Neil Perry you just can't help yourself [Food review on QF Dom J]

[anat0l]

What the hell is "Australian" food? I didn't think Australia really had food (and let's leave the Indigenous people out of this, please).

No, lamingtons do not count. Neither do meat pies of any sort, or steak with potato and veg.

As far as I know, all "Australian" food is either inherited from Mother England or "stolen" from other countries. Fusion, which also touches modern Australian, seems to be the only exception, and even then that's a stretch.

How about some Fish & Chips or a Chicken Parma?

Case in point: those are not even Australian nor traditional.

In fact, one has to think who is preparing all these meals. I think a lot of the quality of food has to do more with the caterer/preparation location rather than the carrier. It does explain a lot why, for example, meals are generally quite tasty ex-SIN (although the bread rolls can be sweet).

 

[TonyHancock]

As far as I know, all "Australian" food is either inherited from Mother England or "stolen" from other countries. Fusion, which also touches modern Australian, seems to be the only exception, and even then that's a stretch.

This argument could be made for just about any food from any country. It is just about all inherited or adapted. I guess my point was why can't Qantas provide food that is widely consumed in Australia rather that the pretentious tripe under the Neil Perry brand.

 

[koro25]

Wonder if the big Q will consider serving curries. Flew king fisher and Jet Airways and their food has a bit of taste. Q can even market it as Neil "sanjay" Perry inspired menu :mrgreen:

 

[Flashback]

Wonder if the big Q will consider serving curries. Flew king fisher and Jet Airways and their food has a bit of taste. Q can even market it as Neil "sanjay" Perry inspired menu :mrgreen:

Curries can get a bit heavy on the old gut and waistline..

 

[Sprucegoose]

Anat01 hit the nail on the head.

What is Australian Cuisine?

Depersonsalise the Perry thing, he exists because there is a market for his inspiration.

 

[drron]

What the hell is "Australian" food? I didn't think Australia really had food (and let's leave the Indigenous people out of this, please).

No, lamingtons do not count. Neither do meat pies of any sort, or steak with potato and veg.

As far as I know, all "Australian" food is either inherited from Mother England or "stolen" from other countries. Fusion, which also touches modern Australian, seems to be the only exception, and even then that's a stretch.

Well Thai food was not spicy until the Portugese introduced the chilli in the 1600s-so you could say modern day Thai food is "western".

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Indeed. I think it is just a bad one.

I'd love to see some "traditional" Australian food on the menu. Nothing pretentious or fancy. How about some Doyles Fish & Chips or a Chicken Parma?

I've only had the opportunity to fly J (and F) between SYD/MEL and SIN the past 12 months, but everytime I seem to recall that there's pretty standard lamb or steak with some vegetables. I don't see a problem offering "asian" dishes when flying to/from an Asian country.

And "no" to "fish and chips" etc. For $4-5K I expect better.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

I know this was about business class food but to me domestic just gets worse with every flight. Some sort of tasteless stir fried beef last night with potatoes and beans. Boiled potatoes and beans were bland but were much tastier than the tasteless beef.

Welcome to the "race to the bottom" - continual pressure to produce cheap airfares means cut backs in product and service.

 

[djfuzz]

Anat01 hit the nail on the head.

What is Australian Cuisine?

Agreed. While I do like a good pie floater (had an excellent one at the Hilton Radelaide), I think it misses the mark to be clamouring for 'Aussie food', whatever that is.

I don't care what kind of food it is, but I would like it to be a balance of tasty, healthy and filling, with some choice appropriate for the time of day.

Depersonsalise the Perry thing, he exists because there is a market for his inspiration.

Agreed again - co-branding with a chef is entirely a marketing crutch, and conveys nothing of the actual quality of the menu (and I am one of those few simongr mentions who likes Rockpool).

If the focus was on developing quality food offerings suited to the environment / time of day, then it wouldn't matter whose kitchen it came from - the product should speak for itself.

Having said all that, more often than not I usually quite enjoy the international J offerings, but have not found the new dom J meals up to even that standard yet.

 

[oz_mark]

As far as I know, all "Australian" food is either inherited from Mother England or "stolen" from other countries. Fusion, which also touches modern Australian, seems to be the only exception, and even then that's a stretch.

But that's the thing. When people talk of a 'Modern Australian Restaurant', they are ordinarily talking of a menu that takes a number of cultural influences that immigrants to this country have brought. In many cases, using seasonal 'native' produce only found here (certain seafoods or things such as lemon myrtle, wattle seeds, macadamia nuts etc) and taking inspiration from Europe, Asia or wherever (and sometimes taking elements from bush tucker.)

 

[JohnK]

Wonder if the big Q will consider serving curries.

Qantas serves about 6 types of curry dishes already. I had a real bad run there for a while where every flight had a curry dish and where I got butter chicken around 6 weeks in a row. :shock: I have also seen some sort of beef curry and lamb curry dishes. Not a fan of curry.

Bring back meat balls and mash potato.

Welcome to the "race to the bottom" - continual pressure to produce cheap airfares means cut backs in product and service.

Fair point although an increase in airfare may not necessarily provide better product and service. I remember a couple of years agao when a SYD-BNE flight was $128 the food was not much better.

I my humble opinion I believe that it is time for QF to introduce new faces at senior management level.

 

[docjames]

Bring back meat balls and mash potato.

+1 (although I like the curries especially the butter chicken!)

 

[Keith009]

I quite like the NP menus in QF intl J and F. The Asian influences are rather representative of Mod Oz cooking (think Ezard's or Taxi). I also agree that QF menus have a balanced amount of Western and Asian choices, and the food displays flair and imagination. I think NP restaurants are overrated, but his airline food is fine and a lot better than some of the stuff I've tried on other major airlines.

However I do see the point Simon is trying to make. Sometimes people may simply want simple, traditional comfort food and it's great to have a choice. I do appreciate some of these options on the F snack menu, like the steak sandwich (sans chilli relish as I'm not into spicy food - Western or Asian or whatever else; [rant]And why on earth do the Merkins have to put jalapenos into everything???[/rant]). But it'd be boring if every item is uniformly Asian or Western.

Domestic catering has always been consistently bad however. I do not fly domestic much but have not had a domestic meal that I'd consider even half decent.

 

[Boris spatsky]

I actually think QF have it right. Their food overall in all cabins is world leading IMO. J and F class outstanding, Y pretty good. Go and fly AA and there is no comparison. JAL the only other one that has cone close.

The QF first lounge food is restaurant quality. It's fantastic!

NP has done a great job revolutionizing QF menus. Congrats to him.

You can't please everyone, unfortunately!

 

[Oneworldplus2]

...Sure I like your run of the mill mushrooms ("English" ones, if you will) too.

Button mushrooms. They are standard mushrooms that go for $9.99 a kg.

While I don’t mind Asian dishes, I’d agree that if you’re going to tout Qantas as an Australian airline with an Australian chef, you should be getting a fair amount of uniquely Australian dishes, not fusion or Asian-inspired, as is his strength, which is why he’s not a great fit for Qantas. Though I’m not saying you should only have Australian food, variety is the spice of life, but it does seem the majority isn’t.

Like what, meat pies?

I have to be honest, there isn't too much food that we can call "Australian". Almost all the food here is either English/French/Asian based. Australia was colonized by the Poms remember.

I saw in the SYD J Lounge recently - Laksa + Rice (?)
Now, Laksa, to me is a coconut base soup with noodles and either chicken or prawns + veggies and you don't generally have a side dish with it (like the rice they had). The Laksa they had on offer was more like a Indian Curry (thick) consistency and was pretty hot (chili wise). I can eat hot food and it didn't bother me to much, but l spared a thought for the other poor souls that can't handle heat. Their heads would have blown off, that's a fact.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I don't really care who the celebrity chef is behind the menus. Over the years I've developed my own way of choosing from the menu and mostly it works for me. On short -haul I will almost always choose the cold/ salad option, I agree with bossreggie that QF could lift their game with this. Long-haul I look at the menu as a student fridge ie. What are the best leftover options for re-heating? Good examples: curries, soup, stews, pasta, risotto and bad: steak, white fish (I'm sure you can think of lots of others). After my last taste of the polenta in J, I'm adding that to the latter category.

 

[oz_mark]

I saw in the SYD J Lounge recently - Laksa + Rice (?)
Now, Laksa, to me is a coconut base soup with noodles and either chicken or prawns + veggies and you don't generally have a side dish with it (like the rice they had). The Laksa they had on offer was more like a Indian Curry (thick) consistency and was pretty hot (chili wise). I can eat hot food and it didn't bother me to much, but l spared a thought for the other poor souls that can't handle heat. Their heads would have blown off, that's a fact.

Well, Laksa is a soup but if you move around Malaysia you will find much variation. The Laksa you describe sounds like a curry laksa. Asam Laksa in the northern areas of Malaysia typically have a fish based soup (Penang, Kedah or Ipoh laksa). Some places like johor have laksas that have fish and coconut together in the soups.

Anyhow, I have always found it to be a soup, and have never struck a side dish of rice with it.

 

[Flying Fox]

I actually think QF have it right. Their food overall in all cabins is world leading IMO. J and F class outstanding, Y pretty good. Go and fly AA and there is no comparison. JAL the only other one that has cone close.

The QF first lounge food is restaurant quality. It's fantastic!

NP has done a great job revolutionizing QF menus. Congrats to him.

You can't please everyone, unfortunately!

Personally I have enjoyed the meals in F & J and SYD F lounge. However, I still think that NP just tries too hard to Asian-ise many of his dishes.

 

[ajw373]

While I don’t mind Asian dishes, I’d agree that if you’re going to tout Qantas as an Australian airline with an Australian chef, you should be getting a fair amount of uniquely Australian dishes, not fusion or Asian-inspired, as is his strength, which is why he’s not a great fit for Qantas. Though I’m not saying you should only have Australian food, variety is the spice of life, but it does seem the majority isn’t.

Define what an Australian dish is?

To me considering the mix of people we have in this country I personally think food mixed with an Australian twist is what it is all about. Don't like Neil Perry and I think Qantas has gone too over the top pushing his ****e and Mark Newson inspired stuff. Most people probably wouldn't give a rats at then end of the day.

 

[Keith009]

Like what, meat pies?

That'd seem to be SQ's idea of Australian food. They usually have a very nice meat pie as an option with the 2nd meal service on MEL-SIN.

Well, Laksa is a soup but if you move around Malaysia you will find much variation. The Laksa you describe sounds like a curry laksa. Asam Laksa in the northern areas of Malaysia typically have a fish based soup (Penang, Kedah or Ipoh laksa). Some places like johor have laksas that have fish and coconut together in the soups.

Anyhow, I have always found it to be a soup, and have never struck a side dish of rice with it.

Whenever I've seen people order laksa in Malaysia, it usually comes with noodles or vermicelli. Mind you my experiences are confined to Johor and Kuala Lumpur. The only time I've seen laksa with rice is when mum makes it - she likes it with brown rice. Now I wouldn't know which is better as I avoid such noxious smelling dishes like the plague.