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? ;)
Once I was helping to plant hazel trees for one of my organics teachers, at her house, in the rain - hard work, right? So I would have liked some good solid food for lunch. Unfortunately the only thing on offer was bread and vegetable soup...... with ham. She actually said "You can pick out the bits of ham, it'll be okay..." HA!! As if the whole pot of soup didn't stink of it. Fortunately one of her other guests had brought her own thermos of ham-free vegetable soup, which she shared with me. LOL. ::)
And yet they would never say this to a Jewish, Hindu or Moslem person because it wouldn't be PC to go against their religious requirements. Decency requirements--forget it.
Maybe I should start a new thread: Come discuss- Share your "that was ok" veggie experience! That one wouldn't have has many posts though..
BUT, we had an ok experience last night at a pizza place (for a friend's birthday). It's called biga pizza, and it's an organic, brick oven kind of place..so I wasn't TOO worried. I wasn't very impressed with the menu b/c all of the salads had cheese and/or meat, but when I asked the waitress what she would recommend for vegans, she said that they usually leave it up to the chefs, and they come up with some great vegan pizzas. So, we said..ok. (then started worrying b/c we had no idea what would come on it, or how much they would charge us!). But, our pizza was pretty good, nothing spectacular-but had sauce, lots of spinach, red peppers, olive..it wasn't bad. The only negative thing was that they charged our table (9 people) $16+ gratuity, and our waitress didn't do anything! That was annoying..even though our pizza was only $12, we had to pay $4 tip! Oh well..we're just cheap.. ;)
omgosh, i know i have a ton of stories but only one is coming to me right now..one day my aunt wanted to take my sister and i out to dinner (both of them being HUGE meat eaters. my sister like to have her steak "as rare as you can make it without me dying"..ugh. and my aunt..all she consumes is animal, rice and coke. she says she just doesn't like veggies even though she knows they're good for her..) anyway...so we get to the restaurant, im starving because all i ate that day was an apple and and half a grapefruit and it was already 8 o'clock. it's an italian restaurant. nothing i can eat except a salad that comes with cheese on it, but i figured i'd just ask for it without any cheese. NO WHERE in the description of the salad does it say that it comes with rotting pig in it, so i didn't even bother asking about it. it comes out, im salivating, take one look at my plate and see these pink cubes all over the place. i almost broke out in tears. i showed it to my sister and she told the waiter that there was meat in it and that im a vegan (i always feel bad when i tell them, haha). and the waiter YELLS at me!! he was like "YOU ASK FOR SALAD, NO CHEESE! I GIVE YOU SALAD NO CHEESE!!" then i got mad. i said "the menu doesnt say that it comes with meat on it. im a vegan. i dont eat meat" and he said i should've said that before but how the flip was i supposed to know that there was meat in it when there was no indication on the menu that it did?!?!?!!?!?!?! aaaggghhhhh!!!! but i just let it go, i try not to get mad because people are just ignorant. they don't know any better. whatever.
so anyway...on a positive note: 2 of my friends went vegan!!! one of them being someone who just a few days ago was mooing at me while eating a ham sandwhich..retard..lol. but he saw the videos and threw up, and gave up meat. im so proud!! i made them vegan cupcakes. :)>>>
sorry this was really loooong. :D
good job w/ your friends! you should start doing potlucks to get them in them in the habit of cooking and trying out new recipes to keep them into it!
good job w/ your friends! you should start doing potlucks to get them in them in the habit of cooking and trying out new recipes to keep them into it!
thanks!! and i will! thats a great idea cuz a lot of people quit because they just dont know what to cook. :)
So is that what I have to look forward to? ??? That's encouraging, lol. I'm a new vegetarian and havent actually went to the restaurant yet. I know I have more 'options' in regular chain restaurants than vegans, but still.
I actually was just telling my grand mother that I went vegetarian, and she wanted to be helpful in helping me find 'food variety'. So she started telling me her salmon recipe over the phone. I kept repeating, I dont eat meat anymore. And she's like, well it's not meat, it's a fish recipe.
And then I was talking with a girl from work, and we were talking about my not eating meat anymore. She said: 'Well, vegetarians dont eat meat, but you can have fish and chicken, right?' Ok, I know alot of people dont know what a vegan is, I didnt until years ago, I saw an interview with Alicia Silverstone and she was talking about how her 'diet' (in brakets because it's not a diet, but a way of life) helped her loose weight. Anyways, years ago, I think when I thought about meat, i dont know that fish was in that category. More with seafood. But chicken was definately part of meat. I guess I wasent expecting that seems like the average person dosent have a clue what veg*n means. I kind of glad that I live across country from my family. Saves me lots of arguing and getting picked on, I'm sure. :(
Pages