 1hr 35mins
Aircraft type & class: A310-304 (VT-EJJ "Beas"), Business Class
Meal type: Tea refreshments- Fresh papaya and pineapple salad. Bread roll and amul butter. Entree was Chicken Tikka, Vegetable kebabs, deep fried curried breaded prawns. Accompanied with coconut chutney, and yoghurt/mint chutney. Desert was fresh mango mousse.
Drink: Coconut water, followed by mineral water, and tea.
Comments: Delightful meal. The fruit was really fresh and the papaya was ripe and sweet. Bread roll could have been fresher. The butter was refrigerated and a bit hard, but nonetheless tasted of typical amul butter. Chicken tikka overly heated, therefore got a bit dehydrated and lost a bit of its' flavour in the bargain. The vegetarian kebabs were regular, and were more potato than vegetable based. The prawns were terrific. This preparation has always been an Air-India original, and prepared/catered only from Mumbai. The accompanied chutneys were good too. The mango mousse the best I've had on board. Wasn't too sweet and tasted of real alphonso mangoes. It was sprinkled with chopped pistachios, which gave it an all the more exotic look. I have always been impressed with Air-India's on board service, and they didn't disappoint this time either. One small observation, their designer tea cups have become smaller, and now resemble a slightly oversized espresso cup. Cost cutting??
Rating: 9

005
Photo taken by: NVU
Flying from: Delhi (DEL) to Dubai (DXB), 21 April 2003
Ticket price: Award Ticket
Flight duration: 3h45m
Aircraft type & class: A310-300 (Tista), Business Class
Meal type: Dinner - Dahi (yoghurt) curry, white rice, spiced cabbage, Dahi (yoghurt in a container), mixed Indian salad (Khandvi, Patra, etc.), kheer (sweetened Indian milk desert), papad, roomali roti, bread roll, Vijaya butter, Britannia processed cheese, Britannia Cream Crackers, Cadburys Perk XXL chocolate.
Comments: Extremely poor Vegetarian offering. This was a very low budget meal. Nothing in it was of International Standard.
Rating: 3