THURSDAY THE LONG WAY: EATING IN AIRPORTS

Thursday highlights food from out of the way places, food memories that have formed the way I view food, both cooking it and eating it. These memories may be inspired by recent meals, the food-media, or anything at all.

From 1985 to 1990 my family lived in Hong where we relocated from Long Island for my father's job working for a major bank. We made at least one trip to the States each summer experiencing long plane flights (virtually 24 hours). This also meant we had stopovers in either Narita in Tokyo, Kimpo in Seoul or Juneau International in Alaska (and perhaps at times 2 out of three).

Back in those days you'd get zipper-cases filled with cologne, perfume, shoe tongues, and those eyepatch sleeping aids. You'd also get pretty bad food (although you didn't have to pay for it those days). Now I haven't taken an international flight in a while but I'm guessing that things haven't gotten much better. It meant that wherever we landed I was hungry.

My favorite airport to eat in was Narita. Through what seemed like a maze of corridors up and down escalators and/or elevators there was what I remember as an observation tower of some sort with a noodle counter and...salvation. A clear broth, thick and deliciously slurpable noodles, a little beef and vegetable and that beautiful, warm soup steam in my face. It did wonders for helping those hours of waiting for the flight to end (I rarely was able to fall asleep). One day I hope to get back to Japan, and while eating in airports could be the subject of a long-term, investigative post on its own and I won't be going just to eat airport noodles, if I'm on the way through you can bet I'll be wandering through the airport looking for that counter.