Gluten Free Airline Meals, part 2
Last time I discussed my fabulous experience with my gluten free airline meal, I forgot to take photos. This time, I got photos of two dinners and one breakfast. Here goes:
First off, we flew LAN, which is by far my favorite airline. Most airlines will only give you a special meal for the long flights, and not on the shorter legs. However, LAN surprised me with a fruit plate on the first leg of our flight, which was just over an hour long. The regular meal was a ham and cheese sandwich.
This was dinner. Real glass, real utensils (not the plastic kind). And decent little (reusable) plates. The dish the main course was served in was actually ceramic.
There was a simple lettuce and avocado salad with a lemon vinaigrette, then a main course of chicken breast, mushrooms, and potatoes, with red peppers. Dessert was sliced apples and oranges.
This was the regular meal: beef with green (spinach?) rice, mixed salad (not as nice as mine in the special meal), wheat roll, and some kind of dulce de leche dessert roll.
I think my special GF meal was much better, but then that’s generally the case with special meals.
Breakfast was excellent (again, same reusable dishes and utensils): an egg with cheese on top, small tomato wedge, mushrooms. Apple wedges. Rice pudding.
Definitely lots of dairy involved, but with the exception of fresh milk (as in, coffee with milk), wheat is worse for me than dairy.
Part of our return flight was on American, and I only got a photo of the dinner:
First off, flimsy plastic plates (read: disposable) and plastic utensils (obviously, also disposable).
Lettuce and tomato wedge salad (again, not as good as my previous GF meal salad) with an olive oil-balsamic vinaigrette in a cute little glass bottle (which I saved; I have a glass bottle collection at home for reusing).
White rice with a handful of black beans scattered throughout. Chicken with tomato sauce, corn. Gluten free original Mary’s Gone Crackers, which were excellent and full of seeds, and fresh melon wedges for dessert.
Anyway, as before I was happy with my gluten free meals. And very happy to see that LAN is using dishes and utensils that can be reused rather than thrown away. Good for them!
And at one point during my in flight dining I got to thinking…these meals are WAY better than the junk Mrs. Q eats everyday at school. Why can’t school lunches look more like this?
Wow, that Lan meal looks really great! I went to London a couple of weeks ago and ordered gluten free meal at American Airlines… pretty bad!
On my way over there I only called the day before and they couldn’t file the request… so I brought my own dinner! I made a mushroom risotto and place it on my lunch box. I thought I was going to have issues at security, but not at all, nobody even checked. (I also had tweezers on my purse and nothing!).
Then on my way back there was 1 meal + 1 snack. The snack was a warm individual pizza for everyone… and the same meal as before for me!! not very nice of them :-/ Just some dry chicken with bad potatoes.
I think I’ll bring my own food next time!
btw, I usually have those crackers at home, they are great
First off, LAN rocks. Even though they lost all four pieces of luggage for about 24 hours. There’s still nothing much bad I can say about them.
American Airlines…well, that’s another story. They’re terrible about getting special meals on the plane (Though they CAN do it the day before or even the day of, if you make a big enough fuss. One time I ordered well ahead of time, then reconfirmed by phone, then when I re-reconfirmed when I was checking in, they said they had no record of my request. I made a big scene, and somehow in the 2-3 hours between check in and take off they got my meal on the plane).
If you’re flying American, you’d probably be best off bringing something from home. LAN, on the other hand, is actually tasty. Plus, you can’t beat the real glass for wine. And real utensils.
Wow, those pictures really tell it all.
I used to avoid dairy religiously. I learned vegetarian meals are often cheese fests. I’m better off to avoid gluten. Most times I order Asian food if I have the choice. It has less dairy and less gluten.
I usually avoid non-goat/sheep dairy, because it makes me feel terrible. But if I have to choose between wheat and dairy, I go with dairy, because wheat is even worse.
And yes, vegetarian meals are often cheese and wheat fests. People who have never been vegetarian tend to assume vegetarians just eat pasta and pizza. Not the case for many, I think. I have always wondered about the Asian dairy special meal, but now that I’m no longer vegetarian or vegan, I just go for gluten free. Then I can be sure I skip the wheat. Because my problem is more with wheat than gluten. I have no problem with soy sauce, for example.
LAN huh? Never heard of them till now, will definitely be checking them out though, it’s so important to eat a decent healthy meal that doesn’t have you feeling sick of bloated for a whole flight. I once flew business class with Gulf Air and that was pretty much the most amazing meal I’ve ever had, completely gluten free and I think a huge part of that was having real utensils, it make a HUGE difference
LAN started in Chile. Actually, I think the current president is still a shareholder in it. They also do a lot of domestic flights in Argentina (there are only two airlines in Argentina for domestic flights, and the other one is TERRIBLE), and flights from main points in South America (including Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Lima) to the US. Not sure what other parts they travel to, but I think it’s mainly South-to-North America. I’ve flown them a LOT, and love them.
Just re-read your comment. I HATE it when you pre-order a meal and it suddenly ‘disappears’ or they’ve ‘forgotten’ to add it, then you’re just there starving for the whole flight! Doesn’t sound like I’ll be using LAN anytime soon, but I’ll have to keep it in mind for the next time I’m in S.A.
I used to be pretty hard core vegetarian, ovo lacto for a while and then vegan, so if the only option was chicken or beef, I wouldn’t eat the main course, just the non-meat items. American Airlines used to be TERRIBLE about getting their special meals on the plane. It got to be that I would book the meal at the same time I did the flight, then reconfirm by phone three days before, then again when checking in.
Even with all that, sometimes the meal wouldn’t make it on. Sometimes, the flight attendants were nice and would get me leftover veggies from first class. Once, they brought me this amazing cheese and nut platter. It was a major cheese fest, but it kept me from starving. I tend to get really irritable when I’m hungry.