My own little rant
I need to vent and I know you will understand why. Last night I went to a friend's house. This is a group of women who meet occasionally and we order Chinese food. We always order from a restaurant - it's actually Vietnamese - and they have an extensive vegetarian menu in addition to non-veg items. I have even got my friends to taste the tofu items and other veg things and they really like them. Well, last night my friend who was ordering decided to order from a restaurant she heard about. So she orders me deep friend wontons with sweet and sour sauce. I love these because I always liked sweet and sour dishes before I went veg and now I've found something I can still enjoy with the sauce I love. But of course this restaurant was not a veggie place so I asked her daughter to taste a wonton for me and she confirmed my suspicions that it had meat in it. The friend assured me the spring rolls were okay but I tasted one and was sure it too had meat in it. Unfortunately I took a bite before I realized it and threw the rest out. So I ended up eating white rice with sweet and sour sauce on it and some mushroom fried rice which may or may not have been made with meat broth but I tried not to think about it. Of course the other women tried to convince me to eat around the chicken and stuff and just have the veggies but I just could not do it. I was really disappointed and actually a bit ticked off. At least my friend would only take $5 instead of $10 for my share of the meal since I hardly ate anything. Okay, now I feel better that I have shared my dilemma with people who understand.
I just re-read my post. It was deep fried wontons I ordered, not deep friend wontons (although after my disappointing meal I may have felt like deep frying my friend!
Arggghhh, Wendie!!! Eating out/corporate events are the biggest issues with social vegan eating, IMO. Chinese is also very questionable in that they fry lots of their veggie items in non-veg oil & also, eggroll & wonton wrappers are not generally vegan. Grrrr.....
I think prior to going out with friends, (unless it is a restaurant you are familiar with & know about), you must either call the restaurant & see if the kitchen can accommodate your vegan requests, or compromise your vegan ethics or you must just say no. I will not be judgemental in either choice, but simply mention each choice as your option & you can decide.
=====
Please forgive me if I am way off here, but are you the Wendie with the adopted dog Olive? You live in VC Canada, don't you?
Surely the chef in any good restaurant would make something specific for a diner, assuming the diner chooses ingredients from the menu. Especially if the diner rang first and made the arrangement.
I think the thing that made me most angry was that we always order from the Vietnamese restaurant that has the vegetarian selections. I am the only veggie of anyone I know except my niece who does not live in my city so my friends pretend to understand but just don't get it. Yes, Lezly I'm the Wendie who adopted Olive but I live in Ontario. (Olive is doing great and it will be a year in April that she's been with me).