Eating with NWA

Why does INK always experiment on herself by requesting the vegetarian meal when she flies overseas? It's a mystery. Rather, she masochistically enjoys the mystery of what she'll get. It's never good, but occasionally it's better than the meat options. That's not saying much.

Delicacheena vacationed abroad this summer, as usual, and tried NWA (sorry, we can't help but giggle when we use the acronym) for the first time. Unfortunately, most airlines think if you're ordering the vegetarian meal you're on a diet and prefer eating artificial chemicals instead of real ingredients. Or the meal means a cornucopia of beans.

The chicken meal came with a lump of mashed potatoes and green beans all drowning in gravy. Typical airline fare. The sides included cheese and crackers, a spongy roll and a iceberg lettuce salad with firm, bland tomatoes and a bean and couscous mixture. Dessert was a not too bad brownie.

The veggie meal was actually the pasta that was offered to the regular meal patrons--sodden vegetable lasagna in tomato sauce with the same side salad. Except the roll was a dry, hard orb and dessert was horrible sugar-free red gelatin, not Jello.

On the return trip, the regular meals were much of the same, but with products from Europe which made them seem that much more appealing. But what's with the strange "pear gratin" that INK had to eat. The sweet soggy, doughy mess was more like dessert. The "dessert" was a dry gingerbread, sliced like a piece of rye.

[Did we mention that we were stuck in Holland because Northwest had to wait for a plane part from the U.S.? We thought it would be an adventure until, 1. we realized we would not have luggage, 2. we woke up at 5 am to get to the airport before 7 to learn that the plane still wasn't ready, 3. work deadlines were looming, 4. we wasted our time standing in lines and trying to get a straight answer from NWA.]