Do you know this feeling when you come into a restaurant, open the menu and ...there’s nothing in there for you? You know that the only solution is to order a salad, but you need to require it does not contain any cheese. If you’re a vegetarian you’re often stuck with pizza.Unfortunately, we know this feeling very well. There are different restaurants but at many places vegans are not treated properly. Why?
Let’s start from the basics. From the very beginning vegans or vegetarians enter (non-vegan) restaurants they may often feel like second-class guests or perceived as crazy people coming from Mars. After all, we moan and groan, we don’t want to eat salmon. And by the way since when seafood is not animal food? Since when ricotta cheese is plant based? The waitress is stunned to see a weirdo sitting at the table and ordering something vegetarian, and what’s more this weirdo does not want to eat shrimps. Not to mention vegans as they are even more often perceived as weirdos.
So, we are stuck with salads unless the chef is willing to add some roasted veggies or rice. Unfortunately, the problem is that in many places they do not want to make anything besides salad. Want more stories related to this problem? Ok. Here we go.
This happened a couple of months ago. K. enters her favorite restaurant and asks for vegetarian version of a meal - she wants zucchini pancakes without the stew that is in the menu. And what happens? The waitress says that the extras (here: zucchini pancakes) are only served together with meat and there’s no way they can serve the pancakes without that! Yes, that requires a good will of a chef and invention to prepare anything (i.e. lettuce mix with dressing) that goes beyond the menu.
Fortunately, there are some places where you can be pleasantly surprised. When K. visited a recently opened restaurant in Gdynia (Poland), she was really happy to see a smiling waitress offering amazing vegan salad with grilled veggies, roasted nuts and parsley chips (not included in the menu). So it is actually possible! The salad was not only delicious but filling as well.
When M. visited one of Thais restaurant and asked for the food without oyster sauce, the chef said that vegans are welcomed at his restaurant and will never leave his restaurant hungry.
From our experience, it’s not easy to be a vegetarian or vegan and trying to have something to eat at non-vegan restaurants.
Do you have similar experiences?
Etykiety: english, lifestyle
