2025 Trip to Beijing: Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Flying between SFO and PEK, I had fasted en route since my great turnaround in

diet in my early forties. I had renounced processed food and as much as

possible, prepared my own meals from scratch. I had adopted and thrived on one

meal a day, usually supper, with a snack at noon. In the air, I would say no

every time the service trolley rattled by.

 

Recent years, however, my dietary discipline has relaxed as my habits formed.

Occasionally, I would have a burger or a slice of pizza but they no longer

tasted as great as in my 20s and 30s. I might also be benefiting from ageing,

i.e., less craving.

 

Oct 1, morning clouds over the SF Bay held back the UA-888 by eight hours and I

soon felt hungry once we took off. The poor nights of sleep leading to the trip

left me no energy to focus on, let alone enjoy, reading. I ended up watching a

007 movie.

 

Soon a dark cheery stewdess looking her 40s stopped by asking my choice for

supper: beef noodles or chicken rice.

 

"No. Nothing. Thank you," I gave her a smile.

 

"No? Are you sure? I spent all day making them for you!"

 

We both laughed. Turning back to the screen, I felt maybe I should eat, if only

to be social and I did enjoy people. But no. It was going to be a huge amount of

trash for a few morsels of Frankenfood. "Maybe next time," I thought. In the

following hours, sleeping on and off in the darkened cabin, I watched all four

007 episodes.

 

Somewhere over Japan, near midnight, a mouth-watering smell permeated the space

followed by lights and the announcement of a snack. In sealed puffed-up paper

bags, they doled out grilled cheese and ham sandwiches. It was merely in name of

course and obviously they were zapped. After living in America for two dozen

years, however, I swore this was the first time I had such a sandwich. The few

bites tasted rich, salty, and loaded with something I could only call umami, just

what an empty belly needed after 12 hours of fasting. The waste was one paper bag.

 

Back home in Mountain View two weeks later, some cheese slices lying in the

fridge reminded me of the light meal I had on the airplane. The following

Saturday morning, I bought a country loaf from a local bakery and salami in bulk

from Costco, and with home-made mayonnaise and in an 8-inch cast-iron skillet

made such tasty sandwiches that I lived on them until the bread run out on Monday.