United Airlines, vegetarian meal/snack. It was cold rice with raisins and a few other less-identifiable veggie chunks, with a mini-pita.
My question: is this some traditional meal somewhere? I’ve had it more than once and it really looks like something thrown together out of leftovers.
Just wondering.
Sounds like they tried to keep the water content down. Maybe because of the weight?
Raisin rice pilaf. I see it all the time at my co-op grocery’s deli case.
I had a rice dish with raisins at an Afghan restaurant in Georgetown, D.C., many years ago. It stuck in my mind because the raisins were, as it were, reconstituted – tasting different from dry raisins but also different from fresh grapes.
In Outward Bound, we made rice boiled in sea water mixed with raisins. Damn. That was bad.
Tangentially related: Some airlines seem to think that “diabetic meal” should have *more * sugar than the regular offering. I stopped asking for them after British Air gave me a “diabetic breakfast” that included *only * carbohydrate-based foods, and had (as best we could count and estimate) 92 grams of net carbohydrate. This is the national dish of Candyland.
Travel tip: Order the *Hindu *vegetarian meal. Much tastier, and half the time even if you order it beforehand, the airline doesn’t have it and will give you an upgrade to first class if you accept the lousy plain vegetarian meal or a non-veg meal instead.
I always order the Hindu Veg Meal and I’m neither Hindu nor a vegetarian. Got me in business class on an international flight once. That was sweeeeeeeet! 
So you flew United because…?
? I have had several airlines give away my medical special order meal to someone else by mistake; their response has been “sorry.” No one has ever offered me anything except one transatlantic flight where the chief steward put me together a plate by combining a cabin meal with an extra first class meal.
Guess I just have a pitiful face! It’s gotten me upgrades three times out of the five I’ve tried it. (Ethics note: I always place the special request within the time limit specified by the airline. I’m not trying to take advantage of them, but I do know it’s more likely they’ll be without the most specialized meal I can ask for. Whether or not they offer an upgrade instead is entirely up to them. In reality, I wouldn’t fuss if they just shoved a roast beef sandwich at me and told me to STFU.)
I live in Denver. The other options, especially international, are a bit limited. Also, since I live in Denver, most of my business flights are on United, so we used miles to fly to China to bring home our daughter. Saved us a bundle, and (since we have 8 kids) saving a bundle is high on our priority list. I could fly Frontier, I suppose, but then what would we do when we adopt 1 more?*
*We won’t unless we hit that $200 mil PowerBall, since the house is full.
Could I get a picture of that face, so as to emulate it whenever possible? I could use an upgrade or 2.
Eight.
I hear you on the options. Non-stop between Seattle LAX is United or Alaskan. Alaskan let one of their planes crash upside down into the ocean so United won. For The Last Time Ever I Swear.