Singapore's Menu Lists Calories, Carbs and More on the World's Longest Flight

I just arrived at Changi Airport (SIN) on Singapore 21, the world's longest flight, taking us from Newark (EWR) to Southeast Asia in just under 18 hours, from gate to gate. I'll share my full impressions in tomorrow's review, but for now, you can get a great feel for the in-flight experience in JT Genter's premium-economy review from the outbound flight, Singapore 22.

That said, there's one aspect that I'm so excited about, I feel the need to share right away — rather than catching some shut-eye following my nonstop journey from the other end of the world. It has to do with what we ate, and the fact that while I certainly stuffed my face during that ultra-long-haul journey, I don't feel nearly as uncomfortably full as I usually do after a long review flight. The reason: healthy meals, that still taste really really good.

Singapore developed special meals for its new ultra-long-haul flights from Newark and Los Angeles (LAX) in partnership with Canyon Ranch, a company known for its high-end wellness hotels and cruise-ship spas. The result is an entirely new menu, with a "Canyon Ranch Selection" available on each leg.

On our business-class flight to Changi, the first meal had a standard selection, which I'll detail more in tomorrow's review, while the "midflight onwards" menu, available between eight and 16 hours into the flight, featured several different options, including the Canyon Ranch meal below:

Currently, the airline boards enough meals for roughly 30% of business-class passengers to get the Canyon Ranch option — with 67 seats in biz, that means around 20 or so healthy meals to choose from. I made sure to request mine shortly after boarding, just in case.

Canyon Ranch meals are designed to total between 650 and 700 calories, so you can eat three during a full-day flight and still come in under your regular caloric intake — while there was only one available in business class on my flight, multiple "Western Option" meals are created by Canyon Ranch in premium economy.

I started with the roasted beets with burrata, with 221 calories, 20 grams of carbs, 10 grams of protein, 12 grams of fat and 428 milligrams of sodium, an important stat to track to avoid retaining too much water on a long flight. While calories weren't listed for my beverage pick, I paired the appetizer with SQ's special Bordeaux, a phenomenal 2006 Chateau Rauzan-Segla (about $80 a bottle), available only on SQ21 and SQ22 for the next 30 days.

The entree consisted of braised grass-fed beef short ribs, with a turmeric cauliflower mash, mushrooms and asparagus — 307 calories, 14 grams of carbs, 21 grams of protein, 17 grams of fat and 384 mg of sodium.

Finally, I rounded out the meal with the lemon angel food cake with blueberries, which tipped the scale at just 140 calories, with 32 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat and just 82 mg of sodium. In total, I consumed 668 calories — certainly a guilt-free business-class dinner.

While I had my meal with wine, you can choose a Canyon Ranch mocktail, instead, such as the Coconut Pineapple Fresca — "packed with minerals such as potassium, magnesium and cytokinins, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefits" — that I tried on this leg.

All of the Canyon Ranch courses were outstanding — this was easily one of the best meals I've had on a plane. It was definitely a step up from the (presumably) less healthy main meal we had shortly after takeoff.

Stay tuned for much more to come in the full review tomorrow, and check out these articles for a closer look at the world's longest flight:

• I Survived 18 Hours on the World’s Longest Flight
• Award Space for the Whole Family on the World’s Longest Flight
• Singapore to Resume World’s Longest Flights from New York and LA