What do you eat on aeroplanes? I try not to eat the in-flight meal because on most airlines, no matter what class you travel, the food ranges from ‘not very good’ to ‘truly disgusting’. It is not always the airlines’ fault (though most times it is); it is just that it is hard to make food manufactured in industrial quantities and then reheated in a basic aircraft oven many hours after it was cooked, taste good.

So, I usually refuse to eat it. Or if it is a long flight, I pack my own food. I have experimented with various kinds of packed meals before coming to the conclusion that there are only a few dishes that taste good cold.

Once upon a time I used to take a biryani on board, but this did not always yield the desired result. There were some happy moments, of course. On one Vistara flight many years ago, the cabin attendant noticed that I was eating cold biryani out of a packet and offered to reheat the meal. She took my biryani to the galley, warmed it and then plated it stylishly on Vistara crockery before returning it to me.

I must’ve taken over 100 Vistara flights after that and sadly, it never happened again and it remains the high spot of my years of travelling Vistara. I was so impressed by her consideration that I tweeted about it. Most people were as impressed as I was but some tedious aviation nerds and former airline personnel tweeted back that the attendant had committed a........

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