Qatar Airways Introduces its First Fully Vegan Range of Gourmet Dishes For Premium Customers

 

Award-winning airline crafts a range of delicious vegan dishes for Business Class passengers as demand for plant-based food grows

Economy Class customers can continue to pre-order special vegan meals ahead of travel

DOHA, Qatar – Qatar Airways has introduced its first range of fully vegan dishes to its à la carte menu for Business Class passengers on all flights, designed to cater to the increasing demand for plant-based food while elevating passengers' culinary experience when they travel with the award-winning airline.

The newly crafted vegan dishes use only the freshest locally and internationally sourced ingredients and are available to all Business Class passengers flying from the airline's Doha hub, Hamad International Airport, and selected flights into Doha.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: "We always strive to provide our customers with authentic and indulgent experiences in the skies. We are delighted to incorporate a vegan main course choice to our on-board menu, offering our passengers yet another lifestyle choice that redefines the expectations from a five-star airline."

Designed with sustainability and taste at its heart, Qatar Airways' range of flavourful vegan dishes include smoked moutabel, spiral courgettes and arrabbiata sauce, tofu and spinach tortellini, asian barbecue tofu, noodles, scallions and shiitake, fried tofu with vegetable tajine, cauliflower couscous and kalamata bruschetta, and chickpea flour omelette.

The airline also offers a wide selection of special meals to cater to different dietary requirements. Passengers can request a special meal up to 24 hours before their flight. These include young traveller meals, vegetarian or religious meals and medical or health care meals.

Qatar Aircraft Catering Company (QACC), the exclusive catering provider at Hamad International Airport, ensures that all in-flight meals are prepared to the highest quality using the freshest ingredients. Spanning an extraordinary 69,000 square meters, QACC is one of the world's largest self-contained catering facilities.

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the airline has applied necessary health and safety measures onboard its flights, including in the preparation and serving of food. Business Class meals are served covered on a tray instead of a table set up, and a cutlery wrap is offered to passengers as an alternative to individual cutlery service, in an effort to minimise contact between crew and passengers. Qatar Airways has also introduced single-use menu cards and sealed refreshing wipes. Economy Class meals and cutlery are served sealed as usual, and menu cards have been temporarily discontinued. All social areas onboard the aircraft have been closed adhering to the social distancing measures. For more information about Qatar Airways' safety measures, visit qatarairways.com/Safety.

The national carrier of the State of Qatar now operates over 650 weekly flights to more than 90 destinations, providing more flexible travel options to more global destinations than any other airline. A multiple award-winning airline, Qatar Airways was named 'World's Best Airline' by the 2019 World Airline Awards, managed by the international air transport rating organisation Skytrax. It was also named 'Best Airline in the Middle East', 'World's Best Business Class', and 'Best Business Class Seat', in recognition of its ground-breaking Business Class experience, Qsuite. It is the only airline to have been awarded the coveted "Skytrax Airline of the Year" title, which is recognised as the pinnacle of excellence in the airline industry, five times. Its home and hub, HIA, was recently ranked 'Best Airport in the Middle East' and 'Third Best Airport in the World' by the Skytrax World Airport Awards 2020.

A motorcycle ride to Wallacia

O ye of little faith. They say that discretion is the better part of valour. Today those who exercised discretion rode home in the traffic, and those who demonstrated their valour had a great day riding in the countryside. Here is what went down.

Nine riders met at Maccas at Heathcote well in advance of the advertised start time of 10 AM. We gathered that the rostered ride leader might not be able to make it today, and so we started to discuss options. For some reason some folks were nervous about the weather, and that came into the discussion.

The general consensus was that a storm was coming up from the south, so it would be better if we didn’t go south to Kiama as advertised, but head a bit west and maybe skirt around the front of the storm running home ahead of it. Several riders consulted their respective electronic weather gurus, all coming up with different projections of what might happen, but it was fair to say that there was an air of pessimism about the weather. All they needed to do was look at the sky and have a little faith, and they would have seen that all would be well.

Anyway, it was ultimately decided that we would head down through the National Park from Waterfall, then back up to the Princes Highway through Helensburgh, head south till we got to Appin Way and then ride across to Picton. The deal was the Frosty would lead this section, and then Rocket would take over the lead from Picton through some interesting country leading back home because he was more familiar with that area.

Out to the bikes, helmets on, and all of a sudden the “3 Amigos” from the North Shore decided that the weather really was foreboding, and decided to head back home. Rocket decided to join them, and then there was only five of us for the tour.

The road through the National Park was a bit damp but underpopulated so we could get along at a reasonable clip. We turned right onto Appin Way and made our way through Appin and then across to Picton via the beautiful deep gorge on Wilton Road.  We had morning coffee at Picton, and to be fair to the sceptics, it did rain there. By the time we got out from Coffee, there were four or five drops of rain on each of our bikes.

We then set the GPS for the Oaks, Silverdale and beyond that Wallacia, as we had  decided that we would have lunch at the hotel there. We started out of Picton on Barkers Lodge Road and wended our way to the pub. That was a great 45 km of road, with not a lot of traffic and perfectly dry.

We had a top lunch (a venue worth remembering for future exploits) , and then decided on the way home. A couple of our riders wanted to pick up some motorcycle gear at a bike shop in Eastern Creek, one wanted to head straight home by the shortest possible route, and I was happy to head back to the Central Coast by whatever way transpired. So we headed off through Luddenham, where we got a bit messed around by the works for the new Badgery’s Creek airport. Two GPS’s had different views on which way to go, and both were wrong. Wayne finally rescued us and took us out on Elizabeth Drive,  the right road to get us to the M7 near Horsley Park, where we parted company for the day.

We really did have some delightful riding. As responsible mature age riders, we were of course “fully mindful” of the speed limit at all times, and had a very enjoyable day.

Frosty.

See more pictures and stories on our Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/720092424867806/?ref=bookmarks

Parkes Elvis Festival

Parkes Elvis Festival is held annually in the second week of January in Parkes, New South Wales, coinciding with the birthday of Elvis Presley. Parkes has a population of 12,000 and is located 365 kilometres west of Sydney. In January 2015 over 20,000 visitors attended the Festival, more than doubling Parkes’ population.

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DON'T MISS THIS TONIGHT 🎤 . Buy your virtual tickets to see a live stream concert tonight, 5 September starting at 6pm starring Brendon Chase, Jeff Handcox, Kingsley Rock and Andy B. This concert will raise funds for Shelley Vieyra and her fight with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). . Help support Shelley by booking your ticket or donating at http://bit.ly/ShelleyV . #parkeselvis #elvispresley #elvis #FND #stueyvaselvis #FunctionalNeurologicalDisorder #virtual #fundraiser @stuey_v_as_elvis

A post shared by Parkes Elvis Festival (@parkeselvisfestival) on Sep 4, 2020 at 2:37pm PDT

The Festival began in January 1993 as a small birthday party for the local newspaper editor. It was so much fun they decided to do it again - and again! Over the following 10 years, additional events were added and it became a two-day Festival. With the vision and effort of the volunteer organising committee as well as the support of Parkes Shire Council, the Festival exploded in popularity and word quickly spread across Australia of the fun and unique event in regional NSW.

Following its tremendous success, in 2014 the Festival transitioned management to Parkes Shire Council under a Section 355 Festival Committee. The Festival now regularly attracts visitors from all around Australia and stages more than 150 events annually. In January 2015, Parkes Elvis Festival was officially endorsed by Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., the trustees of the estate of Elvis Presley. Official endorsement elevates Parkes Elvis Festival to the ranks of premiere Elvis tribute festivals in the world.

Parkes Elvis Festival is proudly supported by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.