For most of my life, airline food was mocked and derided.

“Cold” … “rubbery” … “tasteless” … “inedible”.

We ate airline food because it came with the ride. It was distributed, free. No, really.

(And I realize some Millennials have never seen anything more tasty than peanuts given away/sold. Or, worse, a bag of mini-pretzels.)

For years, the airlines provided meals as a form of crowd control. During meal-delivery, which generally clogged the aisle(s) for an hour, we all stayed in our seats, waiting for our freebies. Which usually came to us in three segments: 1) drinks cart; 2) food plate; 3) followup drinks cart or coffee/tea.

It also helped pass the time. And, 40-50 years ago, led to jokes about how bad airplane food was, mostly because it had to be reheated at altitude. Then came price-conscious cost cuts, and the disappearance of meals on most short flights.

Perceptions of airline food haven’t changed much, but the result has. Airline meals are no longer an issue of “how desperate for food are you?”

Meals are provided with less frequency, but my sense is, that when they are provided, they are better than they have ever been.

Most long-haul flights come with meals. Often with two, if the flight is longer than 10 hours or so — dinner and breakfast, typically.

And they are good and getting better.

Today, we flew 12 hours from Los Angeles to Istanbul, and then another five hours, from Istanbul to Abu Dhabi.

We had three meals, over 30 hours. Two dinners and a breakfast.

We flew “premium economy” on the first flight, which seemed to mean metal utensils and a cloth napkin — but the same food served back in steerage.

We had our choice of lamb or chicken on the first flight; we all had the same slightly spicy scrambled eggs for breakfast; we had herb chicken or beef stew for our second dinner.

On the longer flight, a woman in a chef’s outfit oversaw the food preparation. This was on Turkish Airlines. Good to see that.

Here is what I like about modern airline meals:

–They are prepared by professional chefs, usually on the ground, then frozen and reheated in flight. No more “flight attendants slapping together a few things in the back” — which still happened a half-century ago.

–They offer variety. The main dinner dish, chicken or beef or vegetarian, comes with a starch and some vegetables. Also with a bread roll. Perhaps a little salad. (I had a salmon salad on the first flight.) And a small dessert, anything from cake to “mango mousse”, served on the flight to Abu Dhabi.

–If you have special requests for a meal (kosher, halal, gluten-free), they can be handled.

–The portions are small. You cannot overeat on a plane, unless you have a really tiny stomach. It’s about exactly the right size to handle hunger but not bloat a person. (I’m thinking someone should invent the “airline food diet” — the centerpiece of which would be tiny portions of multiple things.)

–They avoid the sort of spicy foods that might cause digestive distress — often communicated to other passengers. I believe the meals help combat airsickness, too.

–They obviate the need to carry your own food on board, which is the sad state of affairs in the continental U.S. — and sometimes ends with people bringing on something malodorous.

Here was the menu handed to us on the flight from Istanbul to Abu Dhabi:

–Drink choices from four hard liquors, two beers and half a dozen soft drinks.

–Bombay beans in tomato sauce.

A choice of …

–Beef stew, with creamy corn and potato puree, sauteed tomatoes and peppers or …

–Grilled herb chicken fillet with sauteed tomatoes and rice with peppers.

–A bread roll and butter.

–A package of crackers with a white cheese.

–For dessert, mango mousse with shaved chocolate.

Often, the airline meal is something you haven’t quite had before. My first time eating chicken Kiev or chicken cordon bleu was in a plane. If people get a chance to fly what they perceive to be an exotic airline, the odds are pretty good you will get something slightly new.

Anyway, airline meals remains a joke, but shouldn’t. I can’t remember the last time I had a bad meal on a long-haul flight. Not even on an American carrier.