Korean classic on the fly: An airline meal that's hard to forget
Asiana Airlines' DIY bibimbap is a treat.
It's not often you get served an airline's national dish in economy class. It's hard to imagine a Sunday roast on British Airways, for example, or asado on Aerolineas Argentina - although I believe Air New Zealand offers meat pies.
It's even rarer to come across an inflight meal that you have to mix together yourself, so I was startled to see bibimbap on the menu on South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines' flight from Sydney to Seoul.
The meal arrives with an explanatory note which doubles as a four-step Korean and English instruction card, complete with colourful illustrations.
Passengers learn that bibimbap is "a famous Korean cuisine which is composed of steamed rice, minced beef and other assorted vegetables" to which gochujang red chilli paste and sesame oil are added for "a mild tangy flavour".
Read more on Explore:
The rice is served in a sealed packet, next to a plastic bowl containing a foil patty case of marinated cooked beef artistically circled by fresh vegetables including matchstick carrots, cucumber, shitake mushrooms, beansprouts and zucchini ribbons.
Step one, according to the card, is "put the steamed rice into bibimbap bowl". Easy.
Next, I add sesame oil from a packet and a generous squeeze of gochujang from an industrial-looking tube. Step three is "mix all the ingredients using your spoon and chopsticks". Naturally, I choose chopsticks to be like a Korean. Naturally, this takes me twice as long as a spoon because I'm not a Korean. Then I add the kimchi, ignore the seaweed soup and, to my mild surprise, create a half-decent bibimbap - albeit without the customary fried egg, which I don't like anyway.
Asiana's bibimbap is perhaps the only meal in the skies to be eaten with a sense of accomplishment. It's also healthy, spicy, oddly invigorating, and makes you feel as if you're in Korea even before your plane lands at Seoul.
Travel's Top Picks
Travel's Most Viewed
Stopover sting as gastro claims surge in Asian transit hubs
Entering one of Australia's favourite destinations is about to get harder
Why simply reusing your hotel towel isn't saving the planet
Holidaying on this Asian island just got cheaper thanks to a major rule change
The one that got away: tourists reveal the souvenirs they regret not buying
6-hour airport chaos: new European border rule causing nightmare delays
Western Sydney's new 24/7 airport opening date and $59 launch fares revealed
