No one can argue that the world is filled with carnivores. 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, an unidentified passenger ordered a vegan breakfast only to be served a single banana and a pair of chopsticks. She shared her 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 the 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 banana? Continuing the passenger's 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!” Amusingly enough, the passenger admitted that it was “a really good banana” and one of the best she had eaten in a while, but “it seems more appropriate for a snack.” Before veganism became popular, and vegetarian was a niche lifestyle, airline food was more substantive. People have reported eating vegetarian lasagna, with sides and a dessert. If there is any takeaway from this sad, albeit humorous, tale, it’s that it's high time for an overhaul of the airline in-flight menu. There's literally no reason why airline food can’t be better. Delta Airlines has been serving the same bags of pretzel trail mix and Biscoff cookies for decades. Biscoff gets a pass because it really is sugary perfection, but the trail mix has to go.
