Aer Lingus Vegan Meals

Happy Memorial Day! Today seemed like a good day to show you what Aer Lingus served me on my flights last month. It was the first time I ever called ahead for a special meal.

You have to do this, y'all. Seriously. Ordering the food ahead of time means you get served first and can run to the restroom while everyone else is stuck in their seats waiting for the cart to go by.

Lunch/Dinner #1:

This is a terribly blurry photo, and for that I apologize, but it was turbulent and dark and my seatmate was looking at me and my meal rather weirdly. So. I didn't try too hard to get a good picture.

Anyway.

It was fruit salad, margarine (incidentally: this is not vegan margarine; it has whey in it), a little green salad, water, vinaigrette, a roll, and a really impressive main dish of tofu with rice and sweet curry veggies. My seatmate was really jealous of this, given that she had some sort of sad pasta.

Also, I didn't photograph the breakfast, but it was also not vegan: A muffin and orange juice. Aer Lingus was trying but not quite getting it.

On my return flight, I got a much clearer photo.

Lunch/Dinner #2:

After the first impressive tofu meal, expectations were high. But this was just strange. There was a corn salad thing, fruit salad, actual vegan margarine this time, water, a roll, and pasta and veggies tossed in ridiculous quantities of sweet chili sauce. It was so spicy it made my nose run, and sweet chili sauce really shouldn't go on pasta and olives.

Also, it included this for the after dinner tea service:

Erm, Aer Lingus? Dairy free meals shouldn't come with milk. Sigh.

Also, why not offer more water or something, or even decaf tea and coffee, rather than just the straight stuff? The flight attendants acted like I was a loon for asking if they had anything without caffeine.

I will say, though, I had a great experience otherwise: My return flight was pretty empty, so I was on my own in my window seat and got to spread out to sleep. In general, on non-vegan issues, I recommend Aeir Lingus: They still gave everybody a pillow and a blanket for free, and it was pretty comfortable. And on vegan things, they're really trying. I hope they figure out how to get actual vegan margarine for all the flights and to leave milk off non-dairy trays, and maybe, if not too much to ask, that they put marinara on their pasta like normal people and offer people something other than just regular tea and coffee after dinner.

Also, the vegan snack they gave me, I guess because it wasn't breakfast but rather some sort of mid-afternoon meal, was a green salad and a fruit salad, which was quite a nice alternative to a dry prepackaged cookie that the non-vegans got. I was really excited about that one.