After three short days vacationing in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, United flies me home to SFO, an upgrade clears, and a blog post is written.
United is such a mixed bag of quality. Some flights are utterly atrocious, others put them in front of many of the top airlines of the world. Today’s flight was the latter. UA1568, flown on this day by a 737-900ER from PVR to SFO. A relatively new (month old) aircraft with tail number N69840 and Boeing’s rather pleasant Sky Interior. The day that all airplanes switch to this new interior will be a great day. The hard fluorescent lights one suffers through at a window seat seem archaic in the era advanced LED technology mixed with a tad of color science.
Onto the food. Warm nuts were served post-takeoff alongside the first drink. I opted for a soda water, unusual, but after several days at an all-inclusive resort amongst friends, my liver needed a break.
The food choices on this flight were a salmon dish with vegetables, a chicken something with some sort of jambalaya and an indian vegetarian dish that was repeated twice to me from the flight attendant, but the only words I can remember were vegetarian and paneer.
Regardless after I made my choice and the flight attendant removed herself from my presence, I was consumed by indecision with my choice. Especially knowing that it would be an indian-resembling dish, I knew it would be served with rice. And when I’ve talked about rice served aboard airplanes before, I am bringing up memories of pain and disdain for what i’ve called “adventure in texture”. I experienced such adventures on my flight down on US Airways from Pheonix.
Upon being served the dish, I was honestly shocked. Yes, there was rice, but the food was just aesthetically perfect. Each grain of rice that was visible on that plate looked like it was perfectly cooked - plump, moist, and juicy. There were no adventures in texture whatsoever in this meal, only bewilderment if I was actually on a United flight and not Singapore Airlines. The food was as delicious as it looked. Again, each bite was just absolute bewilderment. Was United -Actually- trying now? Were the PVR caterers just rockstars within their game? How was this food quality actually obtained from an American carrier, especially aboard a narrow body plane? Here’s the tray shot - 10/10 for presentation.
And the money shot close up of the dish below. Wow. I can’t vouch the dish for being anything close to authentic indian, but I’m slightly thankful. The aircraft is a mostly closed system that is to be shared for just over 167 people for a couple hours. I’m ok without the authentic indian flavor and the smell that comes along it. Granted, I’m a huge fan of indian dishes - I have naan in my freezer right now for times of indian cravings, but I’m mindful that there is a time and more critical, a place for authentic indian food. A plane is not one of those places. This bowl was clean by the time the tray was retrieved thanks to the bread bun.
Onto the closeup of the salad. Fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh!!! I wasn’t too keen on the cheese, it wasn’t quite feta, and seemed more like parmesan, but wasn’t quite parmesan. The balsamic dressing was thick and hard to spread, but still tasty.
UA1568 departed in the early evening, 6 PM from PVR. Sun streaming into a cabin on a sunset flight is one of my favorite things, as it provides vital vitamin D which my desk job does not provide during the week. Passengers on this flight were treated with an absolutely stunning sunset - here are some shots below.
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