Eating in mile-high style

Two million dollars isn't peanuts. But it is pretzels. That's how much Northwest Airlines estimated it would save annually when last year it quit offering passengers those little bags of pretzels on domestic flights. Similarly, American Airlines netted a $40,000 annual savings when it eliminated just one olive from every salad served in its first-class cabins.

Given such economies, it's no wonder that strapped-for-cash airlines have been steadily cutting back on food service. Gone are the halcyon days of air travel when meals, at least in first class, could be downright sumptuous, served on real china with real linens. Today in economy class, you're lucky if you eat as well as people did on the first catered flight from London to Paris in 1919. All they got was a box lunch.

Though the decline of in-flight meals has been rather precipitous of late, the trend has been evident for a long time. Thus, the cuisine of the early days gave way to what were essentially frozen TV dinners in the sky. Then as even that approach became less cost-effective, snacks and cold sandwiches became the order of the day.

My favorite ploy was the one the now defunct TWA used for a while. To avoid the labor costs associated with distributing box lunches on board, the airline directed passengers to pick them up themselves from a large refrigerated chest at the boarding gate as they entered the jetway. This, with Orwellian overtones, was called "bistro service."

But, frankly, I'm not upset that airline meals are vanishing. Even though like most other passengers I obediently ate what was placed in front of me, those meals weren't good. In fact, they were awful, as reflected in the joke about the survivors of a plane crash who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Once that was no longer an option, so the joke goes, they started eating the meals from the plane's galley.

I figure the airlines have done us a favor by forcing us to fend for ourselves. These days, to eat at all -- let alone well -- in coach class, you must bring your own food on board, which is fine with me. Actually, I've been doing that for years, starting long ago when I would routinely bring back chocolates and fine cheeses from Europe and eat them, to the envy of fellow passengers, on the plane. It didn't take long to progress to other courses as well.

It's really not that difficult to fix food to bring along on a flight. Essentially, anything that would work at a picnic, including cold fried chicken, is suitable to bring on a plane. And I guarantee you if you make it yourself, it will be better than anything you might get on the plane, or in the airport for that matter. And when you bring your own dinner or lunch with you, you're in control. You know what you're having, and you can eat it when you want to and at your own pace. In fact, if you're the type who enjoys food, likes to cook and appreciates fine restaurants, why should you settle for typical airline food or none at all when you fly? Cook and bring your own and you'll elevate plane fare to a much higher plane.

Listen to A Harte Appetite Fridays at 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Write A Harte Appetite, c/o the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semissourian.com.