Surf and turf is a cruise ship staple, but is the meat-masticating mainstream ready for a combination of seafood that never swam and beef that never grazed? The cruise industry is certainly making it easier to do so with ever-expanding dining options that have more passengers picking up the knife and fork for animal-amicable alternatives.

Wider vegan options on the regular menu are just one in a smorgasbord of exciting trends happening within the food and beverage sector of the tourism and hospitality industry. From ship galleys across the seven seas to the kitchens of five-star resorts worldwide, vacationers’ senses are being delighted with palate pleasers from elevated street food and fresher fish and breads to twists on the pop-up restaurant concept and a ripening response to the current mango craze.

“It’s all about variety, quality, speed of service, listening to our guests and catering to their wants,” said Christian Pratsch, vice president of food and beverage operations for Norwegian Cruise Line.

Over at Carnival Cruise Line, one of the fingers it keeps on the pulse of current trends is a green thumb.

“Plant-based food options are a rising preference on our ships just as they are on land, and so new dishes we’re introducing are a direct response to that shift,” said Richard Morse, Carnival’s senior vice president of food and beverage.

There is toothsome truth that advancements in taste and texture are spawning innovative use of plant-based meat alternatives. While most cruisers may be years away from accepting a vegan substitute for lobster with filet mignon, one California company is helping reel in Carnival guests to the botanical side with its plant-based shrimp and calamari, both of which use konjac, a starchy bulb root, as a main ingredient.

“Plant-based seafood is relatively new and it’s a game changer for cruise lines,” said Jun Roxas, chief marketing officer of Beleaf, which also has its vegan ham and chicken drumsticks on Carnival’s Fun Ships fleetwide.

Longer shelf life, year-round availability, and appearance and texture close to the real thing are other selling points. But how does it taste? As good as it looks was the consensus of impressed attendees, this writer included, at last month’s Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim. Amid a sea of plant-based seafood at the mammoth trade show, Beleaf and one Canadian-based competitor, Konscious, stood out like neon tetra in a well-stocked aquarium. Konscious also swims with the big fish, supplying its line of plant-based sushi to Norwegian and Virgin Voyages, according to a company representative.

Checking out resorts that don’t float, more plant-based imposters are finding their way into the mouths of land travelers looking to ditch the preservatives, allergens and nitrates in favor of flavors that come alive without animals being unalived.

Specializing in meatless deli meats, Prime Roots is another company seizing on the growth of plant-based foods in the tourism industry. The company, founded in 2017 at the Alternative Meats X-Lab at UC Berkeley, disclosed at Expo West that it is working with one of the nation’s largest hotel groups on a menu inclusion across multiple brands. While the chain’s name is being kept under plastic wraps until the menu is made public, Prime Roots shared that Hilton, Intercontinental and Marriott properties are current customers of the company’s line of deli meats made with koji, a strain of fungus, that offer similar texture and taste of traditional cold cuts.

Being a delicious disrupter in hospitality F&B is part of Prime Roots’ strategy to include plant-based options for traveling millennials, Gen Zs and other cohorts open to changing eating habits toward the more healthy and humane, according to co-founder Kimberlie Le.

Proving that you can make an omelet without breaking eggs, Eat Just, maker of the best plant-based egg substitute this Expo West attendee sampled in March, is capitalizing on both changing consumer habits and the current volatility in egg prices. The California-based company touts a product that has zero cholesterol and is estimated to take 98% less water and 83% less land to produce than real eggs. In addition to feeding Carnival passengers, the mung bean-based egg alternative is among ingredients at Disney’s resorts, theme parks and cruise ships, and at Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, Sheraton, Hyatt and W properties from coast to coast.

Offering items from imitated edibles to the real deal, Norwegian’s new flagship, the 3,571-passenger Aqua, is sprouting the brand’s first plant-based eatery. Planterie, one of 10 stations within the eclectic Indulge Food Hall, features bowls and soups made with “what nature gives us in an unprocessed form,” noted NCL’s Pratsch. Planterie’s menu brims with global dishes, and each can be enriched with such proteins as falafel, jackfruit cake, tofu katsu and smoky tempeh, a fermented soybean product that’s growing in worldwide popularity.

Meanwhile, Holland America Line is baking a “Made Fresh Daily” program that comes out of the oven this summer, bringing with it handcrafted breads and made-to-order pizzas straight from the oven in addition to handmade pasta dishes. This yeasty program comes on the heels of the cruise line launching its “Global Fresh Fish” program, which partners with a global network of 60 ports to source and serve 80 types of fruits de mer within 48 hours of being loaded onboard.

A French-accented trend on cruise ships is custom crepes. Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, has Creme de la Crepe as a station inside AquaDome Market. Oceania Cruises will debut the Creperie on the 1,200-guest Allura, which has her maiden voyage in July. Among the new eatery’s 20-plus recipes is the classic crepe Suzette along with the option to switch out the thin French pancake for a Bruxelles waffle, which, for uninitiated sweet tooths, is a Belgium import that’s crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Oceania’s will have large deep pockets just waiting to be filled with caloric joy.

A far less fattening development in tourism F&B is mango mania. Last year, produce giant Dole broadened its tropical product portfolio with a full line of mangoes, ripening the opportunity to sell into Royal Caribbean ships with Chef-Ready Cuts mango cubes designed to slash time in kitchen prep.

“Mango is the fastest-growing fruit in snacking, tastewise,” said chef James Bickmore-Hutt, associate director of culinary for Dole Packaged Foods. “Mango is also central to the ‘swicy’ (sweet and spicy) craze hitting menus nationally, with combos like mango-habanero being driven by Gen Z, millennial and Hispanic consumers.”

What a scrumptious segue to cite another tasty trend in hospitality F&B: hybrid street food. A sudden growth of pop-up restaurants on ships, and menu tweaks at land-based resorts, are catering to adventurous guests hankering to take a culinary journey of global cuisines that combines excitement and innovation with authenticity and comfort.

“Hybrid dishes are taking the culinary world by storm, blending elements from different cuisines, techniques and ingredients to create bold, unexpected flavors,” said Andrew Cooper, executive chef at La Quinta Resort & Club. “Among the most exciting savory hybrids are birria ramen, which marries rich Mexican-style braised beef with Japanese noodle soup, and Korean corn dogs with cheddar and chorizo, combining the crispy, cheesy goodness of Korean street food with bold Latin flavors.”

This trend, like the dishes, has gone global, including Down Under. Take Melbourne’s new and quirky BANG at The StandardX, for example. Selections at the Australian hotel restaurant include a satisfying, street food-inspired vegetarian dish made of field mushrooms, broccolini and truffle wok-fried red rice, fried egg and cassava crackers.

“BANG at The StandardX’s menu is all about taking the simple street food dishes of Thailand and Southeast Asia and elevating them in a way that’s not pretentious,” said Executive Chef Justin Dingle-Garciyya. “Our wok-fried red rice is a quick, healthy and tasty vegetarian dish which showcases beautiful seasonal produce from the Yarra Valley, served with our own take on the cassava crackers you’d typically find on the shelves of Southeast Asian supermarkets.”

Of course, all these fresh and flavorful foods need something new and exciting to wash them down with. A couple of premium-class cruise lines are doing their part with pour excursions that take legal-age passengers to both ends of the ABV, or alcohol by volume, scale.

Princess Cruises recently set an industry standard by going fleetwide with the first standalone nonalcoholic bar menu from a major cruise brand. The Amore Princess Zero Alcohol Collection features an array of mocktails including the 24K Margarita made with Almave, the beverage industry’s first non-alcoholic blue agave spirit. Distilled in Jalisco, Mexico, birthplace of tequila, the zero-proof brand has celebrity cachet behind it, being a venture of seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton.

Ending our trendy and tasty trip on a potent note, Holland America isn’t the first cruise line to offer single barrel whiskeys, but it will soon purport to have the most expansive and diverse selection at sea. By summer, 10 distinct single barrel picks from world-renowned and emerging U.S. distilleries will be offered on each of the company’s 11 ships. With demand for single barrel bourbon and other whiskeys soaring, stocking an extraordinary lineup that features such brands as Weller, Woodford, Angel’s Envy, Uncle Nearest and WhistlePig is a smooth and balanced source of pride for Holland America.

“Many cruise lines may feature a single barrel on one ship or partner with a single distillery for a limited release,” said Drew Foulk, the company’s senior manager of beverage and dining operations and innovation. “With this collection of rare and unique spirits, we’re not only providing access to sought-after single barrel whiskeys, but also creating an experience that can’t easily be replicated anywhere else.”