Air travel takes a toll on your body and spirit. You may be returning from an invigorating hike through the Lake District, or a tranquil week lying in the sun in Waikiki, or a grueling week at the Las Vegas Trade Show, by the time you get home, you’ll be edgy, hungry, and confused. You may have a headache, cold feet, and stuffy sinuses. You need food for jet lag.
Going away—landing and staying in a foreign place can be exciting. But flying to visit a relative or friend is another matter. What do you feed a jet-lagged person? They are weakened from the demands of travel. The time change, waiting for hours in the cold and snow for a bus, shuffling a suitcase through the narrow aisles, and waiting for luggage leave the person wrecked and confused. The frazzled person needs your help, especially because it is eight thirty at night in your cozy home and two in the morning in their mind. They need consolation and grounding of the body and spirit, as a lunch or dinner must have been peanuts, pretzels, and plastic-wrapped sandwiches in the air somewhere.
Comfort a friend and make them something familiar, warming, but not heavy. The question is, what? We grew up with a parent who worked in the airlines and often returned from difficult trips with three to four trips a day. Sometimes his head would throb with sinuses or his stomach ill from some unusual food from the plane or exotic location. He sometimes wanted a large, spicy Pad Thai noodle bowl from the local Thai restaurant. But, on the whole, he preferred a bowl of soup and a great sandwich.
Serving a rich steak or cream-filled eclair should never been given to people from hours at the airport. Nor should they be tested with complicated burgers or buttery dinner rolls. People in such condition must be given nourishing, healthy food that is easy to digest—food that detoxes and cleanses the body; food that helps them slip into a much needed solid sleep.
We believe this is the perfect meal for a jet-lagged person. Both parts welcome and console, setting up a restful night with the comfort and familiarity of routine. The combination of soup and sandwich, as we know, forms a perfect and complete meal.
The first part is a creamy cauliflower soup with roasted onions. The roasted onions are essential. They give the soup a velvety quality that soothes the scratchy throat. To this soup, you may add toasted almonds for a crunchy topping and a scattering of parsley for color, or some ginger stirred in for heat and seaweed sheets crumbled on top. The combination of textures forms a perfect spoonful.
The second half is a sandwich or quesadilla. A ham sandwich on sourdough bread with mayonnaise, or an herb cream cheese spread on multigrain. A quesadilla substitutes the bread if it is the person’s favorite carrier for fillings. The purpose of these sandwiches is to encourage the person to drink water. Hydration is essential to restore the skin, often parched from the atmosphere of the cabin and the air conditioning of the airport. You can also serve pickles and candied ginger to aid digestion.
As a light dessert, strawberries with whipped cream or an orange offers something sweet and refreshing. After a meal like this, a jet-lagged person can shower and read until easily drifting into dream-world.
