When we say the name Japan, we would typically associate them with their culture, cleanliness, hospitality, food and even safety.
Because of that, the country has quite a lot to live up for their name and it’s quite rare to see them “mess up” such a practice.
Man Served A Banana As Vegan Meal On Japan Airline Flight
Recently, Kris Chairi flew in business class onboard Japan Airlines during his trip from Jakarta, Indonesia to Tokyo, Japan. During the seven-hour-long journey, the flight was set to serve two meals. One was a snack and light refreshments and then the second one was lunch.
As the plane had already been in the air for a while, the snacks had rolled out and Chairi was served a banana with a pair of chopsticks.
Initially, he thought that the banana was an appetiser and found it pretty underwhelming and thought that there will be more food coming after he finished it. To his shock, he found out that that banana was the entire meal service for his snack and light refreshments segment of his flight.
“It’s a bit insulting to be served a single banana while others are given a far more substantial and flavourful menu. It seems especially important given the growth in the number of vegans and vegetarians,” he said.
For reference, the non-vegan passengers had been served a meal consisting of a Moroccan-style eggplant salad, cheese, orange salsa, seared tuna and a side of baguette. On Japan Airlines’ website, the “vegetarian vegan meal” is categorised under their special meal menus and showed that it would consist of a baguette, halal sorbet, a rice dish and a baguette.
How a vegan meal should have been on the flight.
Later for his second meal, he was served spaghetti but it was just as disappointing as the banana that was previously served. Chairi said that the spaghetti he received had barely been seasoned at all.
Was the flight worth it? As you’re paying around RM8,000 for a business class flight, you would typically expect better service, especially when it’s coming from Japan Airlines. So, to answer that question, it definitely wasn’t worth it at all.
Japan Airlines Apologises For Poor Service
In a report by Insider, the airlines issued an apology for not being able to meet the expectations. They also confirmed that all special meals served on Chari’s particular flight were bananas.
“We will continue to respond to our menus in light of the growing interest and diverse needs of customers requesting special meals, including the valuable feedback from this customer,” said the representative.
Another thing to note is that the Japanese people are not too familiar with practising veganism or vegetarianism as many of their meals consist of and heavily use meat and fish/ seafood. Even ramen broth which is widely enjoyed by many for its delicious and strong flavours uses ingredients containing meat.
Hopefully, Japan can improve on this aspect as not every culture out there is perfect. Also, a pro tip, if you’re planning to visit Japan, you probably want to check out how to get vegetarian meals as they are considered the Top-10 countries that lack it.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments.
*Sources: Visual and Reference Credits to Social Media, Insider & various cross-references for context.
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