This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Explore more of Starbucks at Starbucks.com. http://www.starbucks.com/default.asp?ci=1015 \----------------------------------------------------------/ Air Passengers' Carry-Ons: No, Not Bags, Dinner September 23, 2003 By MATT RICHTEL SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22 - Munching on mahi-mahi, Laura Malone sat in the airport here and told of a recent run-in with security. Screeners at the metal detector had found no weaponry or sharp objects but had stopped her anyway. The offending item? A tin of smoked shrimp with tarragon. Arriving at the airport well stocked with tasty refreshments is nothing new to Ms. Malone. (When she and her husband fly together, they even carry aboard a bottle of petite sirah.) To her, the routine is as much necessity as luxury. Even food that she considers inedible - "it's ugly, it's fattening, and it's old" - has in many cases been disappearing as a jetliner service. In the era of the no-frill airline, a crucial part of the preflight ritual has become stocking up on sustenance, and travelers are growing more creative by the day. Rather than carry nothing more than trail mix or sandwiches, they are packing elaborate picnics to be consumed at 25,000 feet: coolers and Tupperware containers are filled with fragrant homemade meals, bottles with spring water and juices. Travelers, flight attendants and industry analysts say the trend has become more pronounced since the Sept. 11 attacks, which accelerated a business downturn that has caused even full-fare airlines to often provide little more than a snack. For flight attendants, that trend has created yet another headache, and not just from the various new food-related odors: the in-air picnics are also resulting in a mess of discarded food, bags and boxes. Passengers are bringing so much food on board that there is barely enough room to fit all the garbage in trash bins. Indeed, on short-haul commuter flights like those from Los Angeles to San Francisco, travelers are sometimes admonished over the intercom to pick up after themselves before landing so that the plane can be quickly turned around to head in the other direction. "There's stuff everywhere, more garbage on the floors and in the seat backs," said Peter M. Lebeau, a flight attendant for American Trans Air. "It's pretty gross." Untidy, perhaps, but passengers say the noshing is necessary to stave of hunger or having to eat something significantly substandard. Ms. Malone, a 56-year-old marketing executive from Napa Valley who was interviewed just before boarding a flight to Seattle on business, said that she always took food with her for air travel and that it was usually something delectable. She typically smokes some salmon the night before, and takes it along with goat cheese and a fresh sourdough baguette. She and her husband often carry enough for those who sit nearby. "We make a lot of friends," she said. Those who fail to prepare at home, or are not lucky enough to sit beside a gourmand, can turn to a growing array of cafes that line airport concourses. Some offer only overpriced ordinary fare, but others provide increasingly high-quality food from designer brand names like Wolfgang Puck. Airport snacks include sushi, juice shakes and vegetarian wraps, letting travelers watch their weight while they digest with the Grand Canyon far below on their left. Joe Brancatelli publishes a travelers' advisory Web site that includes counsel on where to get the best food at airports. Among the recommendations are the Rose City Cafe in Portland, Ore., which has "very fresh sushi," and Erwin's Glatt Kosher Delicatessen, which, the site says, serves superior deli fare at Kennedy International Airport in New York. Philadelphia International features Caviar Assouline, where each lunch bag holding a sandwich also contains a Valrhona chocolate square. Mr. Brancatelli said shops at a handful of airports had even begun allowing travelers to order meals over the Internet that can be picked up at terminals before a flight. "I work on the assumption that there won't be food on the plane," he said. "If you feel you need to eat on a plane, it does take some planning ahead." Travelers have always had an uneasy acquaintance with airline food, but those who find it unappetizing have had much less of it to complain about in recent years. The major airlines, either losing money or operating on very thin profit margins, have cut back on hot meals, except on international flights and all but the longest domestic ones. Then there are the no-frill airlines. Southwest, American Trans Air and JetBlue Airways do not offer meals at all. Travelers on some America West flights can get sandwiches, but they must pay for them. For passengers who want to take food on board, though, one of the no-frill carriers, JetBlue, is in the process of bringing in a host of new food shops at Kennedy Airport's Terminal 6, where it is the sole airline. A JetBlue spokesman, Gareth Edmondson-Jones, said the airline ousted the existing food businesses there three months ago and has hired a company to expand the offerings and emphasize fresher food. As for the drink to go with it, it is not illegal to carry alcohol onto planes. Airlines themselves have varying policies about it, said Mr. Edmondson-Jones, who added that JetBlue permitted alcohol but required passengers to let the flight attendants serve it. That way, the crew can try to make sure that nobody downs too much. One result of the picnics in the sky is that the cabins, once filled with cigarette smoke, now often carry a fragrance of various foods brought on board - and not always for the better. "Once there was this horrible smell," said Eloin Rodriguez, a flight attendant with American Trans Air. After several travelers complained, Mr. Rodriguez said, he pinpointed the problem: "There was a woman discreetly eating fried squid." Robin Kidwell, a nurse who prefers to pack a turkey and cheese sandwich rather than something more elaborate, remembers an unpleasant scent that wafted from three rows in front of her during a flight in July from Charlotte, N.C., to San Francisco. "It was chicken curry," Ms. Kidwell said. "And it wasn't great. Trust me." But even people who carry food on board are not always happy about the need to do so. The passengers aboard a recent American Trans Air flight from Boston to San Francisco (with a stop in Chicago) included Coryinne Soyster and her 19-year-old son. Before Ms. Soyster left the East Coast, her sister had packed a blue cooler with three sandwiches and a plastic container that held grapes, blueberries and pieces of melon. Ms. Soyster felt burdened, however, and blamed the airline for the lack of a tote-free meal. "It's ridiculous," she said. "I don't know what it could cost them: $4, $5, $6. I don't want to have to hike a cooler all over on a trip." In the back of the airplane, Mr. Lebeau, the flight attendant, was not feeling particularly sorry for complaining travelers. "Don't give me grief for three hours or act like your kids are going to starve to death," he said. "We're in the transportation business, not the food service business." Not that Mr. Lebeau himself had come unprepared. In one of the plane's ovens he was warming penne with ground turkey and squash. He had made it at home the night before. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/23/national/23MEAL.html?ex=1065325230&ei=1&en=876c68c67e60013c --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company