Plane food: This is what happens when you order the vegetarian meal on Aegean Airlines

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Plane food has never been under more scrutiny.

As airlines pour time and money into ensuring that their culinary offering at 35,000 feet is reason enough to choose to fly with them, customers want more choice, more flavour and more than unidentifiable gloop on their trays.

Still, there are some meals that slip through the net. Like the "Vegetarian Oriental" option on Aegean Airlines.

A photo of the offering, which the Greek carrier says is "vegetarian foods prepared Chinese style", was posted on Reddit by user musterknabe, who simply said: "I booked my flight online and chose the 'Vegetarian Oriental' meal. This is what I got."

When asked by a fellow Redditor what made the meal oriental, musterknabe replied: "The oriental part was the Chinese celery."

The passenger also explained that he was not a vegetarian but that he preferred "good meat", where he knows its source, so sometimes opts for vegetarian dishes.

Did he complain? "No, I didn't complain about this yummy dish. But then I realised that all passengers who ordered a non-vegetarian meal got an extra cookie for dessert. I demanded a cookie and got one." So, a happy ending.

Aegean Airline advertises a range of meal options to suit passengers' tastes, including a Sea Food Meal, a Low Salt Meal and a Bland Meal (to avoid gastric discomfort).

Stavroula Saloutsi, public relations director for Aegean Airlines, said that, judging by the photo, the passenger was given a "vegetarian raw meal" and not the Vegetarian Oriental.

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"We are really sorry for this receiving this comment regarding our special meals provided on board," she said.

"At a first glance, we may note that, this meal must have been our vegetarian raw meal, which is a combination of raw fruit and vegetables. Therefore, it seems that, it is not a vegetarian Oriental meal, which most likely our customer desired to have.

"Moreover the packing service of the meal leads us to believe that this has to do with a meal served on a short distance flight."

The Telegraph, London

See also: China Eastern and the world's worst airline experiences

See also: The startling number of calories consumed on the average flight

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