Special Request Airplane Meals

I just arrived home from a 2 week trip to Europe - specifically Lisbon, Portugal and Barcelona, Spain. Before I left, I called the airline (Northwest) and requested a lactose free meal. The closest they had was a "strict vegetarian" meal which was suppose to be void of any animal products whatsoever. I am not sure why they didn't just label this meal vegan?! Anyway....that worked for me. I was so relieved that my long flight would be accompanied with food that I can eat!

Being paranoid when it comes to my food, when my special meal was delivered to me, I still checked the ingredients to make sure that they were lactose free. Thank god that I did!! I was shocked to find several things on my plate that DID include lactose. I was given vegetable curry with salad. My salad was accompanied by a packet of dressing that included dry milk and the packaged bun had whey! They also included a packet of butter on my tray?! So much for dairy free! I was, however, pleasantly surprised to find my meal on my flight home to be dairy free (and vegetarian, gluten free and kosher all in one). They gave me a rice pasta dish that had a delicious sauce and was topped with pumpkin seeds. Dessert was fresh fruit.

I had read online that this had happened to several people when they had requested special meals. One man had requested a gluten free meal. He ate his food and began to feel sick. After the fact, he looked at the ingredients on the packaging and found wheat listed. He had such a reaction that he was sick for the entirety of his vacation. The moral of the story? Never trust - always double check.

Thank god I had packed a few food bars in my carry on. I really enjoyed one in particular called Sesame Bar by Oskri. It was the date syrup and fennel variety. The ingredients are simply: sesame, date syrup, rice syrup and fennel, and they are both lactose and gluten free. Both my husband and I thought they taste like peanut brittle. Very tasty - and good for you!