I had a similar experience. When I was in Hong Kong, we went out on the last evening before the return flight to a great Thai restaurant called Namo. There, I had this angus beef curry where they'd slow cook the beef for something like 4 hours. That beef literally fell apart in my mouth without even chewing. Brilliant texture.

Such a stark contrast when I had to eat airplane food six times during the next 24 hours, the memory of that beef so much fresher than the airplane food could ever be. sigh