On my way to Sweden for the holidays I called SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) to order vegetarian food. They actually offered raw food vegan as a vegetarian option (among other choices like Asian etc.). “Now that’s incredible – finally”, I thought to myself and got very excited, because some of the Asian based airlines had been offering raw food as a choice for some time, but not any of the trans-Atlantic flights, as far as I knew.
Shared the news
I posted the happy news on my facebook profile and promised to show some food pictures. Well you find them below. All the food served to me on the plane was vegan, so that was correct, SAS! Thank you!
But what about raw?
Oops I gave out the wrong information! Rather I probably have to say that SAS gave me the wrong information. Vegan – yes, Raw – not really.
In the evening meal only the green salad and the fruit salad were raw, the main course – a grain-veggie stew with fruit was cooked, and neither the spread nor bread was raw either. By the way, dinner also came with a bag of dried fruit like raisins, cranberries and chopped apples. (The bread in the Ziploc bag to the left is raw. I was not sure how raw airplane food would turn out so I thought I better bring something more filling along!)
The breakfast contained orange juice, apple sauce and a veggie sandwich. The only thing raw in there was the lettuce with tomato and cucumber slices; again vegan, but not raw.
Wrapping it up
Dear SAS, it so wonderful to be able to get vegan food onboard, thank you, but please do not call it raw. Even if some of the items were uncooked, people who know what raw foods are will be disappointed and no need for that. Call it what it is: vegan. Raw: means uncooked, not pasteurized, baked or processed in any way, other than chopped, blended and dehydrated, to name a few.
But I am still glad I got a decent vegan airplane meal; everything tasted good; and it is only 2 out of my over 1,000 meals in a year, so it’s cool.
Bonus
By the way the captain invited me to sit in the cockpit during landing. Thank you so much Christian! Cool again!
I love all the info that you’re posting laelty! I’ve been trying to incorporate more whole foods into my diet laelty, so it’s perfect timing and great motivation. Do you happen to know of any whole foods vegan cookbooks? I’m having a hard time finding any, aside from raw foods cookbooks, which are great, but not exactly what I’m looking for right now. If you have any suggestions let me know. Thanks!