On board meals - the Veggie option.

[Nottingham Nick]

Last night, just by way of a change, I decided to have the Veggie option.

It is described on the menu as Vegetable stir-fry with noodles and pad Thai sauce.

I have to say it was very tasty, and the veg had retained their crispness. But I couldn't believe how little there was of it!

If you took away the noodles, there were about 5 small sugar snap peas, a couple of slices of pepper and some minuscule bits of mushroom. When I finished it, I wanted to eat it again!

Is the normal for the Veggie option?

What do people who are Vegetarians think of the VS offerings?

I am not thinking of going veggie - I am just curious.

Nick

I opted for the vegetarian option in UC on Monday from SFO (being a Veggie it was the only choice) and after one bite (which I could not swallow) it was returned - a plate of uncooked i.e. raw pastry with a few vegetables by the sie (and not the ones offerd in the menu either) - offered the economy curry but I cant digest rice or the PE offering which I was warned would not be very good so skipped and went to biscuits and cheese.

Chatting to the FSM, who agreed my veggie dish did look awful, said it was all down to the way it is prepared on the ground but why or why cook/re-heat pastry in a steam oven ? It DOESNT work ! And yes I have had the very same dish some twenty times and it was OK - so not really sure where the problem lay.

So with an offer of a very large amount of FC miles (which I refused) and a report made I had a hungry long flight home.

On the other hand the pumkin ravioli on the way out of LHR suits my palet very well and I actually look forward to it.

Hackneyguy

The pumpkin ravioli was very good in UC. I flew to Antigua last year in Y and pre-ordered the veggie option because I'm scared of meat in Economy! To my surprise, it was an outstanding veggie curry, not to be confused with the normal Y Beef/chicken/veg options.

James

A mixed bag here. My BH's had the pastry in UC, and ravioli, before, and both have been fine. I do think you sort of end up stir frying veg, not really cooking it for pasta (messier to reheat I'd guess) and this will work better with noodles. In PE I recently had gnocchi an it was fine - not enough salt, but that's a common thing - and the portion was abundant. More likely to be a noodles thing (more esoteric/expensive dish, so less of it?). Pasta with tomato and cheese is a very cheap thing to dish out, so you'll get more of it, maybe?

[mitchja]

I also quite often go for the veggie option in Y or W, as it tends to resemble food a bit better then other VS choices.

Usually it's pasta though.

Regards

At the moment, I think the UC veggie meals are horrible. The pumpkin ravioli has absolutely no taste and a horrible texture and the pie on the way home is too stodgy.

However the veggie meals in PE right now are IMHO fantastic. The mushroom pasta on the outbound flights is amazing and the stir fry is pretty good too. [^]

And don't even get me started on the veggie choice of sandwich in UC being egg [:(!][:$]. Or both the hot brekkie items in PE/Y having egg in them! [:(!][:(!]

[Scrooge]

quote:Originally posted by Tinkerbelle


And don't even get me started on the veggie choice of sandwich in UC being egg [:(!][:$].


WTF, how did that get past the catering manager ?

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
quote:Originally posted by Tinkerbelle


And don't even get me started on the veggie choice of sandwich in UC being egg [:(!][:$].


WTF, how did that get past the catering manager ?


Indeed and put that with the asparagus spears they serve - no wonder the restrooms have that errr certain aroma mid to late flight [:I]

I was once offered 'vegetarian coq au van' on a flight to SFO in PE.

She got down half the cabin taking orders before anyone said anything !

quote:Originally posted by hackneyguy
Chatting to the FSM, who agreed my veggie dish did look awful, said it was all down to the way it is prepared on the ground but why or why cook/re-heat pastry in a steam oven ? It DOESNT work ! And yes I have had the very same dish some twenty times and it was OK - so not really sure where the problem lay.


Sounds to me like the galley operator heating the pastry component on the wrong setting!

If VS are still using the same BE Aerospace/Inventum ovens, these do have a 'dry heat' (i.e. steam free) setting for handling items such as pies, bread products and pastry - but the galley operator needs to remember to set it, and the serving specification sheet which comes with each menu cycle needs to specify that it should be heated on dry heat.

Maybe VS need to forget about doing all this componentised food which is complex to plate in the galleys, and switch to using complete meals, assembled by the kitchen in oven-to-tableware, with minimal galley assembly of meals - usually just finishing touches being added in the galley.

This works for a lot of other airlines' J products (BA, NZ, UA, etc), and is the way VS' W meals are prepared (and they *are supposed* to be different from the Y meal - NOT just a Y meal in a ceramic dish).

Sure, if they were to adopt this it removes another one of the features of VS Upper Class service, but at the same time, it would cut down on galley workload (getting at least a little of that crew member's time back in the cabin), and potentially open up a new range of food items which can be served in UC.

UC food may well be limited by what can be assembled in the galley, letting the flight kitchen do most assembly may remove those restrictions and speed up the meal service.

Just a thought...
Mike

[mitchja]

quote:Originally posted by Tinkerbelle
Or both the hot brekkie items in PE/Y having egg in them! [:(!][:(!]


Just great, so they are still doing this then [V] Must remember to bring my own breakfast for my next flight home in a few weeks then.

Regards

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
WTF, how did that get past the catering manager ?


Don't laugh. We ordered in a sandwich buffet lunch at work for a meeting. One of the attendees is dairy intolerant (no butter, cream, cheese, etc.) but not veggie, and we told the caterer this.

The 'dairy free' selection consisted of.... cheese sandwiches with no butter!

Also, VS may wish to note that 'Pad Thai Sauce' is normally not vegetarian at all. It usually contains nam pla - fish sauce.

Mike

[honey lamb]

On a UC flight last year my niece and I had the veggie option of mushroom stroganoff. It was very tasty and plentiful and I eagerly scan the menus to see if it has been repeated

I always take the veggie offerings and usually prefer the PE meals to the UC ones. I had forgotten to mention in my TR how revolting the veggie pastry thing was this week...but a couple of desserts later and I was happy[:w]

Sunshine

[RichardMannion]

The non-veggie food is hardly anything to write home about either...

[HighFlyer]

quote:Originally posted by Tinkerbelle
And don't even get me started on the veggie choice of sandwich in UC being egg [:(!][:$]. Or both the hot brekkie items in PE/Y having egg in them! [:(!][:(!]


I don't get it? Egg is vegetarian, just not vegan? I quite like the hot egg and cheese bagel in W, just a shame its probably about 1000 calories for something the size of my hand.

On the whole I think the Veggie meals are better than the meat/fish meals, usually because they are pasta or noodles or curry, something with sauce that isnt easy to muck up when reheated.

Thanks,
Sarah

I just think the veggie sandwich should be something that is away from eggs and dairy altogether! A lot of vegetarians don't eat eggs even though they are not vegan. A roasted vegetable sandwich or even a salad sandwich would be perfect.