In Flight Rations-US Guide to Boxed Nasties

[Gainesy]

Someone asked me about this a while back, but I couldn't find the URLat the time.


The unofficial box nasty hall of shame (http://www.choxnpinz.com/141starlifter/boxnasties/box.html)

[sooms]

Can be found on Baseops.Net Flight Planning and Aviation Weather (http://www.baseops.net)

A very useful site for all sorts of other stuff too...

[moosemaster]

See what they get, AND they have to pay for it.

Just remember this next time anyone complains about RAF in-flight.

Give me an ACC any day.:ok:

[Pontius Navigator]

I remember the nutty boxes we got at Offutt. They had an 'eat by' time on them. This was usually about 2 hours before take-off.

[minigundiplomat]

They could give Odiham a hand reducing the European Egg and Tuna mountain they seem to have.

[Gainesy]

Wonder what their equivalent of a ginster's pasty is? Surely they have something that you can use as an entrenching tool or to brain the enemy?

[Solid Rust Twotter]

Try the Saffer dog biscuits. More of a bludgeoning tool though.

One still gets a craving for them at inopportune moments......:suspect:

[Airborne Aircrew]

TBH, I used to really look forward to the lumpy box resupply the VC-10 to and from Belize got at Dulles... Being used to Brit sandwiches, (a thin slice of meat or cheese between two pieces of bread), the Dulles sarnies were a meal between two slices. :ok:

[NutLoose]

minigundiplomatThey could give Odiham a hand reducing the European Egg and Tuna mountain they seem to have.

My God, do not tell me they have finally consumed the world supply of clingfilmed Midget Chicken legs that was the de'rigeur in all boxes packed in the late 70's.. I remember the late Dick Langworthy launching his in disgust out of a Pumas DV window over the middle of Antwerp, often wondered if it hit anyone.

Airborne AircrewTBH, I used to really look forward to the lumpy box resupply the VC-10 to and from Belize got at Dulles... Being used to Brit sandwiches, (a thin slice of meat or cheese between two pieces of bread), the Dulles sarnies were a meal between two slices. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

That and the Legendary Dulles Hot Dogs and HamBurgers...... Ahh, my stomach is growling now at the thought of one of those babies. Best thing about the VC10 fleet.

I can remember Shippams paste having an offer on, collect 5 labels for a £1, or something very similar, and watching a Rigger every flight tearing through 156 used packed lunch boxes collecting the coupons, he got a hell of a lot of them in the end and made some serious cash on it..... I wonder what Shippams thought when they recieved a parcel from one person with thousands of labels in it LOL..

[Griz]

Just remember this next time anyone complains about RAF in-flight.

Packets of crisps and cans of FIZZY pop for a FJ trail!!!

Muppets!:hmm:

[Airborne Aircrew]

Flying out of Odious once with lumpy boxes and the boss asked for his crisps which I duly handed him. A couple of minutes later he's coughing and sputtering and he hands me back something he'd just spat out and asked me if that was what he thought it was. We concurred... A large clump of pubic hair. He sent it off to Smiths(?) in the hope of getting a huge box back, (of crisps for the pedants amongst you :p ). I think he got a letter... :uhoh:

[BEagle]

So glad I'd just finished dinner before reading that....:ooh: But are you sure that what your boss spat out had really come from the box....lunch?

Offutt Flight Kitchen used to supply something called a 'Po Boy lunch'. The main constituent of which was something resembling a foil wrapped rugby ball - it was actually a small loaf filled with sliced bits of beast and cheese.. This came with 'Sour cream flavoured ripple chips' (known by us as nipple clips) and a few other things such as a packet of 3 salty crackers with semi-liquid cheese. I always had visions of some 'Good 'ole boy' at the helm of a B-52 inbound to Moscow with his fat paw clutching the 'Po Boy' saying "OK, bubbas, we're gonna nuke them sove-ee-ett mutha-fuquerres just a' soon as ah've finished ma goddam SAC lunch!"

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/Internet/zxzxz.jpg
One of the world's worst culinary experiences was the Goose Bay milk tit supplied to those Vulcan crews stupid enough to ask for milk. As anyone with half a brain would know, the nearest cow....OK, 4-legged cow, to Goose was hundreds if not thousands of miles south. So the 'milk' is hardly likely to be the sort of thing the milko delivers to one's doorstep.

Our AEO once made the mistake of ordering 'milk'. An hour or so after top of climb he cut open the polythene tit in which the milk was supplied. Only to discover it tasted like $hit. The problem now was what to do with it, given that there was nowhere to get rid of it in the Tin Triangle.

However, being an ex-Rock, he was inventive by nature. So the pee-tube found a new use, much to the consternation of the ground crew and Farqhuar the Revenue at Scampton when he tipped the contents into the taxiway drain after landing. I'm not sure whether it was the milk or the chicken bones which got their attention most...:\

Best RAF rations? Ascension - it might have said the same on the rats form as the one at Brize did, but the folk at ASI clearly took pride in their work. Thanks, team!

Akrotiri was surely the home of the 'in-flight racing chicken'? All leg, no tit? As well, of course, as 'George's Family Crisps'. So oily that if you turned a packet upside down, you could see the oil dripping down the packet....:oh:

And is it my imagination, but weren't 'Waggon Wheels' bigger when they used to come in the in-flight rations?

[Mmmmnice]

Feeding 'on the hoof' one dark, miserable day (weren't they all in NI) I was pleased to see some obviously hot food coming down to the a/c in foil cartons. I was heartened more when the LHS opened his to reveal chicken & chips. Having passed over control as he stuffed down the last chip, I peeled the lid off mine to reveal liver & onions! Oh bliss oh joy - the fun of eating said meal with an RAF dingy knife. Spent the rest of the day stinking of gravy from all the fallout on my grobag, gloves etc

[mr fish]

BUT, i got to say i love the raf issue "heat in the bag" chicken stew:ok:

also, EUROGRAN ahem, "lemon powder", mixed up strong and you'll soon know if you need to see the tooth quack:eek:

[brickhistory]

I always had visions of some 'Good 'ole boy' at the helm of a B-52 inbound to Moscow


Now, BEagle, don't be jealous. Those shorter radius targets you had were important too.

Did you dress formally for the bomb run?

[Tankertrashnav]

I remember the nutty boxes we got at Offutt. They had an 'eat by' time on them. This was usually about 2 hours before take-off.


I used to find I was still ploughing through mine overhead Goose on the way home

[Gainesy]

Hmm, anyone remember the tale of the Herc F/Eng whose cheese butty burst into flames over Turkey (country, not sarnie) because they were on oxygen for some reason?

[bushveld]

Always remember looking in a gobbly-box after departing Barksdale in a Belfast. There was a packet, labelled "Inter-Dental Stimulator".
Yup, a toothpick.
Tastier than the meal, I recall....

[Data-Lynx]

Slightly more organised than normal on one occasion, took a brown bag from the MPA Mess before a rotary trip. They might have had a snag with fresh fodder deliveries so 'pudding' was a v-strong clear plastic bag containing sugar drenched nearly-dried fruit. The locals called it road kill!

[Mick Strigg]

Why oh why did Invincible ALWAYS put a hard-boiled egg in the bagrat?

Peeling the shell off without dropping it all over the cockpit was impossible! At the end of a period of continuous charge, the floor resembled a shale beach!

[Arty Fufkin]

On trails it often fell to the tanker to organise the in-flight for the recievers. The prize for the best (spoof) fast-jet butty box must go to the one that contained a can of coke, a hard boiled egg, and a pot noodle.

[The Old Fat One]

What...an in flight thread that without kipper fleet thread creep.

circa early eighties...

Honkers

4 tins stewing steak (or 4 tins compo sausages)
4 tins baked beans
4 tins mixed veg
4 oxo cubes
4 tablespoon worcester sauce
4 teaspoon tabasco sauce

"Galley Flight Deck", "Go Ahead", "This honkers tastes odd"

On checking use by date on the Tabasco Sauce......1971. Oops.

Note for non kipper fleet readers...we used to store all the unused sauces, pickles etc in an old bag, in the crew locker alongside stolen sonobuoys and vintage porn.

Happy Days

[BEagle]

Presumably back before the days of the Mighty Muncher, Sunderland and Shacklebomber crews used to need less 'ready to eat' rations?

Some eggs and seeds outbound, then harvest and slaughter on the way home?
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/Internet/zxzxz.jpg

The hard-boiled egg. Ugh. Horrible things... One V-bomber driver always thought it was a merry jape to crack the shell on his co-pilots bone dome. Until one day the Nav Radar switched it for a raw egg.... The co-pilot was less than amused!

My nominations for 'worst things in S1 boxes' are:

3rd place - Serco sandwiches...:bored: RAF in-flight ones were much better!
2nd place - Mr Kipling cream cakes with advanced penicillin cultures visibly evident....:uhoh:
But 1st place must go to:

Ta da!!

The Robirch pork pie. A small cylinder of case-hardened pie crust, containing a fossilized pig. Or rather, part of pig. Not sure which part, tail and snout, probably. If you shook an in-flight Robirch pork pie, you could hear the pig part rattling around inside like a dice in a cup...:eek: Although to be fair, I did once see a fresh one - but it was being devoured by a Wg Cdr at the time, so I guess RHIP?

[Wander00]

Now way past my sell-by date, as aircrew or the blunty I became later, I am constantly amazed by the continuing threads on aircrew rations. Point was even made in the TV programme on the RAF in Afghanistan that the flying programme did not match the mess meal times, so it was "find your own".

Back in the sixties we were constantly being told to eat proper meals, no chips, and don't live off sandwiches. Point was that a 3+ hour sortie launching at 0930 got you back too late to be changed into No 2 for lunch - and no aircrew feeder then either! Guess what - sandwiches in the crew room AGAIN!

It seems little has changed. Clearly the establishment does not provide enough mess staff to keep the messes open to meet operational requirements, and in-flight rations have not moved up the scale much either.

Best in-flight rations EVER were when flying Canberras for RRE out of Pershore (where that? the youngsters ask). Sortie profiles always gave you 20 mins below 10,000ft mid-trip, when the soup, fantastic sandwiches, and coffee (inc plasic cups) came out. Also had electric socks for the B2 (Mod) we were flying because they had the early cabin heater (which heated very little).

Perhaps Jamie Oliver should be made a hon Gp Capt and asked to sort it all out.

[Dan Winterland]

Anyone else here remember the programme where TV chef Gary Rhodes flying on a Fat Albert to Akrotiri in the late 80s. He cooked the Crew a meal in flight in the oven (warmed up some pies?) on the way there, and was then supposed to be filmed cooking kebabs with Chris the kebab man down on the strip. Except that he got so w@nkered on brandy sours in the Officers Mess at happy hour, he couldn't even boil an egg. So they filmed him ''avin a laff" with the crew in Chris' Kebab House instead.

I gather the scene where he made a pavement pizza was cut from the final version!





Also, does anyone else remember the packets of "Benson's Crisps" without a sell by date in the bimble boxes provided in MPA? I think I still have some stuck between my teeth ten years later.

[BEagle]

Ah yes, Dan - but do you remember the crisps at ASI? Still had some world kev-ball logo on them some years after the contest had ended...

Pavement pizza after a session in Chris Kebab? It must have been a bad batch of halloumi!

Has anything changed in the kebab houses these days? They really did epitomise the fun times of the RAF before fun detection became so obsessive.

As I once posted:

You'll be telling me next that you actually have to pay for kokkinelli these days.....

"WHO HALLOUMI, WHO LIVER??!!" "Yes sirs, I bring more tahini and nose warmers pretty damn quick........ You one-oh-one tanker wanquerres, not one hundred squadron poofs?"

I do actually miss that....



A bit.


Now and again.


Unfortunately I haven't been able to sample the joys of the kebab and kokkinelli culture for a while now. But, if memory recalls correctly, the waiter normally asks "You full kebab or half kebab. Who halloumi, who liver. Everyone sheesh? Village salad?" in that quiet, polite voice so reminiscent of the days of "WHA' IS YOUR DME SITIA?" bellowed by Greek Air Traffickers from an echo chamber.

The first point is that some readers unfamiliar with a 'proper' kebab - might think that we're discussing a donar kebab. Not so!! The Cyprus kebab is a multi-course pig out involving much noise, abuse from both sides, copious kokkinelli and often ends in the early hours with the sound of hurried footsteps on an urgent mission....

One first needs a few jugs of brandy sour to get into the mood. Then, around the time that the Mess dress rules change into boring mode, one sends a chum to order taxis. These will often be sorted through Chris, son-of-Chris, friend-of-Chris, no-problem-I-fix friend-of-son-of-Chris, or others. Who know Chris. A large black Merc will then turn up and the game of 'how much to the village' kicks off. At breakneck speed the limo heads off and after slowing down to just subsonic to avoid flattening the lads on the gate, it soon deposits the happy kebab fans at a 'restaurant' consisting of breeze blocks, metal tables and chairs, a TV playing loudly to itself in the corner, an old grey haired wizened chap sitting in the other corner, numerous bondhu cats investigating the mysterious disappearance of their brothers whilst avoiding bottle tops thrown at them for them to play with - and various long-suffering waiters dressed in the traditional black trousers and white shirt. An argument then begins over how many tables and chairs are needed; much dragging and scraping of furniture then ensues until finally, much to the chagrin of the locals, a table for about 15 or so is constructed. Drink is then ordered - invariably Keo beer, kokkinelli and Sprite (to weaken the kokkinelli. On no account should the Sprite be consumed on its own - that would be Against The Rules.....). Bowls of salad, pitta bread, tahini, tatziki, olives, lemons, yoghourt etc appear with incredible speed - and cries of "Oi, Stavros more nose-warmers" soon follow as the pitta bread is woofed in the first 2 minutes. Then comes the interrogation "Who full kebab, who half kebab?" The full kebab is usually something like sheftalia, sheesh, liver or halloumi (hence the "Who halloumi, who liver?" question), racing chicken and pork chop. Served at around 10 minute intervals, during which time the kokkinelli arrives, is consumed at the rate of at least 1-2 bottles per head (because we NEVER fly the next day. No, dear me no. Never indeed...) and is replaced. The half kebab can be more selective but causes more difficulty for the waiters. Personally, I'd go for sheftalia, sheesh, halloumi and lountza and wouldn't bother with the racing chicken or pork chop. Yet more nose-warmers, salad and tahini, then the coffee decision and silly jokes about "Turkish- oops, sorry, I mean Greek Delight please". If none of the party have been sick on the table, fallen into their plates or behaved too outrageously, then you might be lucky and get free Ouzo as an after dinner treat - or if you're luckier, Filfar. Then, after the 'who had what - ah, to hell with it - £7 Cyp per head'll do' accounting game, it's time to accuse the taxi drivers of not turning up on time or attempting to rip you off before another high speed drive back to the block. One hopes that one's crew will keep quiet at the main gate to allow the most sober person present to show ID to the gate mate and vouch for the rabble in the back.

Then after a few litre bottles of Keo or Carlsberg as a night-cap, one finds one's pit. Not long after the bed starts spinning, an urgent communication from the lower intestines prompts the first player in the bog sprint competition, repeated at regular intervals by other competitors.

Come the next day and, miraculously, all is well with the world.

Or not.

At least, not until about Elba. And you can always blame the headache on attempts to get the weather on HF!

Biz Class travel and posh hotels are all very well (eh Dan?), but the ambience of the true Cyprus kebab was something special!

[Tankertrashnav]

Seem to remember the Victor 1 had a can heater. If you put a tin of soup in it before takeoff it would be luke warm on finals after a longish trip. Generally speaking our rations weren't bad - and Marham had a good aircrew feeder so you always took off well sustained.

Beagle do you remember the Limassol magic taxis? After an evening as described by you you got in the door of a battered Mercedes - slid across the back seat and fell out the other door at the Akrotiri officers mess. The intervening 10 miles or so passed in an instant - possibly operated on the same principle as in the transporter device in Star Trek!

Sorry - major thread drift here.

[BEagle]

And it's good-bye to another AIDU clone....

[Biggles225]

Beags
That was beautiful, and took me back a few years to doing just that to a late night kebab when I should have been picking up she who must be obeyed from Larnaca. I'm still not allowed to forget it. :ouch:
I share your sense of shock horror that they have the nerve to charge for kokkinelli, when we went back a couple of years ago, one bunch of Brit tourists thought it was great stuff and good value at £3 cyp a bottle! God 'elp us!
Amazing how time flies isn't it?
BG

[Lima Juliet]

Now this is proper in flight...

This is a classified picture of the interior of the E-3D's Galley (as you can see from the Logo on the waitress's shirt, it is an 8 Sqn jet):

http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/uploads/image/hooters.jpg

:ok:

[Warmtoast]

Worst Lunchbox Ever?

Lunchbox as provided by civilian caterers at Khartoum c-1980.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Far%20East%20Trip%201979/KhartoumLunchBoxc-1980_1066x800.jpg


A couple of ropey rolls and two dead bananas - so awful I had to photograph it for posterity.

[Geehovah]

The best example of muppetry I ever saw: a bottle of orange squash between 4 F4s to wash down the crispy sausage rolls

[Gainesy]

Looks like warmtoast wins...:yuk::yuk::yuk:

[Barksdale Boy]

Surely, post-kebab/mezze a visit to the cultural delights of the Rex was de rigeur.

[Gainesy]

How is it that brandy sours made in the UK never taste as good?:confused:

[angels]

warmtoast's offering is better than anything the septics could manage!

Hooray! The Brits win again!! :yuk:

[BEagle]

warmtoast, I'm sooo glad you told us that those were bananas...:\

I thought it might have been something from the Victor ration box used for 'an alternative purpose' by 'wee Jock poo-pong McD***s', who later came to the VC10K force.

I think you've won the prize though!

Re. kebabs, I can still hear the scraping sounds of furniture being dragged across the floor of the Swan to make a table for 12, scattering bondhu cats and causing mayhem, whilst the walnut-faced chap in the grey pullover by the flickering black-and-white TV looked on benevolently....:)

I gather that the Swan is no more?

[The Real Slim Shady]

I harbour memories of fish meze at Theo's in Paphos and a pelican.

They are somewhat hazy memories caused by frequent stops at the plethora of Brandy Sour mines on the Akrotiri - Paphos road.

[Warmtoast]

Gainsey

Glad I won - what is the prize?

Best Lunch Box

Best lunch box I remember was that supplied from Embakasi in Kenya in Sept 1961.

With some sort of trouble brewing in the Gulf it was decided the Army brigade based in East Afrca would be transferred to Bahrain, a long Britannia flog with many hours - Embakasi - Khormaksar - Bahrain and then back again to do the same trip several times over to get the brigade to Bahrain.

Anyway on the first trip we left Embakasi, dished out the lunch boxes to the squaddies in the back and then heard mutterings of complaint. When asked what was wrong, the general consensus was that the 'jam' tasted salty. It turned out each lunch box contained a small pot of something to be spread on the rolls or biscuits or whatever and the contents were very salty.

Investigation quickly showed the pots were in fact pots of Caviar, real Caviar and not Lumpfish roe. This was not immediately obvious to the troops so we collected any unopened and unwanted pots and put them aside for later crew use.

Their loss was our gain!

[Cyprus countrybred]

BGG

How can you forget the "first on the right" - Sylvana's! Altho its rightful place as first on the right has been usurped by a steak house/chinese/whatever-it-has-decided-to be-this-week interloper. Top prize (for smaller groups) has to go to Polis, altho not so keen since Haris put in the serve-yourself salad bar - invariably eat too much before the meat arrives!

cc

[L J R]

Inflights from Lae and Medang (PNG) were my favourite - Fresh Lobster of course...!

[Tankertrashnav]

Cyprus Countrybred

You're going to tell me the Green Rock has gone next!

[Gainesy]

Warmtoast, no prize, because I'm still trying to get your picture out of my head.:)
Ref the Pongos and caviar, on a det in Norway with the Royal Marines, the lads complained that they were sick of the "raw fish" and wanted "proper fish" (ie deep fried cod in batter) with some chips please. Personally, I thought the smoked salmon fillets were excellent.

[downsizer]

Polis has been put OOB by the Aki EH Tech recently....:bored:

[oldpax]

although only a lowly erk I did many hours on shackeltons and recall that rations came by the box for ten crew plus about four ancilliary groundcrew.Usually volunteers where asked for to do galley duty and thats how I learned to cook!!I can recall tinned chickens which just fitted in the oven,also bacon and eggs for breakfast on Gibexs ,good healthy fare for those long patrols and long flogs to the empire! I recall one exercise when we were transitting Eastleigh(Nairobi for those who dont remember!)when we had two aborted trips due to various reasons,like engine fire warning ,both pilots with the runs,no fuel jettison so a 5 hour flog round Nairobi before landing!!Anyway by the time we got back to BKY the galley was full of rations which we erks divided amongst ourselves . Hate waste having seen rationing in force!!

[Cyprus countrybred]

Downsizer - do you know why?

TTN - Green Rock??? Never come across it in my 18 years travelling to Akt (including three years living there)

Enlightenment please!

cc

[goudie]

Off Thread but whilst we're on the subject of Cypriot fare does anyone recall 'Little Arifs' down in the Limassol Turkish quarter?
It was a Shell garage which, in the evening, doubled as the 'restaurant'. Once it had closed, tables and chairs were laid out on the forecourt and the food was cooked on the pavement across the street. The waiters were very quick on their feet! The atmosphere was quite heady, probably due to a mix of kokkinelli (free) and petrol fumes. Could spend the whole evening there for just a couple of quid.

The lunch box provided on a 7O Sqdn (Hastings) flight from Akrotiri to Shajah is easily described. One very stale roll.

[JamesA]

Remember it well. Couldn't recall if it was Little Arif's or Arif's Magic bar. Many good nights there early 70's. Stuff ones self rotten less than a quid.
Plan - send one man in to negotiate the price, then about twenty descend on the place. Pity it had to go.

Back to the real thread - Sandwiches out of BZN. The ham was sliced so thin it had only one side.

[Union Jack]

Lunchbox as provided by civilian caterers at Khartoum c-1980.

Warmtoast - I suggest that your offering looks much more like General Gordon's personal "lunchbox" as "provided" by the MCC (Mahdi's Catering Corps) at Khartoum c-1885!:}

Jack

PS Either way, you still win .....

[sisemen]

Jeez. Having to pay for your in-flight meal - that takes the biscuit (pun intended)

[Tankertrashnav]

TTN - Green Rock??? Never come across it in my 18 years travelling to Akt


Cyprus Countrybred - Possibly before your time - was there up to the 1974 war - may not have survived that. Typical "dive" in downtown Limassol - floor show, cheap drinks and lots of raucous Brits usually, favourite run ashore for tanker trash at the time. Also remember the Limassol wine festival when they drained the ornamental pool in the public gardens and filled it with kokkinelli - inevitably drunken squaddies swimming in it by the end of the evening.

[ricardian]

Off Thread but whilst we're on the subject of Cypriot fare does anyone recall 'Little Arifs' down in the Limassol Turkish quarter?
It was a Shell garage which, in the evening, doubled as the 'restaurant'. Once it had closed, tables and chairs were laid out on the forecourt and the food was cooked on the pavement across the street. The waiters were very quick on their feet! The atmosphere was quite heady, probably due to a mix of kokkinelli (free) and petrol fumes. Could spend the whole evening there for just a couple of quid.
In 1965-67 there were two main kebab places, Big Arif's and Little Arif's. There was a major outcry when both places put up their prices from 500 mils to 750 mils.

[BEagle]

Despite UK inflation rates, prices weren't much different 10-12 years later.

Swan was £1.000 whereas the bigger places were £1.500!

Only rule to remember when going to Chris' was to make sure that either he was there - or had told them you were coming. Otherwise things could be...not so good.

My rather more feather-bedded, rates-loving colleagues were astonished when I said I'd sooner stay on base at AKT for a night stop. A jug of sour in the OM, trip to the village, then back to the 4-star luxury of Block 101 before an 0900 launch the next day - snagless. Beat the heck out of a long bus journey to some out of season tourist hotel miles from anywhere just for a few quid in the back pocket!

[Lima Juliet]

BEagle

I agree. I have managed to reproduce OM Brandy Sours back here in the UK (cheap Brandy, Lemonade and Lemon Squash with NAAFI Magic Bitters (the key ingredient!)) but never the Tahini sauce that the likes of Chris and Silvano could drum up - maybe it was Cypriot special sauce :}

LJ

[BEagle]

I tried and failed with Tahini! Usually it was far too thick and had the texture and taste of quick setting concrete.

One of these days I Will Prevail!!

I do hope it won't require the 'additive' which allegedly goes into 'special sauce'...:eek:

[ian16th]

During my time living out in Limassol I learn't how to make good brandy sours and now nearly 50 years later, I continue to do so, in Seth Efrica!

The esential ingredients are brandy that is cheap enough to be very generous with, fresh green (unripe) lemons and Robinsons Barley Water. Most lemonade's work fine, though the Cypriot 'Alpha Lemon' was the best and Angastura bitters is the same the world over.

Anyone coming for the 2010 world cup, let me know and I'll arrange a tasting. The lemons will be in season :ok:

[A2QFI]

My thought is that the lemon HAD to be the Kean one. When I was in Cyprus 61 to 63 the only way my wife and I could afford to eat meat (under 25 = minimal allowances) was to be at Arif or Niazi for dinner. ISTR recall one could eat thru the menu for £1 and got to keep the box of Turkish Delight to take home. Small rissoles, lamb skewers, liver, chicken, pitta breads, salad and wine, a good balanced diet!

[Sinker]

Best lunchbox? Definitely the one from the BA handlers at Nice en route Gib with a Staff Nav overseas. The delicious roast beef sandwich and the triangle of Camembert stick in the memory - the rest was merely tasty.

[Cabe LeCutter]

Best Lunch Box I can remember was from Tel Aviv en route to Jordan for exercise, well the Wessex didn't have very long legs. We had to suffer smoked salmon and cream cheese butties along with assorted fruits.

Same trip taught me a little about Middle East problems. We were required to climb to 7000 ft to cross from Israel to Jordan, a height that we would never make, probably because of the weight of the in-flight rations. We asked Tel Aviv if they could ask Aman if we could cross at 5000 ft to be told that they had not spoken for 20 years so we were on our own.

I digress, I was last thrown out of the Green Rock in 97, I think.

[Siggie]

True grit was shown at Chris's by finishing your kebab, even when the gentleman's facilities had 'backed up'. :\

[Load Gone...Red On]

A pilot in my squadron bit into a sandwich in flight recently and thought that it tasted less than ideal...pretty normal in fact...so he had another bite. The second mouthful was no better and warranted a check of the contents of his sandwich which revealed some meat, some lettuce and half a green tree frog. I think the remains may still be in the fridge in the crewroom...

[LowObservable]

‪Monty Python - Crunchy Frog‬‏ - YouTube

[Load Gone...Red On]

If only Serco did use the finest baby frogs imported from Iraq...sounds more appetising than a standard issue RAAF base lettuce impersonating frog.

[Pontius Navigator]

Siggie, could have been Chris's, one day I went back in daytime to pay. We had had some form of bash there where we did not pay on the night.

It was always a good deal as you always got a glass of something that looked like wine and maybe a free lunch too.

That day, on the veranda (?) was an old boy mixing kebab sausage meat. He was smoking and his fag had an incredibly long ash on it. He nodded his head vigorously when I asked for Chris at which point the ash fell in the mix which he kept mixing.

I never went back :)