Talking Travel: The Opposite House Teams with Cathay Pacific, Dragonair

It's rare to see quality, restaurant-worthy food served at high altitudes, but that's exactly what happened this week when Cathay Pacific Airlines and Dragonair introduced new first class and business class menus from The Opposite House's Sureno.

In the second tie-up between the hotel and the airlines (all owned by parent company Swire Pacific), nearly 30 dishes created by Sureno Chef Laia Pons Gonzalez will appear on-board Dragonair flights from Beijing to Hong Kong from May 16 to August 15.

Those dishes will include braised ossobuco with mushrooms risotto, chicken stew with mushrooms and fino wine sauce, caldereta de pescado soup, and Teresa's seafood paella with Spanish saffron rice.

If you're avoiding Hong Kong during the hot summer, no sweat: Jing Yaa Tang will follow in Sureño’s footsteps when this current promotion ends. As a side note, I wonder how many times I chose Dragonair, knowing that on my flight (in economy) I would get a small cup of Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

Elsewhere in travel, there was the somewhat unnerving story that Air China pilots are demanding better treatment and pay, at least in relation to the airline's foreign flight crew members. The bit about "threatening flight safety" won't be music to the ears of nervous flyers. Your correspondent was not so keen to read this, seeing that he's flying on Air China internationally for the very first time. There will be a full report in Tuesday's edition of Talking Travel.

In case no one noticed, outbound travel from China is reshaping the travel industry. "In 2013, there were 97 million trips overseas by Chinese with spending of USD 102 billion," according to China Daily. Travelers from China chose their southern city of Hong Kong as their top destination requiring a passport, followed by Las Vegas and Bangkok, also according to China Daily.

I'll be thinking of all of you as I make a rare visit of the San Francisco Bay Area. Until then, one road flat safe.

Photo: The Opposite House