Condolences to you & to your friend. Wish your friend a speedy recovery. It is for his own safety that he had been hospitalized, as he will be able to obtain the best care from our medical resources.
It is common knowledge that hospital food is often bland, as it is meant to give the patient the BEST scientifically tested foods - organic bio matter, that will help him survive.
Very often, it is found that vegetarian foods are the best, but sadly, it is also often bland - no pork lard, no msg, etc, etc.
Most Buddhist monks would be satiated by such foods, as they had long given up on desires of mortal life including tasty but unhealthy foods. Ultimately food is merely to fill the stomach for our digestive system to break such down & provide necessary bio matter to keep our organs functioning, even from non meaty protein meals, as proteins can be found in unrelated to red meat sources...
Sadly, after the discovery of fire in ancient Humans, taste buds became acquired...
Also sadly, many restaurants & hawker stalls served BLAND foods even at high prices, capitalizing on fears of unhealthy food such as red meats which would clog up blood vessels, preventing blood flow, causing the heart to pump faster & eventually if not resolved, one dies...
MAJORITY of such health fads restaurants & hawker stalls serve such BLAND foods, - 95% of them
In reality, with our advances, there is NO NEED to serve BLAND foods. With our KNOWLEGE on Chemistry & gastronomy, thru the use science & technology, it is POSSIBLE to serve tasty food, even CKT. It is just a matter of Chemistry & uses of SAFE compounded elements to provide the same if not better quality in taste, thru ALTERNATIVE elements, eg - sugar, pork lard, etc, etc.
On a personal level, the insignificant nobody had tasted the best CKT, found in Bedok Chai Chee food center. Equally, I had tasted CKT done in vegetarian style, & it is NOT even at a restaurant, but from a mere low costing Hawker stall in one of our HDB housing estate, & proven when I brought my friends to compare the same dish but from different food outlets for comparison, & the result was obvious...