Meat Free Everyday - Food for Thought

Dining Out with a Vegetarian

A meal out is a great way to avoid cooking and doing the dishes. It's also a perfect way to relax and socialise. What's it like for a vegetarian? Well firstly we can only choose from about 10% of the menu at an average restaurant. A meat eater can pore over the menu and weigh up fish versus chicken, maybe even the steak? Not us. It's the salad, the sandwich or the pasta. And it's always the exact same stuff, over and over again. Greek salad, cheese and tomato sandwich or pasta Napoletana.

I have to say some restaurants are better, some are a LOT worse. I can't force people to eat where I can get food. Sea food and steak lovers look forward to a meal out. And those sort of places just don't accomodate me. So I get to watch everyone else relish their meal while I eat some half baked meal. Usually I get charged the same as the sea food or steak eater would have paid, which really annoys me.

I try hard to suggest a place where the cuisine is inclined to be vegetarian friendly. Mediteranean restaurants are good. Chinese and Asian cuisine usually has a great selection of vegetarian options. And Indian and curry places are excellent for me. It's a good thing I like curry. And obviously I can eat anything off the desert menu.

I often wonder why some restaurants and coffee shops don't have just one vegetarian option in amongst their menu line up. A meat free salad or vegetarian breakfast? Some do, but more often than I would like, I have to ask for a meal to be modified. And my worst is being charged extra for this modification. It feels blatantly discriminatory. I really don't think that vegetarians are that weird. And a veggie meal ticks a whole lot of boxes. Just think, all the people in this group can eat it: - kosher, halaal, low fat, low cholestrol, dieters and of course vegetarians. Surely meat free choices would open a restaurant up to a wider customer base?

Every now and agan I stumble upon a vegetarian restaurant and it is such a treat. I recall on our travels through Ireland finding one in a tiny town. It was so unexpected. Somehow vegetarian menus are always completely different and the food tastier than boring same old pasta or salad.

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