FlyerWx

Has anyone noticed any consistency (in terms of quality) of the Hindu meal out of various airports? For example, do flights originating out of certain airports have worse food? Or is the special meal quality a function of the caterer?

Specifically, is the HNML out of JFK generally good, or is it very hard to predict?

florens

AA91 LHR-ORD yesterday: Asian vegetarian meal

CDTraveler

I don't know where the myth that the gluten-free meals are vegetarian started, but it isn't true. IME the gluten-free meals are more likely to have animal products, including meat, than the vegetarian ones because gluten intolerance is an adverse reaction to certain plant proteins. The last GF meal I had on AA was chicken (of course) on rice, salad, and cheese for "dessert".

Of course trusting that AA's kitchens know what gluten is is a risk. Breakfast on one flight was Rice Crispies which are not gluten-free. Fortunately the FA was able to find us some yogurt.

twa777

AVML Meal from CLT to SFO

This is the Asian Vegetarian (AVML) meal on the CLT-SFO flight on 04/27.

The main dish was an okra curry (pretty spicy), spinach (saag), a small samosa, and rice that was all pretty good. However, the appetizer that seemed to be asparagus, tomato, red pepper slice and onions was quite plain.

I believe the dessert with the fruit was gulab jamun, an Indian dessert of cake balls soaked in a sugar syrup. They were decent, but I still took up the offer for an ice cream sundae when offered.

sdsearch

I wasn't saying the gluten-free meal was necessarily the same as the vegetarian meal, I just noted that it often could be, since they usually use rice and corn as the grains, not wheat stuff.

Maybe they design this so they can use vegan/vegetarian special meals as backups if they run out of the main gluten-free special meal? Or maybe they assume a lot of vegans/vegetarians also want gluten-free (but just don't publish this)? Otherwise, I don't understand why they'd continuously avoid gluten-containing grains in the vegan/vegetarian special meals.

CDTraveler

My experience on several carriers with the gluten-free meals is that they require significant advance reservation and arrive with the pax's name and seat number on them. I belong to several large celiac groups and have never heard of a carrier boarding extra GF meals - they're more likely to "forget" to board them. And it's not just "rice and corn" that would determine if the meal is gluten-free, it has to be prepared in such a way as to avoid cross contamination with gluten containing foods. I would never accept a vegan/vegetarian meal as a substitute for a gluten-free meal.

Have you actually ever had a gluten-free meal on a plane, or are you just randomly speculating about them? Because your comments suggest you don't understand what a gluten-free meal is or what is involved in the preparation and handling of one. Vegan/vegetarian ≠ gluten-free.

sdsearch

No, I haven't ever ordered a gluten-free special meal, and I'm not sure what that would show me. As you said, details in preparation matter, and I'm not sure I could spot sub-microscopic details in perpartion..

I wasn't claiming these meals were definitely gluten-free. I was just noticing a pattern of me never getting gluten grain in vegan/vegetarian special meals, while I did get them in other meals. So I wondered why.

Plus I know that vegan and vegetarian are often combined, because I'm so used to getting margarine instead of butter (ugh) on so called lacto-ovo vegeterian meals. The only reason to give margarine instead of butter is to avoid dairy, which is not needed for true lacto-ovo vegetarian. So I wonder how many other meals either are today or at least were in the past re-used for multiple categories. (At one time years ago, I seem to remember someone claiming that about 3 or 4 or 5 different special meals were actually the same meal most of the time, because they found it easier to make one meal that satisfied all those categories than to make 3 or 4 or 5 different meals. But [a] that was years ago, and i don't know if it's still true, and [b] I never special ordered anything other than lacto-ovo vegetarian myself.

Meanwhile, for every person who truly needs gluten-free for medical reasons, there are several people who are eating gluten-free just because they think it might help them in some vague way. This latter group is not going to get sick if one meal is not totally gluten-free. They'd just prefer gluten free.

Now, obviously, any official gluten free meal has to be strict enough for people who would get sick if gluten was included. But "extra unofficial" gluten-free meals could help if someone who doesn't absolutely need it (but feels it's somehow better for them) wants it. These meals couldn't be labeled as gluten free, but could be recommended as "close to gluten free" for those people who only need that standard.

CDKing

Not so Asian Vegetarian on LAX-PEK in premium economy as other airlines its been something good compared to normal. I was going to do the Hindu meal on the return but since regular meal looked so good on outbound changed to normal meal (which i regret)

Nothing special. Same potato that came with the short rib option



I thought they accidentally served me the mid-flight snack since it didn't fit with my tray (and hung off the tray table. I've never been an eggplant fan but it was pretty tasty.




The mid-flight snack.




Breakfast tasted better than it looked. It was a french toast covered in fruit and granola?

JDiver

A friendly reminder: the title of this thread is Guide: AA SPML - Special Meals (vegetarian, gluten intolerant, child, etc.), and this is the American Airlines | AAdvantage forum.

Extended discussions on various medical conditions such as allergies, etc. are not appropriate here. Such will be summarily deleted, to keep this thread on topic.

Thank you,

Moderator

twa777

That potato does look pretty sad. I know nice meal presentation on a flight is a lot to ask for, but it really does play a big factor for many people in how much they appreciate a meal. I'm also not much of a fan of the trend to have cold asparagus on salads. Can we bring back the quinoa trend instead?

Presentation aside, the french toast does look pretty tasty. I rarely make it Asia, but I'd be happy to see that for breakfast on my next flight to Europe instead of the same-old fruit and yogurt that never seems to change.

florens

Inedible vegetarian entrée on PHL-MAN last Friday:

AANYC1981

Ewwwww what is that?

twa777

My guess would be that it's grilled polenta on a bulgar wheat salad. That plus the caprese salad actually look and sound like one of the better vegetarian meals in my book, though I know the taste of in-flight meals often doesn't match up to appearances.

Bago'peanuts

For those who have called to preorder a special meal because it wasn’t available as an online option, so you see any confirmation in your reservation that a special meal is on tap? Agent on phone was pleasant and said it would be there for me, but on my ‘select meals’ page when I looked later it still shows ‘choose later’.

FlyerWx

At least in Y, there was no confirmation in the online reservation, but I recieved the special meal.