xmlsoa

NRT ANA NH Business Lounge: Shower, Fresh made Vegetarian Food Option? & Restaurants?

1 hr 25 min Layover at NRT

Traveling:
BOM (SQ) > SIN (NH) > NRT (NH) > SJC .. in C/ I all the way.

Please focus on what I am asking because I am going to
- ONLY eat PRE-FLIGHT for my ENTIRE FLIGHT.
- NO eating on the flight.

So please share experiences/ reviews/ recommendations of food at NRT for the following:
- ANA / NH Business Lounge
- Food Court
- Airport Terminal Restaurants

Preferred Diet:
- Vegetarian: Lacto-veg - Dairy YES, Ovo/ Egg - NO
- Freshly cooked.
.. Herbal Non-allopathic Doctors - Strict orders to avoid re-heated, microwaved, pre-cooked meals.
.. So anything that was cooked right now or within 1-2 hours i.e. not long ago and preserved.

This is what I am thinking? Maybe there are other options that are not coming to my mind. Feel free to suggest.
- Hearty veg Soups?
- Freshly cooked South Indian food?
- Fresh Custom-made Stiry fry / Bowl etc.
- Custom Veggies with Rice Pasta (Avoiding white flour products) + Pesto or marinara or light italian/ olive oil dressing (avoid alfredo/ white sauce)
- Maybe veg falafel or so?

Suggestions please. Thank you

PS:
Why am I avoiding eating on the flight? .. Beyond the scope of FT.. Some explanation is here but I'd say, just save your time
(See my signature for Health/ Medical Reasons)

rts123

In the Terminal 1 shopping area, before security and passport control, is where the majority of the restaurants are.

There is one called Soup Stock Tokyo that might have a vegetable soup that might work for you: http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/shop...04_t0000u.html

This place claims to serve "healthy, well-balanced" meals, but that doesn't necessarily mean they offer what you're looking for.

No Indian restaurants in the terminal. I seem to recall seeing a plastic food display of curry & naan at one place when I was at NRT a couple of weeks ago but I may be wrong, and even if I'm not, the place was a mostly Japanese restaurant. There is a Thai place, maybe they could do some veggies for you.

If there are things you really *can't* eat, you may want to get someone to write them down in Japanese for you so you can show them to whichever place you end up eating at.

xmlsoa

I am just passing through NRT and I do not have a Japanese Visitor/ Tourist visa.

Does this mean it is WITHIN transit passenger access or does one have to step out immigration/ passport control? I am using an Indian Passport so I ask where "that" is located.

What are the options INSIDE for transit - connecting passengers?

Any experiences with the ANA/ NH Lounge?

mjm

The restaurants mentioned above are all past immigration so staying airside means far fewer choices.

The NH lounge has tons of options and every single one will be far more processed/precooked and reheated etc. than you are likely to be comfortable with. It sounds like this is an important enough point for you that the two options I would consider are:

1. Tupperware containers with the ingredients for a sandwich (or equivalent) will guarantee ingredients and if they are not liquid they are legal for an airside meal.

2. Sushi. There is a sushi place near Gate 34 (approx) that will work if your definition of vegetarian allows fish.

<sidebar> You may want to consider asking these questions sans the ordering tone and the All Caps for emphasis. We can quite easily read between the lines that this is important and that you seek as specific info as possible.

xmlsoa

My apologies MJM san. A lot of times these dietary constraints are ridiculed, ignored & overlooked because they are "rather unique" or just skipped over by most people.

Having been a vegetarian in Texas I've had years and years of having to "emphasize" specifics to people, restaurants, wait staff, chefs, flight attendants, subway/ quiznos workers (change gloves) and so on.

People are not able to digest what is being outlined so I added "some caps". If you see the thread from my signature, you'll see the "disbelief" expressed by people. Please do not take it personally, just a daily thing I have to do, everywhere I go: US, Europe, Asia. Its become a cautionary habit.

It has been a frustrating exercise as I have asked 2/3 people in my social network who have lived in Japan and they pretty much said there is not much to be had given my constraints. I was hoping some Travel Ninja on FT might have those sharp eyes and have spotted something that most people miss.

Thank you for the suggestions 1 & 2. I am now thinking in terms of 1 i.e. what can I self assemble?

1 - Sorry to say, my definition of vegetarian has no fish (I believe they are actuall "Pescatarian"). I am guessing I will not get 'vegetarian' sushi (the kinds I have had at some restaurants in CA and TX).

2 - So as a last resort, I am thinking of carrying some Porridge/ Oatmeal and then have it heated/ cooked with hot water/ hot milk, maybe at the ANA Lounge? Could I get milk/ hot water to do that?

Worse case scenario I might have to munch something at the lounge or my in-flight meal in case I am unable to bear my hunger (which is ordered as Asian Veg AVML as a backup)

mjm

Dietary requirements outside of the standard offerings are tricky. Lived them for many years. But where there is a will there is a way they say.

If sushi is out I would be highly suspicious of the other options at the airport as they deal with so many people in unpredictable amounts that I suspect much of the food served is reheated.

I always keep porridge at the office (and a spoon and bowl) for exactly the times pf hunger you describe. Good back-up plan, yes.

But I would look more to a set of containers that could hold for example. cut vegetable sitting in water to keep them fresh and crisp (which could be added post-security after being bought at a post security convenience store or drinks machine. Then again at NRT when you go through international transfer security, just dump the water keeping the veggies fresh to go through security and then refill until ready to eat with a bottle bought post-security at NRT. A lot of hassle but having two kids that traveled with since they were tiny I know that some of the hoops people must jump through simply build character.

Other options would be the onigiri or equivalent. I et a lot of rice and often it is the leftovers from a meal rapped around some sort of filling (seaweed, soy sauce flavored bonito flakes, various veg, etc.)

Not sure if you are fan of peanuts but a small container of that and some celery, maybe some cheese, oh boy I could survive weeks.

Houmous and other similar items would lend to the meal. A few pieces of Nan or pita would likely be great to wrap some of this stuff in to create a sandwich.

Heck, my own soul food option would be a couple bagels and cream cheese and the I am full for hours.

Hot water should be easily available as it is used for the instant noodles here and I suspect that even a few cups of hot water from the dispenser used for tea would work. As SIN is a place with such a large vegetarian population there may well be airside options there to add to the picnic basket for here.

Will some of these ideas work?

LapLap

It's been some time since I visited the ANA lounges at NRT but I don't believe you will have any problems acquiring hot water.

The other food they offered there was udon, and this is made with refined white flour, salt and water.

Udon is never "freshly prepared" as even in the places where it is made by hand the flour, water and salt is kneaded and stepped on the day before - then cooked just before serving. At an airport lounge I have no idea what the provenance of the noodles would be, dried or semi dried, nor what else is added to the basic flour, salt and water ingredients to aid in the transportation, increase their shelf life etc.
Even standard soy sauce seems outside of the foods you should be eating chart.

Buckwheat noodles (soba) SHOULD be an option but it is highly unlikely that you will find somewhere in the airport offering 100% soba, a high percentage of refined white flour will feature amongst the ingredients

If I was in your shoes, I would hunt out some seasonings and foods that I could take with me (a home made furikake for instance) and hunt out freshly made rice at the airport.
The ANA lounge should have it, but the rice it will rely on chance.
Nobody should serve rice that has been sitting around for more than 8 hours.
Avoid sushi rice and go for standard white (or brown if you are lucky... Not impossible but haven't yet stumbled on this option). Sushi rice, at its simplest, is seasoned with vinegar, salt, sugar and, often, kombu seaweed. Sometimes fish is added, sometimes a commercial seasoning is added with many more ingredients, some fishy.
Amongst all the restaurants airside someone somewhere will have just cooked a batch of the standard white rice within two hours and will be willing to serve it to you. Avoid fried rice as this is best done with "older" rice cooked some time ago.

You haven't said which time you are landing. That will have an impact on this topic.

Try the ANA lounges first, you may get lucky. Rice with green tea (perhaps with a generous addition of crushed and flaked dried nori seaweed) sounds like a slightly better meal than instant porridge made with hot water.
Dried nori will be available from lots of airside shops, ensure it has no fish, most do not. Not sure if nori qualifies as food or seasoning in your diet. Tea might also be considered a dry food and is out of bounds for you.
Umeboshi in that green tea rice soup with nori would be my preference but you've made it clear that tsukemono (Japanese preserved and/or pickled vegetables) are out of the equation.

Vegetable tempura will have been freshly prepared, XXXXXXXXXXXX (segment vanished - please see below) XXXXXXXXXXXX but is made with commercially prepared and then dried breadcrumbs.
I guess it won't do any harm to ask if they can prepare those same vegetables simply and let you eat them with rice. For this I would personally enquire somewhere offering the Japanese style Chinese options as they are more geared to flash frying things like carrots and bean sprouts.

There is usually a place at the airport offering crepes, they'll have fresh fruit. Whether they will serve fruit to you without the wheat pancakes, cream and sugar... Again, you can only ask. Check the lounges for fruit first.

NewbieRunner

The choice of food outlets in departure/transit areas at NRT is limited and the types of food available to suit the OP's requirements are even more limited. A search on the airport's website finds 10 hits ranging from McDonald's to the sushi restaurant already mentioned and a food court more convenient for NH departure gates.

The ANA lounge usually has onigiri (at least when I've been there) with different toppings and wrapped in nori seaweed.

You may be thinking of "furai" which uses breadcrumbs (but also a small amount of flour and egg).

LapLap

These are less likely to fall under the "freshly prepared" criteria. Also, can't think of any onigiri with suitable fillings - Okaka has fish, and umeboshi, the usual choice for vegetarians, is preserved apricot/plum


Somehow a whole chunk of what I was writing disappeared. I thought I had gone into a whole thing about certain restaurants offering deep fried foods dipped in tempura batter or egg and breadcrumbs but both options featured refined flour.
Thanks for picking up on this!

slawecki

with the sever limitations you have provided, why are you not preparing your foodstuffs your self, and carrying them into the airport? or purchasing them in tokyo and carrying them to the plane? i have brought in everything but really clear liquids through a lot of tsa type places, and have never been stopped.

i have a number of friends from the indian sub continent, many have unique dietary requirements. they all cook. when we invite them over, they frequently cook the meal for themselves, and the whole party. most often it is the males that cook

NewbieRunner

However, the amount of toppings/fillings is so small it's easy to remove them.

It does help if the OP tells us what time he/she arrives in NRT. If arriving in the morning (NH902) they have (reasonably) freshly cooked rice in a rice cooker/warmer. Since the OP mentions the layover is 1 hr 25 min it's probably the afternoon flight from SIN.

You can check the lounge menu and the C class menu, which mentions fresh fruit as dessert as well as a light meal. With only 1 hr 25 min there won't be much time to go and explore outside of the lounge.

AlwaysAisle

OP, I do not practice strict dietary requirement but I am guessing that it is almost impossible to find offering you have outlined at airports in the U.S. I am guessing that most of the time you do need to prepare your own food from home because items which satisfy your dietary requirement is very hard to come by.

I am guessing that it is similar situation at airports outside of the U.S., and NRT is no exception. When it comes to non-medical dietary requirement, such is still practiced by very small number of people in Japan. Most Japanese people do not know anybody in person who practice non-medical dietary requirement. Most Japanese will say Buddhist monks are people who practice such non-medical diet.

When it comes to medical diet, yes, there are such organization which assist or provide food for people with such need in Japan. However, I think it will be almost impossible to make such arrangement while you are at transit area at NRT.

If you are flying NH, then ask NH if it is possible to contact ANA Lounge at NRT prior to your travel. If you manage to get contact with ANA Lounge at NRT prior to travel, then ask if it is possible for them to arrange such items for your transit at NRT.

Maybe alternative is to contact Narita Airport and ask for suggestion, at Contact Narita Airport. You can see from Narita Airport website, they talk about customers with special needs in terms of passengers with physical disability. As I mentioned, non-medical dietary practice is far less common in Japan than in the U.S. You do need to be far more descriptive, persistence, and patient when describing your dietary requirement than in the U.S., because many Japanese will not be familiar with such practice at all.

For example, once we had a business customer visiting Japan who practiced vegetarian. Had very difficult time explaining such dietary requirement to places this person visited in Japan. For example, many hotels (ryokans) and restaurants did not know the difference between vegetable soup and vegetarian soup. Vegetable soup does not add meat items into the soup, but soup stock can still be made from animal parts. Where vegetarian soup uses soup stock made from vegetable items only. Many times hotels and restaurants in Japan thought vegetable soup will be appropriate and respond to request indicating that they can accommodate such request. Need to be very descriptive, persistence, and patient when describing your dietary requirement to people in Japan, far more then describing to people in the U.S.

LapLap

If the kitchen in the lounge doesn't have standard rice from the rice cooker (which more and more seems to be the best option) then Inarizushi seems, on a superficial level, to be the closest at satisfying the OP's needs. HOWEVER... the rice inside is sushi rice, the rice seasoning may possibly include fish. Also, the tofu sleeve goes through a multi-stage preparation process - first the soy beans are mashed to make soy milk and then coagulated to make tofu, this is then fried, then often frozen and then simmered in a sweet broth before it is used to wrap the rice. The braised tofu pouches are unlikely to have been freshly prepared in the lounge even if the inari zushi themselves are assembled there.

NewbieRunner

I don't know where food in the lounge is prepared but I doubt each lounge has a kitchen. Rice in a rice cooker is an exception in the morning when passengers can assemble their own breakfast consisting of rice, misoshiru, nori, tsukemono and not much else.

I'm sure you will agree that frontline Japanese workers tend to be inflexible. They are not willing or allowed to do anything that's not in their rule book. Asking a lounge attendant for a bowl of rice (when the rice cooker is no longer there) and asking if it's been freshly cooked might causes a lot of confusion especially if the OP cannot make the request in Japanese, or even the request is made in Japanese.

I have to agree with slawecki that it would be best if the OP took as much food as possible but flying BOM-SIN-NRT-SJC without a stopover (if that's what is planned) might make things difficult. Contacting ANA in advance as AlwaysAisle has suggested sounds like a sensible idea. ANA does not seem to take more food than absolutely necessary on board and the OP does not want to find any surprise.

LapLap

I would only add that rice from a rice cooker will not have been made more than 8 hours beforehand. It is cooked and then kept warm in the same pot it was cooked in.

Even if I were to ask correctly in Japanese whether the final cycle of the rice machine had been within 2 hours (there should be a display that tells the "kitchen" how long it has been sitting in that pot for) there's no guarantee I would get the correct answer - if they were to answer at all. My only assurance is that there is a defined "safe" time for rice to be kept warm after cooking and that it will be within 8 hours. It's very likely to have been kept for considerably less than 8 hours, but those are the parameters where I would feel mildly confident in making assumptions.

If that is better or worse than oatmeal and hot water... up to you!