Please don’t feel sorry for me and my first world problems, however…..
I traveled from Dallas to Baltimore last Friday afternoon on American Airlines (MD-80).

  • Good thing: First class American Airline upgrade.
  • Good thing: Fairly standard and polite service, hot towels, drinks refilled frequently enough, tray tablecloth, warm nuts.
  • OMG thing:  The lunch [insert horror movie music here]

The lunch choices per the flight attendant: “Shrimp Salad or Cheese Enchiladas.”

I really do appreciate American Airlines’ shout-out to the Catholics with their meal selections on a Friday in Lent.  For whatever reason I was picturing the shrimp salad to be similar to tuna salad or egg salad – two staples of Friday lunches with nuns.  Plus I knew I was having shrimp for dinner.  So I chose the Cheese Enchiladas.

American Airlines Cheese Enchiladas
“Red Enchiladas stuffed with Queso Fresco & Monterey Jack & Carmelized Onion”

The way AA describes these is in the photo caption.  It looks reasonable.

American Airlines Cheese Enchiladas 4
“Dry enchiladas that somehow tasted way off”

Of the two enchiladas, I swallowed about 2/3 of 1, which, based on the trays going back to the galley, was more than most passengers.  It shouldn’t be this hard.

The biggest oddity of the meal (besides being able to make cheese enchiladas taste like Hades)  was the salad – a Romaine Heart where the stem was never cut off.

American Airlines Cheese Enchilads 2
Romaine heart with one slice of cucumber and two cherry tomatoes

Perhaps I should applaud them for field-to-plate because it sure looked that way. I was tempted to ask for a cup of water to try to regrow the plant (this actually works with Romaine).

American Airlines Salad Fail

By the way, the shrimp salad was 4 poached shrimp with cocktail sauce and a “Saffron Orzo Salad with Haricot Verts & Baby Squash.”  Ironically I had reviewed this exact meal on the exact same route rather positively in a previous post (so who is the loser now). Another thought: I mentioned their surprisingly-pleasant turkey sandwich towards the end of another post which shows that economy food can be better than first class food.

At least I had an AA Snickerdoodle cookie and some (alot of) Woodsford Reserve for desert.  American Airlines Snickerdoodle

Final thoughts:

  • Dear American Airlines: Really? Seriously?
  • Dear Julian Barsotti – AA website suggests this is your food.  Wow. Rest assured I will not try one of your restaurants next time I am in the Dallas area.
  • Dear anyone reading this far: Again, don’t feel sorry for me and my first world problems. Really and seriously.

Update:  I recently did a comprehensive review of American Airlines Domestic First Meals which you can read by clicking this sentence.