Ryan RitchieVegan cuisine, such as it is, at Los Angeles International Airport is no longer confined to bananas and over-salted peanuts as Real Food Daily, owned by Ann Gentry, has been operating a fourth location at Terminal Four since December.
As expected, the menu is a bit smaller than the other three Real Food Daily eateries (West Hollywood, Pasadena and Santa Monica). That said, the menu is more than enough for any traveler as RFD LAX serves four smoothie flavors, six juices, coffee, tea, a breakfast burrito, No Huevos Rancheros, a kale Caesar salad, a Southwest salad, not-chos, a spicy BLT, a tofu veggie wrap, a club sandwich, the RFD burger and four bowls. In addition, similar to the other locations, you can pick two, three or four items to create your own bowl.
But you're at LAX, which means you should order the LAX bowl. ]
LAX bowl; Credit: Ryan Ritchie
At $15.35, the LAX bowl is on the pricey side, but overpaying for food is just one of the fun things you signed up for when you purchased your flight.
The meal comes with a bed of romaine hearts topped with black beans, brown rice, pico de gallo, guacamole and jalapeno-cashew-cheese, drizzled with lime-cilantro dressing. If that sounds like a lot of food, it is. In fact, the LAX bowl is larger than most plates at traditional restaurants, which is good because you'll have food for the flight. And don't worry about finishing this behemoth in one sitting, because the dish is served in a to-go container.
Regardless of what the billboards with the pretty airline attendants want us to believe, flying sucks, which is why you most certainly have to complete your order with a milkshake. Why? Because milkshakes make everything in life better.
You're volunteering to sit in a metal tube for hours with hundreds of strangers in tiny seats your dog wouldn't sleep on while constantly checking your watch or phone or whatever you got to see how much longer you have until you get to your destination. So, yeah, get a freakin' vanilla, chocolate or strawberry milkshake — made with coconut ice cream and hemp milk — because it's the last good thing you're doing to your body for the next few hours.
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