No one can argue that the world primarily consists of meat eaters. We’ve come quite a ways since the brontosaurus rib flipped Fred Flintstone’s car over though, and in recent years, vegan options have become available everywhere — except on Japan Airlines it appears. On a flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, a passenger ordered a vegan breakfast only to be served a single banana and a pair of chopsticks.
The passenger shared their experience on the aviation forum Flyertalk, “Before take-off today, my flight attendant confirmed that I ordered VGML (Vegetarian Vegan Meal) and that my breakfast was a banana, by which I mistakenly assumed she meant that breakfast included a banana.”
Let’s pause for a second and mull this scenario over. A single banana is Japan Airlines’ designated breakfast option for vegans and vegetarians. That alone is concerning, especially considering that Japanese cuisine offers numerous plant-based options, such as tofu. So despite all of the potential breakfast items that could be offered to vegan and vegetarian passengers, they settled on a single ‘nana?
Continuing their tale, “When she served the banana after take-off, I thought it was just an underwhelming appetizer, but it was in fact the entire meal service!” Funnily enough, the passenger admitted that it was “a really good banana” and “one of the best” they’d eaten in a while, but “it seems more appropriate for a snack.”
“Barely seasoned spaghetti” was served for lunch later in the flight, which included nasty yellow fruit and further continued the assault on her taste buds. A lackluster food experience on flights is nothing new to vegetarians and vegans. Before veganism became popular, and vegetarian was a niche lifestyle, airline food was more substantive. I recall eating vegetarian lasagna replete with sides and dessert.
If there is any takeaway from this sad, albeit humurous, tale, it’s that it is high time for an overhaul of the airline in-flight menu. There is literally no reason why airline food can’t be better. Delta Airlines has been serving the same bag of pretzel trail mix for decades. Biscoff gets a pass because it’s sugary perfection, but the others gotta go!
