My flight back to Korea was once again with Air China. It was another grueling, tiring flight, but not as bad as the flight to Cali, since the layover wasn't as long, and I had a better idea of what to expect in terms of food.
From LAX to Beijing, we got two meals. They were a slight improvement from the last experience, but still nothing to rave about. The first meal was a plate of pretty dry chowmein noodles, with a side salad, fruit, and a roll. However, this wasn't an entirely vegan meal because the 'condiments,' like the salad dressing and mini wedge of butter clearly contained milk.
The second meal was actually pretty good: stir fried veggies with tofu! The tofu pieces were the best part. :) Again, I left the salad dressing and butter unopened since they weren't vegan. My bread roll and salad were pretty bland and tasteless, as a result.
From my previous experience, I knew I wouldn't find much to eat during my layover at Beijing airport, so I brought some sustenance along with me in the form of dried prunes and Veggie Booty snacks. I will admit that I had never heard of 'Veggie Booty' until Colleen Patrick-Goudreau talked about it on one of her recent podcast episodes! haha. She made it sound so yummy that I knew I had to check it out when I was in the US.
When I first tasted it, I was like "what the heck, these are so boring and bland," but then I found myself reaching for more and more, and just continuously popping them into my mouth. haha. They are surprisingly addicting! And I love that they're really light and don't make you feel nasty and oily afterwards. Veggie Booty should cut Colleen Patrick-Goudreau a check for the free advertising, and for getting them a new customer, albeit an overseas, infrequent customer. So that was what I snacked on while waiting for my next flight homeward bound.
The final meal on the flight from Beijing to Seoul was the most anticlimactic way to end a week filled with crazy delicious vegan eats. I thought they would at least serve a full meal like they did going from Seoul to Beijing, but instead this time they handed out sad-looking sandwiches wrapped in cellophane. My vegetarian option was literally three miniature sandwich slices, one with only cucumbers, one with only tomatoes, and one with only iceberg lettuce. And I have a feeling the bread had milk or butter in it, since that's generally how Asians make white bread. Oh well, at least the orange juice was good!
So that was my (non)vegan experience with Air China. I don't mean to sound harsh, but flying with Air China just wasn't a very pleasant experience, even regardless of the non vegan food. I think the state of the planes themselves were below average, and the flight attendants weren't very friendly... I guess I shouldn't complain too much though, considering it was a very cheap flight, afterall, you get what you pay for. And at least they always got me to my destination in one piece. That's all I ask.