Five years ago Air Food One started delivering excess LSG Sky Chefs meals to home consumers in Germany. It doesn’t appear to be in business any longer.

United thinks their business class meals are so good they introduced a cookbook so you can replicate them at home.

Now Thai Airways is planning to sell frozen Thai food to consumers mostly under the Royal Orchid Gourmet brand, “new ready-made sauces, basil stir fries and pad Thai via the Eurng Luang brand to the market.”

Varangkana Luerojvong, managing director of the catering department at THAI, said it will promote its frozen food products for ground catering services in Germany and France, key markets for frozen food consumption in Europe. For ready-made sauces, the airline plans to penetrate premium markets in Britain and Japan, countries where Thai food is very popular, she said.

The airline also plans to aggressively expand the inflight catering services they contract with other airlines to provide, and to consciously brand their cuisine with their own passengers emphasizing authentic Thai dishes rather than Asian fusion. According to the airline’s President they “plan to put QR codes on packages to provide information about the unique culture of Thai food.”

Thai Airways duck rice soup is admittedly one of my three favorite meals ever on a plane, behind Singapore Airlines laksa and ANA ramen. Soups re-heat nicely and richly flavored ones can do well at altitude.

Thai Airways Duck Rice Soup

Singapore Airlines Laksa

ANA Ramen

One of the biggest things I gave up moving from the Washington DC area to Austin is good Thai food like Elephant Jumps in Merrifield and Kao Sarn in the Eden Center. I’m not sure I’d resort to Thai Airways Royal Orchid Gourmet frozen meals, at least unless they offered Thai’s duck rice soup.