Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Eatin' Vegan on the Plane

My flight to and from India was on Continental Airlines... so now I am going to do a review of a few of the meals that they served me. I always call ahead and request a vegan meal, but on a 16.5 flight, plus another 6.5 hours I was really reliant on them serving me something good.

Well, it was pretty good! All in all, I would give them a good score. Also, they fed us constantly, which was fun. Naturally, one has to have realistic expectations with airplane food, so please keep that in mind. It was nice that on both the way there and the way back, the meals were Indian in theme. Nice combinations of beans, veggies, starches and even with some good flavor & spice! they also included the special "after mint" - that lovely sugary fennel you get after your meal with Indian food. Here you'll see a vegan peanut butter cookie. Definitely not the best vegan cookie ever, but I appreciated the gesture. I've noticed that sometimes airlines just omit the dessert on my vegan meals. And I'll tell you what... it was seriously nice to eat some grapes and strawberries for the 1st time in 5.5 weeks! This meal has some nice spicy garbanzos, a pea & potato dish, and some rice.


This was a "snack" on our flight there: Trail Mix, Candy (not vegan), rondele cheese (obviously, not vegan), navrattan (tasty Indian snack, vegan), baby carrots (nice!), carr's water crackers, and a big banana. Even with the non-vegan options set aside, that's a pretty nice and tasty and varied and even healthy set of snackie goods. I was impressed with this snack.


One last meal, this time a breakfast. Grapes, croissant (not vegan, I'm quite sure), and a nice South Indian meal: dal, wada (savory lentil "doughnuts"), and idli (rice patty thingies).

So, all in all, I'd give Continental a good score. On the way from Mumbai back to the States the poor airline staff was working so hard. They had SO many requests for special meals - veg, vegan, Jain... they had a lot to sort through.

In just 3 weeks I'll be heading off to China on Air China, so I'll be sure to do another review of that experience! I just gotta remember to call and request my vegan meal.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:39 AM

    Continental did a good job, I'm impressed! You even got a Sun Flour Baking Company cookie... even though you didn't like it that much they're a pretty coll, all vegan company so it's nice to see an airline supporting them. Now I want some idli!

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  2. Anonymous4:07 AM

    Those meals look quite appetizing. I have yet to have a proper vegan meal on an airplane, so I just bring my own food just in case. I am also paranoid that there will be things that aren't vegan. Case in point... the obvious cheese they brought you. But all in all, looks good!

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  3. that's amazing for airline food! hell, I would want to try that meal anyway, regardless of altitude. they included a vegan cookie? :o

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  4. I love this post! Ever since I was a kid, I've had a fixation with airline food. I know that sometimes (often?) it's not very good, but to me, it's an adventure to see what you get. It's the first mystery of any trip. And you actually seem to have made out really well! I requested a vegan meal for my flight next month (I think I requested "Asian veggie" and Daiku requested "Indian veggie" or something like that) so we'll see what we get!

    It's SO good to have you back, Amey.

    Oh, about your question: for my king cake, I followed Kittee's recipe on her blog. It is amazing, with orange zest and vanilla flavors and some whole wheat flour, so I can say it's good for you!

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  5. Wow, that's pretty cool that the Airline went through the trouble to get you your vegan meal. I had no idea they did that for people. It's good to know in case I ever do some heavy traveling. I would have thought I'd need to bring my own room-temperature food!

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  6. Not bad! I need to call United about my flight to Germany & I am scared! hehe.

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  7. I flew American to Dublin (from Boston) last month. The dinner I got was the exact same as your except I had lemon vinegarette dressing! I got a snack on the way back that was a small veggie sandwich and fruit. Pretty good. I slept through the breakfast they served :)

    I loved that my vegan food looked better than everyone else's non-vegan food.

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  8. Wow, never thought I would say it but that plane food actually looks good!

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  9. LOL! Amey, you had better food than I did!!!! So jealous. :D
    I was just showing a friend your site today and we were browsing through your travel posts. Such an inspiration!!!!!! <3

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