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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that you shouldn't eat smelly food on a flight?!

125 replies

BabooshkaKate · 07/07/2016 08:31

I am on a plane waiting for take off. A woman next to me is eating a large pot of pasta with very smelly sauce. No idea how she got it on board but it stinks and she's eating it with her hands with full-on slurping and finger licking. I have been awake since 5amand hhonestly think I might throw up.

Since when is this kind of thing acceptable?! [Sick]

OP posts:
Becky546 · 07/07/2016 12:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MLGs · 07/07/2016 12:14

Airline food stinks, as others have said, so they can't really ban it.

The finger licking and slurping would drive me mad though.

HooseRice · 07/07/2016 12:17

Anything smelly is inconsiderate. As for the shovelling food with their hands, just don't look.

Since I started travelling with small people I take a picnic of lots of sandwiches, crisps and maybe chocolate. I buy 2 large bottles of water once through security.

My kids, like most people, hate plane food. The advantage of taking our own is we know they'll eat it and we can feed them straight away. Then they can sleep.

We sometimes also purchase miniatures from duty free in case drinks service is slow Grin

DH speaks of getting on a US domestic flight when he was hungry to discover not only was there no in flight meal but that every other passenger had prepared for this by bringing on their own takeaway...all smelling delicious to him Grin

GrendelsMother23 · 07/07/2016 12:22

So, none of us knows the full details of this situation, but just fyi - I'm a type I diabetic and quite often have low blood sugar in public. It's panic-inducing; your heart rate speeds up, the oxygen levels in your brain start dipping, your hands start to shake, and one of the first things to happen is that you lose a sense of proportion/social proprieties: your body thinks it's going to die, and you need sugar through food. I've almost certainly been the person eating something in public in a panic and probably looking vile; I've definitely dug into something with my hands before. Diabetics are encouraged to carry a pack of stuff (juice box and peanut butter crackers, usually), but often we forget or those things aren't on hand, so we make do with what we have. If I were stuck on a flight with low blood sugar, couldn't get a steward's attention in time, and had a pasta pot in my bag, this is exactly what I'd be doing!

Obviously, this woman might have just been being gross, but it's worth bearing in mind the next time you see someone doing something like this; I used to find it hugely embarrassing to eat in public as a diabetic, and only got over it when it became obvious that the other option was becoming comatose.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 07/07/2016 12:28

TBH, I'm struggling to imagine a pasta sauce that could possibly smell that bad Confused.

It would be more the slurping noises that would annoy me but she can't have taken all that long to eat it can she? I would have just had to grin & bear it (as OP did I imagine).

We have booked a flight with Thomas Cook and have an offer where, if you booked extra luggage allowance (which we need) and to select your seats (which I do to ease the stress with DD) - then you receive in-flight meals for free. I can't wait Hmm.

divafever99 · 07/07/2016 15:04

I remember being on a coach as a child and one couple decided to eat their packed lunch at 10am. They proceeded to peel hard boiled eggs! The smell was awful!

Aeroflotgirl · 07/07/2016 15:12

Presumably they will be serving smelly airline food on the flight, so you can't exactly tell them not to serve it! No difference with this woman eating on a flight. She should have bought some utensils from the departure lounge shop, or just taken a sandwich, or something she can eat easily with her hands.

HuskyLover1 · 07/07/2016 15:15

WTF. She is eating Pasta with a sauce, with her FINGERS?

She'll be lifting a cheek to fart next. UUGH.

Hiddenaspie1973 · 07/07/2016 15:22

Lol. You would have hated us then. We got a bucket of chicken at the fake kfc at Antalya airport. It took an age to arrive. So we had to take it onto the plane.

Amymarie90 · 07/07/2016 15:23

I took a chicken yassa with rice hot on board from Banjul to Gatwick. I did use a spoon but it is normal in African countries to eat with your hands. It's not as if she's wiping her hands on you afterwards is it.

I sat chill out :) life's too short to care about trivial stuff like that.

whois · 07/07/2016 15:27

It's normal in large parts of the world to eat with your hands.

And we eat sandwiches and stuff with our hands.

I don't see he huge outrage.

Incitatus · 07/07/2016 15:27

Even animals can use cutlery.

to think that you shouldn't eat smelly food on a flight?!
Hersetta427 · 07/07/2016 15:37

Of course utensils are allowed on the plane - each food outlet has bins of plastic knives, forks and spoons for you to help yourself to within the terminal. Boots, Eat and pret a manger to name just 3. Pasta I can live with but eating it with your hands is just minging.

WhereDidTheYearsGo · 07/07/2016 15:58

Someone a couple of seats away from me got essential oils out and started sniffing them and passing them round for landing recently. Not only did they smell very strongly, they had lavender in which I'm allergic to so my asthma kicked in and I was coughing and gasping for breath. I'm sure she was much calmer though.

8misskitty8 · 07/07/2016 16:03

I didn't realise you could take food through security. I've always spent a fortune on airport food before the flight. And buying crisps etc. For while on the plane as plane food is very hit/miss.

Anyone know if you can do this flying from America back to uk ? Taking food with you through security ?

8misskitty8 · 07/07/2016 16:05

Just to add, op did she have a wet wipe with her to clean her hands ? That would bother me sitting beside her. Touching the seat rest etc.

EverythingWillBeFine · 07/07/2016 16:27

I suspect that she doesn't see their food as smelly.
I know I have seen one person making a comment to another saying her food was smelling of garlic and the other person was {shock] at that as there was so little garlic in it and definitively couldn't smell it.
Tbf, I couldn't smell garlic either.

I'm more Hmm about eating pasta (I assume cold?) with fingers.....

SuperFlyHigh · 07/07/2016 16:30

Hands is vile. I'd make oinking noises like a pig.

LilacInn · 07/07/2016 16:31

YANBU, OP.

Even for medical reasons there is no justification for taking smelly, sloppy, saucy foods into a confined area where other people are sitting literally inches away. Mild cheese, whatever form of bread one's culture uses, fruit, yogurt and other non-pungent edibles will stave off starvation or diabetic coma in a manner that is considerate to one's seatmates.

Just because we get a notion to want something doesn't mean we have to have it right that minute.

WhooooAmI24601 · 07/07/2016 16:36

When we went on holiday at Easter (9 hour flight with 10 and 5 year old) the man in the aisle seat over from us ate three tubes of Pringles one after the other with his mouth open. It didn't smell, but I had to drink a few g&t's to prevent myself shoving the tubes up his jacksy. I'd rather someone ate smelly food silently than lovely food loudly. It's the most offensive thing I'd ever heard in my life.

Original poster
BabooshkaKate · 07/07/2016 16:42

Just to add, op did she have a wet wipe with her to clean her hands?

No, she did not. She licked her fingers clean, one by one, then rubbed her hands on her thighs (she was in shorts) then rubbed her hands together. She then went on her phone, then took the magazines out...

I mean, she looked like she was having a great time but I was just lost for words. I do like pasta but strong smells first thing in the morning on an empty stomach makes me feel sick.

I know other cuisines are eaten with hands and that's fine, but those are not pasta with liquid meaty sauces!

OP posts:
iseenodust · 07/07/2016 16:48

Couldn't get a tube of Pringles through security at Wimbledon yesterday without unsealing them. Apparently the right size to hide a bottle of Wine.

grumpysquash · 07/07/2016 17:12

Couldn't get a tube of Pringles through security at Wimbledon yesterday without unsealing them. Apparently the right size to hide a bottle of wine.

But presumably not actually concealing wine if the package is sealed???

SoupDragon · 07/07/2016 17:33

I imagine it's fairly easy to glue the foil top back down onto a tube of Pringles if you really wanted to.

Whiteplate1 · 07/07/2016 17:48

YABU

Maybe she had special needs

You shouldn't be so judgey