Come Vent - Share Your "You must be joking" Veggie Experiences Here!
I thought it would be interesting if my fellow vegetarians & vegans would share some of their most absurd experiences in regards to their diet.
I’ll share a story to give an example of what I mean. I’ve been a vegetarian for 16 years, so I have many stories, but this one is burned in my brain….. I went to a large family gathering in a restaurant. The host (my grandmother) made prior arrangements with said restaurant to have a vegetarian meal (spaghetti w/ marinara) provided for me. The waitress came around & took our orders. We had a choice between steak or chicken. I told her I was a vegetarian & I would have the spaghetti w/ marinara. After our side salads, they brought out the entrees. The waitress placed a big steaming pile of noodles w/ meat sauce in front of me. I told her I could not eat it & I needed sauce w/out meat in it. She said that it was the only sauce they had. Keep in mind that the entire time I am having this discussion, my entire family (who even now after 16 years have not accepted my dietary choices) is listening intently :-[. Since they didn’t have non-meat sauce, I made other suggestions - such as olive oil & stir-fried veggies over the spaghetti noodles. Well, apparently this restaurant didn’t have vegetables or olive oil for that matter. The very unpleasant & irritated waitress brought me a plate with about 2lbs of spaghetti noodles smothered in vegetable oil. So now my entire family is staring at my food thinking “so that’s what vegetarians eat”. To top the evening off, my uncle, who was sitting across from me - mooed as he ate his steak (yes, my family is very classy).
This event occurred in my early vegetarian days. I would not tolerate such poor service now. I can look back at it now & think how ridiculous the whole thing was & how ignorant the chef, waitress, & my uncle were. At the time, I was mortified though.
So does anyone else want to contribute a story that only one of your own kind could truly appreciate? ;)
That being said, I really only have one story to share and it doesn't involve a restaurant, but it is something recent. I had a "friend" (I put quotes there because he's no longer a friend) completely attack me after a blog post. I wrote about wondering why my friends don't call me anymore to hang out. He fires back that I need to learn how to cook food that's edible (his words) and then maybe people would consider hanging out with me. And that I was getting preachy about my vegan lifestyle and beliefs. And that bars are the accepted social medium for people in my age group (I'm 30, and he's 25, by the way) and I need to start hanging out there to be accepted (another by-the-way: I don't drink because I'm an alcoholic, and all my friends know that).
Now, this kid never even tried any of my food. He pretty much refuses to eat anything that doesn't have meat on it. So here he is saying that I can't cook and he's never eaten my cooking! And excuse me for being very proud of who and what I am, and enjoying telling others about it. And as for the no bars things, well, you know that story.
I haven't spoken to him since that day, and I have no desire to talk to him again. I've known him for around 10 years, and this comes between us and ruins our friendship.
Sigh.
This isn't a real life story, but TSA, I think your post inspired a dream I had last night. Whenever I cook for my friends, they always seem to enjoy it...but one of friends has a roommate who is a cook at a local chain restaurant. So anyway, he thinks that he is the only person who can cook anything edible. To top it off, my other friends all rave about his food that is filled with meat and cream sauces like god sent it down himself. That doesn't bother me, because I think they can like his food AND my food too. Anyway, whenever this particular friend tastes my food. He goes through this "ritual" where he takes a tiny bite, makes a comtemplative face and says, "hmm, not bad." Then proceeds to tell me how to make it better. I'm thinking like "ummm...you are a cook in a chain restaurant without a high school diploma" (not that that has anything to do iwth it).
Anyway, in my dream, this happened again, and I got really pissed off and went off on them. I told them all that I would never cook anything for them again because all they do is criticize my lifestyle. Then I went into the whole, how hard it ISN'T to be a cook in a restaurant...I mean, I know it's hectic, and do respect the cook, but it's not like he's making his OWN recipes. You know?
What you need is some new friends. ((((TSA)))
Disraeli said it first: Never complain, never explain. Which being interpreted means, don't change to fit those who wouldn't consider changing to fit in with you!!
Restaurants have gotten a lot easier since I made up little business card things that say what I do not eat. It explains my allergies (dairy) and what else I do not eat. I have them all nice and laminated. I give them to the waiter when they first come to take my drink order. They are to give it too the cook that will be preparing my food when I order. It does cut back a lot on messed up orders.
I just thought of this one; nothing major, but it was pretty funny. I was visiting my parents last weekend and I always take a few things with me to be sure I'll have something to eat. I had Field Roast italian sausages in the fridge and as I was packing up my stuff, my dad said to be sure to take those gross-looking sausages with me (what sausages aren't gross-looking, btw?). I looked in there and they were sitting next to the bright red, fatty corned beef brisket that my mom was going to prepare for dinner. I whipped them both out of the fridge (the corned beef is shrink-wrapped in plastic, so I wasn't afraid to touch it), held them side-by-side and said, "You're going to tell me that my food looks gross?!" He laughed pretty hard at that.
Oh, and then I really did forget the sausages! I had my cooler packed up and in the car already and he came chasing after me with them! ;D
AllyChristine, thanks, I will keep it up. The way I look at it: those people don't know what they're missing!
Lotus42, I inspired a dream with that story, huh? At least it seemed to be a satisfying dream not a nightmare ;) I had a friend like that once, and he was pretty much the same - tasted everything and then went off about how this or that could be added to make it "better". And he wasn't even a chef, so I can imagine what you must be going through!
yabbitgirl, I agree. At least step one seems to have taken care of itself - lose a lot of your old friends. I went from about 30 to like 4. I always said that I'd take quality over quantity, but I never really thought it would come down to that. But the few friends I do have left accept me for who and what I am, and I respect their choices too, so it works out pretty well. If they're the only friends I ever have again, then, really, what more do I need?
Something I heard awhile back which makes more sense than being a comfort in times like this is: a change in life is just that, a change!! Therefore, moving across the country and changing your diet/lifestyle will bring about similar effects. (i.e. changing moods, losing friends, wondering where to go out to eat, etc) Like I said, it isn't much of a comfort....it is easier to understand losing touch with someone when the physical difference is greater than it was, than emotional/dietary/lifestyle difference, when that person could be still living just next door....
I meant to share this earlier, but forgot, and i'm not exactly sure it really fits this thread, but anyway...
I was at a restaurant Saturday night for a bachelorette party, and I ordered the only 2 things on the menu that were vegan (green salad, no cheese and spiced edamame). I was prepared for this, so it wasn't a big deal. So this girl across from me says "oh are you vegetarian?" I replied "yes." She then asked about eggs and I told her no eggs or dairy. She then proceeded to tell me about her friend who went vegetarian, but had to "go back" because he got sickly and weak. Ugh. She said, "I guess you CAN do it healthy, but I bet it's hard." I told her it wasn't, but that I, too, got sick when I first went veggie, because all I ate was salad and french fries, so I decided to learn about nutrition and I've been fine ever since. It was civil, but I don't think she was convinced. Now. What I want to know is, why the hell was she so worried about MY nutrition when she was sitting there eating a chicken cheese quesadilla and already 40 lbs over weight?
This was the first time we had met, and other than that, she was a perfectly nice person.......I think it was her car that I puked in later though. :-[ >:D
I meant to share this earlier, but forgot, and i'm not exactly sure it really fits this thread, but anyway...
I was at a restaurant Saturday night for a bachelorette party, and I ordered the only 2 things on the menu that were vegan (green salad, no cheese and spiced edamame). I was prepared for this, so it wasn't a big deal. So this girl across from me says "oh are you vegetarian?" I replied "yes." She then asked about eggs and I told her no eggs or dairy. She then proceeded to tell me about her friend who went vegetarian, but had to "go back" because he got sickly and weak. Ugh. She said, "I guess you CAN do it healthy, but I bet it's hard." I told her it wasn't, but that I, too, got sick when I first went veggie, because all I ate was salad and french fries, so I decided to learn about nutrition and I've been fine ever since. It was civil, but I don't think she was convinced. Now. What I want to know is, why the hell was she so worried about MY nutrition when she was sitting there eating a chicken cheese quesadilla and already 40 lbs over weight?
This was the first time we had met, and other than that, she was a perfectly nice person.......I think it was her car that I puked in later though. :-[ >:D
I knew a guy once who's sister tried to be a vegetarian, but got sick because she wasn't paying attention to what she was eating. He swore that a vegetarian lifestyle was the worst thing you could possibly do, and that you couldn't live without eating meat. I can't even imagine what he'd think about vegans.
That's the part that always turns people off when I tell them about veganism. Once they find out that you have to study and learn and watch what you eat, they usually go "Oh, I could never learn all that or watch what I eat all the time." It's kind of sad. And the strongest reactions seem to come from the people that are overweight, the ones that call it "rabbit food". And I'm not picking on the overweight - I'm one of them. I weighed 235 when I became a vegetarian and I'm down 40 pounds since then and feeling great. I became a vegetarian for health reasons, but the longer I stayed at it the more it sunk in and the more I saw how easy and possible it was to live that way. I'm now vegan by moral choice, but the health benefits sure are a nice bonus.
They worry about what you're eating, when the majority of them (at least the ones around me) go right on eating fast food or deep fried this or chicken fried that. I don't know.
That is pretty funny that it was her car you puked in later, though . . . ;D
This was the first time we had met, and other than that, she was a perfectly nice person.......I think it was her car that I puked in later though. :-[ >:D
She probably thought it was b/c of your "diet." :o
I have a new story to share..that really disappointed me. Some of you have read about my situation (grad school/career), and this really reflects my feelings about it all. I have a Biomedical Ethics class on Mondays..and this week the subject was "animal testing in research," so everyone knew I was looking forward to discussions on this subject (they are all VERY aware of my lifestyle/choices). Everyone around me has generally been supportive, at least on a surface level, so I was really excited about class this week. I decided to send the "Meet your meat" video to the two Professors in charge of the class (it's pretty casual) to see what they thought about including it in the powerpoint. I said that it wasn't exactly related to "animal testing," but that I thought it could have great impact. So, in class I find out that he's decided to include it but "optional" and at the end (in case some people don't want to watch it..and since it wasn't exactly related). I thought this was ok...at least there's a chance. Well, the class discussion was in itself pretty frustrating..hearing about how everyone really does feel (or has been brainwashed into feeling..), and then came time for the "let's see how many people are going to stay for the video" time. Previously, I had the impression that Mark (our Professor) would be inclined agree with my viewpoint/understand the video ..but when he started talking about the video (he wasn't all too sure about it.."Where's Alec Baldwin's Ph.D.?!..yadayada), I was quite disappointed. So he describes the video in this manner..and then my fellow students are asking how long it is, I say "12 minutes." They're like "12 MINUTES, oh well I have stuff to do!!!" It's freaking 12 minutes of your life!! Yeah, so in the end the only people that watched the video were Mark, a guy who stayed b/c he was waiting on an experiment (and holds just about total opposite beliefs as I do), and I. Of course the whole time (while I'm being completely emotionally affected, once again), I can just feel the ridicule circulating in the room + few occasional snickers/sounds from Brent (the student). At the end, just about the only comments were where was this filmed?? This doesn't really happen?? I've been to farm all over the country, and it's not like that, Those farms need to be shut down, they don't hang them up like that (and he proceeded to describe how they let them stand to "bleed them out"). I tried to hold my ground, but I know it was hopeless. I was so disappointed in all my "friends" who did not even stay to watch (one even said that she was going to).
I know this is extremely long..but I'm not good at short stories. I was really upset that day.. :-\
a good friend of mine who just moved here says all of her friends were vegan in her old town (richmond), mostly guys, and that they ALL had breasts even though they were skinny! First of all, I find it hard to believe that one person could know so many GUY vegans, and secondly, that they all had breasts?
She also keeps asking what i will do if I crave a big steak during this pregnancy. She doesn't understand that its a non-issue for me.
AND she was going on and on about how cow milk is healthy for you (in front of my 6 yo vulnerable son!) and this is at a vegetarian restaurant! She also said she was vegetarian for 10 years prior but I'm not sure what her definition is.....
oh, and once i picked her up to go to a veg-restaurant in asheville and she comes out to the car with a REAL fur coat on!
funny thing is, I really do like this girl and we have a lot in common.....she just doesn't get it!
my mother used to put meat in my food and still insist it was vegetarian cuase it was "only a little" ???......and ive had cashiers roll thiers eyes when looking at our groceries (it was Christmas so a lot of mock foods i dont usally get like soy iceream soy nog and of course a tofury!!)
this is a killer....
a few years ago we drove from florida to texas straight thru with our then 2 year old to visit my BIL and SIL and family. We got there and hadn't shopped yet and I was very relieved to see she was making pasta for dinner (she has NEVER been supportive). She was cooking pasta, and had some meatballs frying in a pan separately, and some jars of sauce. easy for everyone, right?
WRONG!!!
Right before the meal she poured BOTH jars of sauce into the meat so there was none left for us!!! She made a comment like, "its not real meat anyway, just turkey!". She also claimed to not have any more jars of sauce and I found one right in the pantry the next day so she lied.
This all happened upon our first 30 minutes of being there after a 17 hour drive, and lets just say it was downhill from there. one night she brought home a bucket of KFC-wouldn't let her kids try any of our food, and said what we eat is weird and unhealthy to her children.
she went out of her way to make us uncomfortable, and needless to say, I will NEVER visit there again, and I have only talked her once or twice since then and its been almost 5 years. we used to be very close. :-\ There was a HUGE family melt down over this and some other issues and its never been the same.....
ironically enough, my mom told me they switched to soy milk and dont eat fast food anymore recently! :-D maybe she noticed that she was 80 lbs overweight and i weighed the same as i did in high school? they also started that disgusting nutri-system program and lost a bunch of weight....and they think I eat weird food? how bout a box of chicken in your US Mail?
I experimented with roasting soy beans. Mixed them in a bowl with a bit of olive oil, then salted them slightly. Not being the best of chefs, I thought broiling might do the job. Five minutes later I came into a horrible smelling kitchen and a haze of foul smoke. The good news is the beans hadn't erupted into flames. Next time I attempt roasting I won't answer the door.
This was the first time we had met, and other than that, she was a perfectly nice person.......I think it was her car that I puked in later though. :-[ >:D
She probably thought it was b/c of your "diet." :o
I have a new story to share..that really disappointed me. Some of you have read about my situation (grad school/career), and this really reflects my feelings about it all. I have a Biomedical Ethics class on Mondays..and this week the subject was "animal testing in research," so everyone knew I was looking forward to discussions on this subject (they are all VERY aware of my lifestyle/choices). Everyone around me has generally been supportive, at least on a surface level, so I was really excited about class this week. I decided to send the "Meet your meat" video to the two Professors in charge of the class (it's pretty casual) to see what they thought about including it in the powerpoint. I said that it wasn't exactly related to "animal testing," but that I thought it could have great impact. So, in class I find out that he's decided to include it but "optional" and at the end (in case some people don't want to watch it..and since it wasn't exactly related). I thought this was ok...at least there's a chance. Well, the class discussion was in itself pretty frustrating..hearing about how everyone really does feel (or has been brainwashed into feeling..), and then came time for the "let's see how many people are going to stay for the video" time. Previously, I had the impression that Mark (our Professor) would be inclined agree with my viewpoint/understand the video ..but when he started talking about the video (he wasn't all too sure about it.."Where's Alec Baldwin's Ph.D.?!..yadayada), I was quite disappointed. So he describes the video in this manner..and then my fellow students are asking how long it is, I say "12 minutes." They're like "12 MINUTES, oh well I have stuff to do!!!" It's freaking 12 minutes of your life!! Yeah, so in the end the only people that watched the video were Mark, a guy who stayed b/c he was waiting on an experiment (and holds just about total opposite beliefs as I do), and I. Of course the whole time (while I'm being completely emotionally affected, once again), I can just feel the ridicule circulating in the room + few occasional snickers/sounds from Brent (the student). At the end, just about the only comments were where was this filmed?? This doesn't really happen?? I've been to farm all over the country, and it's not like that, Those farms need to be shut down, they don't hang them up like that (and he proceeded to describe how they let them stand to "bleed them out"). I tried to hold my ground, but I know it was hopeless. I was so disappointed in all my "friends" who did not even stay to watch (one even said that she was going to).
I know this is extremely long..but I'm not good at short stories. I was really upset that day.. :-\
if you ever have the opportunity again to show videos, theres a whole section in 'earthlings' about animal testing, mostly at the university level.
That's too bad, L2A, about your family. I remember when I was younger (maybe like 8 or 10 or something), I had cousins that only drank rice milk because my aunt was anti-dairy (they still ate meat and eggs, just not dairy). My mom would constantly criticize this choice in front of us, saying it was "gross" or "weird" or whatnot. Kids are totally impressionable, and I automatically considered rice milk gross until I became vegan and gave it a shot.
Yeah, and ya gotta love the whole "veg*nism is so unhealthy, but my frozen Lean Cuisines and Slim Fast shakes are chock full of nutrition" thing... ::)
Yeah, I'm pretty sick of people asking me how I get enough protein as if they even know what they are talking about. As if they know anything about nutrition at all. When I say things to these people that seem like common sense to me (nutrition wise), they always stare at me blankly. I have a coworker who has to announce to me how much she likes meat, whenever the subject of me being a vegetarian comes up. Oh! & how she could never do that. Oh & tofu yuck! Even though she's never tried it & tofu has no flavor on it's own & can take on so many different textures. Geeze!!
Haha, yeah, I hear that a lot too. It's funny every time. And I always make it a point to ask, too.
"Tofu? Yuck, that stuff is gross!"
"Have you ever tried it?"
"No."
Usually followed by my smiling knowingly and walking away, leaving them to figure out the rest on their own.
And pretty much everyone I've ever met that finds out I'm vegan gives me the "I could never do that" speech. Why? "Because it's too hard." This from people that have never even tried being vegetarian or vegan. And that's not even counting the armchair nutritionists that subscribe to the "less is more" school of health by eating a quarter of a sandwich and half an orange for lunch then claiming they're full, only to be in my corner of the office later on raiding the chocolate jar that's kept there. They're the ones that ask about my protein or calcium intake, then go out and buy dark chocolate so they can feel better about filling up on it because they're lowering their blood pressure (ignoring the "moderate amounts" aspects of it).
Oh, and I should add, I partly blame television for this ignorance and automatic dismissal of the healthy lifestyle we lead. Take a look at how vegetarians or vegans are portrayed in TV. Cartoons train kids to think that tofu is disgusting - I can't tell you how many shows I've seen where the main character is offered tofu, or even vegetables, and the reaction is almost always that these things are gross and should be avoided at all costs. Great impression that's making, even if the writers only meant it humorously (this same reaction can be found on The Simpsons to Lisa's food). And don't get me started on the "tree-hugging hippie" portrayals in other shows, or the "spaced-out yoga blond" that's out there, too.
Granted, in Wrong Turn 2 the vegan is one of two people that survive ;)b
Maybe this isn't the thread for this, but purpledancer's story about carnivores being appalled by vegfoods made me think of that.
I was just discussing the way children are influenced with my parents last night. They came to help me buy another car (since I killed mine >:( :'() and I cooked Julie's Broccoli with Garlic Sauce http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8731.0. Asparagus was really cheap, so I threw some of that in too.
My mom started telling the story about when I was 2 years old, at my grandparents eating asparagus and my older cousin said "Eeeww. Your eating THAT. Gross!" I put the asparagus down and refused to touch it again.
I didn't eat asparagus again until I finally tried it at a wedding 2 years ago!
They loved the Garlic sauce btw. (and the crimson velveteen cupcakes from vctotw for dessert, too) 8-)
Here's a cute one involving "impressionable" children....growing up pescatarian, it was much easier to just say "vegetarian that eats fish" (still is)....so my Kindergarten through third grade "boyfriend"'s and mine mothers were both teachers at our school.... Imagine, the "motherly gossip" over the coffee pot one day: "D____ asked me the strangest thing last night!! He came into kitchen acting nonchalant and asked 'Mom, what religion are we?', I then replied, 'Presbyterian....why?'....He then wistfully looked away saying :)>>>, 'No reason....did you know Hanashi is a vegetarian?'" :-D
My son used to love The best mac and cheese from this site (which comes out brown sometimes) until he brought it to school and other kids commented that his m and c was "brown". He decided after that that he wouldn't eat it anymore! :( I have since adapted the recipe so its not so brown, and occasionally i can trick him!
I was just discussing the way children are influenced with my parents last night. They came to help me buy another car (since I killed mine >:( :'() and I cooked Julie's Broccoli with Garlic Sauce http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8731.0. Asparagus was really cheap, so I threw some of that in too.
My mom started telling the story about when I was 2 years old, at my grandparents eating asparagus and my older cousin said "Eeeww. Your eating THAT. Gross!" I put the asparagus down and refused to touch it again.
I didn't eat asparagus again until I finally tried it at a wedding 2 years ago!
They loved the Garlic sauce btw. (and the crimson velveteen cupcakes from vctotw for dessert, too) 8-)
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