Pomodoro e Basilico

The first Dutch Starbucks has opened inside Schiphol Airport. Price for a Grande Latte is €3,70. Price for a Grande Java Banana Chocolate Chip Blended Crème Frappuccino is €5,60. Now, quick, let’s make this blog interactive. Run over to your local Starbucks and use the comments to give me the price for these two items in your local currency. If they don’t sell the Java Banana Chocolate Chip Blended Crème Frappuccino, choose the thing that most resembles it. It should have at least some chocolate in it. Remember, we’re looking at the Grande versions.

As I’ve spent about 10 hours in planes the past two weeks, and many more in airports, I can obviously only talk about my experiences in the air. TJ’s aside, there is another matter that I’d like to raise which has the word WHY? written all over it in a bold 48pt italic font with curly edges. It’s the Trattoria question. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with KLM food, Trattoria is the brand name of the food they serve in economy class nowadays. Or, well… food… sandwiches to be precise. Or… well… miniature sandwiches to be preciser. Don’t worry, you get two in a package, so it definitely meets your needs after travelling for 2 hours to get to the airport, 2 hours waiting for your flight and the 30 minutes you’ve just spent taxiing with the airconditioning turned off for your convenience. Also, it perfectly complements the 5cl of orange juice you were just handed in a tiny plastic cup, so tiny it apparently is very difficult to fill it more than half way, even with non fizzy drinks. Might...

Okay, today I just had to ask. On my flight back from Nice, with KLM, everyone started to order Tomato Juice again. Just like on the flight over. And on the flights to and from Stockholm last week. This time I paid more attention. Of the 25 people around me (3 rows in front, my row and the row behind me) 17 people ordered tomato juice. Now, people can tell me a lot of stuff about coincidence and how it rules the universe, but this is just too odd. It defies all logic. “So what?”, I hear you mumble, “ever heard of a Bloody Mary? That’s what all those people on the KLM flights are mixing themselves”. True, I did think of that. However, the ‘potent’ ingredient of Bloody Marys was not handed out with the Tomato Juice and on the, in my eyes, very disturbing question of the stewardess “Would you like pepper or salt with that?” all 17 people answered with a definite “No, just plain Tomato Juice please!”. I deliberately choose not to go into the entire concept of mixing alcoholic beverages wit...