Lufthansa, Dal, and Protein at 30,000 Feet
By Shashi Bellamkonda | September 14, 2026 The cart stopped at my row in the dark between Frankfurt and Hyderabad. The lid went up. No chicken. I had ordered Hindu non-veg. The code is HNML . Lufthansa’s regular economy meal on that sector was already a chicken curry in something they called Malwani sauce. Coconut, chili, a coastal Maharashtrian name on a German airplane pointed at Telangana. By my seat the name was all that was left. I asked the obvious question. I had requested the Hindu non-veg. Had they held one? They had not. They had not loaded a separate tray. The general service already matched the spec, they said. When the chicken finished, the special meal finished with it. They set down the vegetarian plate. Rice. A roll. Something yellow that had started as dal. It tasted fine. Later I checked my sugar. It had gone up. I filled in the survey. A crew member came back after looking up the booking. Hindu non-veg meal means no chicken, they said. So the veget...
