CRITIC’S CORNER: Lotus Biscoff Cookie Butter

In late January, two sisters, both probably in their sixties, were sitting on a Delta Airlines flight from Denver to Maui. Regardless of the details printed on their boarding passes, they could have sat next to one another. But instead, they chose to sit window and aisle, leaving the middle seat open for whomever held the remaining ticket. Whomever happened to be me.

Should you think that what follows is a laundry list of complaints about the sisters, allow me to correct. We got along just fine and discovered we shared a few things in common. We all were from the Midwest. We all had a hell of a time logging onto Delta’s Wi-Fi (after 20 minutes, I gave up entirely). And we all found very few redeeming qualities in the in-flight meal.

In fact, I fail to see how anyone could have liked the meal. The chicken breast was indeed cooked but was colder than the winter that had driven these Midwesterners to pursue the land of leis and hula skirts in the first place. The bird’s tough rigidity would have humbled Excalibur; Delta passengers were wielding butter knives made of plastic.