I wanted to blog about this, as there is very little information or photos found on the internet when it comes to special dietary meals on airplanes. What is actually being served when you order special meals on the airplane is somewhat a mystery, especially if you order something more unusual besides the vegetarian meals.
But just to give you a little context. I was very lucky to experience one of the longest flights ever to visit my friend. We had to fly from Singapore to Dubai for 6 hours, and then Dubai to Los Angeles. Flight time was 16 hours 15 mins on this leg alone. Then from Los Angeles to Seattle for 2 hours. But the silver lining to this long distance traveling was that I was also going to fly in Business Class together with my mom. (Thanks to my wonderful friend who gifted me with award travel on Business Class) My priority on these flights was ensuring that my mom would be able to have something to eat that doesn't clash with her medication. She couldn't eat cheese as that would interfere with her medication, and we don't eat beef and mutton as well. The good thing about flying Emirates is that they publish their meals on the website before the actual flight date, so you can take a look at what will be served. After studying all the food options, I realized that almost every choice had cheese in it, and there were a lot of beef and mutton options in the particular flight we were in to Los Angeles. That left me with no choice but to order special meals for both of us.
The Low Fat/ Low Cholesterol Meal (LFML) seems to be the safest choice for us. On the Emirates website, there were no pictures, so this is all the information you've got.
This meal is available for passengers who need to minimise their intake of fatty foods.
It
contains one or more of these ingredients: margarine, cottage cheese,
egg whites, boiled rice, potatoes, lean meats, fish, wholegrain bread,
cereals, and fresh fruit.
It does NOT contain milk, cream, fat, cheese, egg yolks, or fatty meats.
Because there were no images, I could only keep my fingers crossed that there won't be cheese and red meat in it. BUT the worst case scenario would be to ask for more bread and skip the main if there was :)
My search results came up with photos of LFML meals in economy class, which was still helpful in a way. I was hoping we would get something similar to what was being served in economy class.
So I thought it would be a good to take photographs of what does a Low Fat/Low Cholesterol meal consists of in Business Class.
Our flight from Dubai to Los Angeles started off in the morning around 8ish. We would be served breakfast first shortly after take off. Of course, who could resist the pre-departure drink?
I picked orange juice, as I haven't had a lot of sleep the night before in the business lounge, so I was careful of not consuming too much alcohol and caffeine.
I love my window seat! I got a window seat for both Mom and myself. Mom loved it. :) The air stewardesses were very nice and thought we would want to sit together. She was going to arrange something for us. In reality, the flight was less than half full, so we could pick and choose to sit anywhere we wanted that wasn't occupied.
Another view of my pre-departure drink. :) Time seem to fly so quickly when you're busy looking around the cabin, and figuring out buttons on your seat.
There was a lot of leg room for me. My legs could barely touch the leg rest area, unless I use the seat control buttons to recline my seat.
So, here's what my Low Fat/ Low Cholesterol Meal (LFML) Breakfast meal in Business Class looks like. I absolutely loved this, and I finished everything you see on there. In fact, the air stewardess would walk around with the bread tray and asked if you want more bread. I DID get a second croissant. It was delicious.
In the mains, there were eggs, potato, mushroom, tomato and spinach. It was very delicious. But I really want to rave about the fruits. I knew in the other breakfast selection, you would get the usual fruits like watermelon, honeydew, apple, orange etc. For ours, they gave us pink grapefruit, oranges and some berries. It was served chilled, and was very very sweet. Both Mom and myself were talking how fresh and sweet the fruits were non-stop. That's how good it was. Memorable. I remembered sleeping for a few hours after eating a heavy breakfast.
I woke up to a dark cabin, and was feeling a little peckish. There were a few snack options I could select from the menu. I picked the sweet option as the hot snack options were not that appetizing to me.
This was a vanilla dome dessert. Inside it was raspberry coulis. It reminded me of the miniature dome desserts that I was working on prior to taking my holiday :) I also ordered Camomile Tea.
This was delicious!
About 2 and a half hours before reaching our destination, lunch was served. This is our starter.
A very healthy salad with lots of mixed vegetables. On the starter plate, we had lobster, and some seafood thingy, which I wasn't sure what it was. I skipped that one, but ate the lobster. It was fresh and sweet.
And then for the main, we had grilled salmon and roasted vegetables. I love this. The fished was cooked to perfection. A little crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Though there was no sauce, but believe me, when the fish is fresh and cooked well, you can skip the sauce and just enjoy the fish. It looks like a small piece here, but it was NOT small at all. I was very full. One of the best salmon that I have ever tasted. :)
Overall, I was very pleased with the meals and service on Emirates. There were many air stewardesses on board to take care of all of us. 15 hours didn't seem so long on the air to me. I slept on and off, usually 2 hours at a stretch, watched a few movies, chat with my mom, walked around, snacked on warm nuts, drank a lot of water and juices and just enjoyed ourselves.
I am thankful I had the chance to sit in the beautiful A380 plane and enjoying this long trip. And I hope you enjoyed reading this as well :)
Posts
Many hours later, I present you "Color Burst". The veritable explosion of colors found in this bouquet is designed to light your eyes up when you see them in real person. I found myself drawn to the deep dark purples, then to the bright yellows, vibrant reds, dancing oranges and couldn't decide which were my favorite colors.
Bright colors are known to make one feel more energetic, happy and positive. Do you know of anyone around you who needs some bright colors?
