Vegan food on Virgin Atlantic
This is one of the best things I’ve ever had on my blog.
I got an email this week from Laurie. So what, right? Well, it was Laurie from the fucking awesome punk band Slaves.
Laurie wanted me to know he likes my blog (awww shucks) and wondered if I would be interested in sharing pics and details of his recent vegan meal served by Virgin Atlantic.
Slaves is heading over to the USA for a major tour, so it was super generous of Laurie to take the time to share his mid-air cuisine experience with all of us.
Check out Laurie’s thoughts below on his LHR>LAX meal and if you are in the USA, click here to see all the dates for the Slaves tour. Like Slaves on Facebook, follow them on Twitter and go to the bottom of the post for some music videos from one of the best bands the UK has seen for decades.
OK. Over to Laurie.
First up lunch. For the main there was a delicious tomato gnocchi dish. Full of flavour. They also had a bean style side salad with a lovely mustardy dressing. The real surprise was the dessert though. Being vegan you just expect a fruit salad but Virgin have pushed the boat out and provided a nice apple crumble style dessert flavoured with cinnamon. Along with a bread roll the lunch was more than satisfactory. The only let down was the inclusion of a pack of butter which made me laugh.
A few hours later I was pleasantly surprised when a mixed bean ciabatta turned up. Usually we get lumped with falafel at every turn and it can get boring.
The ciabatta was delicious!
Lastly was a lunchbox, which consisted of a harissa hummus and pomegranate flatbread, some crisps and a chocolate. Having two bread based meals in a row wasn’t ideal but everyone in economy was in the same boat. The wrap was tasty and crisps are crisps. I was excited for the chocolate caramel until I read the ingredients and it had milk in.
All in all the in-flight vegan options were really great and surprised me. Apart from the inclusion of butter in the lunch and a milk chocolate in the lunch box. Simple things that could be easily ironed out.
Another thing to mention is vegan meals always get brought out first. Feels quite nice to be served ahead of the rest haha!
Thanks, Laurie! Not a bad meal considering what can happen to us vegans when we are up in the air.
OK. Now enjoy the music.
Surely VGML is vegan and VLML is vegetarian with lactose? Even the bread and the box stickers says “lacto-ovo” on them?
Yeah, I thought that too. Laurie is vegan so most definitely ordered a vegan meal so I dunno what’s up with those stickers.
I thought the airline code for a vegan meal was VGML and for vegetarian lacto-ovo VLML. This can be seen on the sandwich wrapper and box next to it. Would explain the butter and milk
That’s funny cause my vgml on Virgin Atlantic from LHR to ATL last month was not so great. The gnocchi were terrible, very bland, the salad was just leaves and no dressing, the dessert …no dessert. I did get vegan margarine though for the bread roll. The snack was a hummus wrap and lacked flavour. I guess it depends on the route. It will be interesting to see what kind of vegan meal I get on the way back.
I fly Virgin regularly and the food’s usually pretty rubbish. VLML’s definitely not vegan – whilst some of the things they’ve put on the tray are VGML suitable i doubt very much that crumble was.