Vegan food in IKEA and the trains

There was so much excitement earlier this year, when IKEA and our rail services announced that they would start serving something vegan. In both cases, that was a big change.

Well, as usual, things tend to turn out a lot less appealing than you first expect.

IKEA’s ‘meat balls’ that are rather basic – ‘vegetable balls’ served with lettuce or some salad. So no protein. They might still taste great but the trouble is, it’s also a quite expensive dish.

On the trains, they have three or four vegan dishes. Sounds good, right? Turns out they all contain garlic – which I’m allergic to. At least one of them contains ginger and I hate that. All dishes are also quite expensive and the portions are rather small. Now I realize that they can’t accommodate everyone. Being allergic to garlic is quite rare. But doesn’t anyone agree with me that it seems rather unimaginative to serve three or even four dishes with the same seasoning?