As a mark of my one year anniversary in Zambia, here is a definitive ranking of vegetarian food on every airline I’ve traveled on on the past year (I have to travel on multiple airlines to go home). It heartens back to Spiders I Have Known, which is my 5th most-read blog post, thank you very much.
They are both ranked and given a score out of 10 in terms of general edibility, 10/10 being a great meal, 1/10 being barely edible, 0/10 being not edible. My home cooked meals probably hover around 6/10 with mujaddara, black bean veggie burgers, and gouda pizza solid 8/10s.
- Delta. I ordered an Asian Vegetarian meal as usual (vegan curry imo has a minimum terrible threshold whereas other foods do not). Fortunately, they messed up my order and brought me the ravioli instead. It had two flavours of sauce even, and was quite good. What put it over the top was the chocolate mousse that TASTED LIKE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE. This is the only full meal on this list I would be happy with outside of a plane setting. 5.5/10
- Kenya. KQ has the distinction of being the only airline that knows how to make food spicy. Its curry both has a delightful kick and tastes better than the curry I make at home (the second is a low bar, but hey, this is airplane food we’re talking). Unfortunately, I accidentally ate a hot pepper, thinking “surely an airline wouldn’t include WHOLE HOT PEPPERS in their curry”, and I spent the next hour in lines with my mouth in pain. Kenya didn’t receive the top spot on this list because other components of the meal were mediocre, and I’m still a bit salty about the pepper. 5/10
- Emirates. Decent pasta with decent cheese. It also looked better than any of the other foods, thus providing the cover photo for this post. It does not, however, pass the “would I eat this at home” test the first two did. If I had included things beyond the literal food served on the airline, Emirates would’ve won hands down. For my overnight layover, they put me up in a hotel with an all you can eat buffet that includes baklava. BAKLAVA! 3/10 for airline food, 7.5/10 for buffet.
- Ethiopian. Ethiopian has one vegetarian meal, every time: dal and some curried vegetables. You know it’s going to be mediocre, but you know it’s going to be edible. 2/10
- American. I’ve tried to purge whatever they served me from my memory, but if my memory serves me correctly (see what I did there?) it was one of those weird gelatinous vegetable casseroles that looks vaguely like an Irish flag and somehow manages to taste even worse than it looks. This was so bad it not only put me off eating it, but eating anything for the next 24 hours, thus also messing up my sleep schedule and life, right at the new year. -2018/10
In other news (what have I been doing with my life, anyway)?
Mostly preparing to survey farmers and surveying farmers. Will post some pictures of sunsets. Life has been very, very hectic (hence the radio silence). I wish I could write more about my project, but alas.
Was a bridesmaid in a college friend’s wedding in Nigeria! An amazing experience. Again, planning to post at least one photo.
Continuing, post-car accident, to try to make more out of my life here. This might include:
- Lusaka’s international film festival
- Long walks
- Getting in touch with food sources
- Playing new sports
- Introducing friends to my favourite cheese dishes
- And vice versa, but without the cheese
- Infinite Arena in Hearthstone
- Spoken word poetry
- Getting out more on weekends (still get grumpy around 2 AM)
- Controversial political discussions
- Attending a Zambia football game
- Buying too much chitenge fabric
Happy Anniversary Siobhan! Aw, I had no idea it was so difficult to get decent vegetarian plane food, even just to pass the pass the “would I eat this at home” test 🙁 😭😭 I actually had Greek Food for dinner last night and now I’m kicking myself for not trying Baklava. Oh well next time. And OMG I did not know you were in a car accident, how’s everything now? And Yay I hope to see more sunset photos and about your trip to Nigeria. Let me know what you think about the food in all honesty. And your list sounds awesome. Hey, you can never buy too much chitenge fabric, everyone else just doesn’t buy enough, hahaha. Goodluck with your project, sounds stressful but you got this!