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Let's get veggie food on the menu
Is it just me or is it difficult to eat out as a vegetarian? Vegans must have even more trouble.
I'm often asked to go out for a meal with family or friends and I've got to the stage where I'm just not interested. Sitting there watching them pore over menus filled with so much choice they can't make their minds up, whilst I'm stuck looking at any one of the following - listed in the order of popularity in appearance on menus - is not my idea of fun.
Vegetarian lasagne
Vegetable curry (anyone else suspect this is made from leftover vegetables from yesterday's meals?)
Broccoli and cream cheese bake
Pasta (of any sort) with a tomato-ey sauce (of some sort)
Vegetable burger
Cheese and onion pasty
Oh and this won't be a choice by the way, I'll be lucky to see two of them on any menu at any one time.
If you're in a restaurant that prides themselves on offering a good vegetarian alternative, you might get:
Spinach and ricotta cheese in one of a few varieties such as puff pastry, pasta etc
Mushroom stroganoff
Vegetable chili (see my note about curry above)
Of course if you're desperate the chef will make you an omelette or a cheese salad, but of course charge you the same price as your companion's steak meal.
Why? Why do we accept this state of affairs?
Everyone can eat vegetables but not everyone can (or wants) to eat meat, so why is there so little choice? I have friends who say they often choose the veggie alternative on the menu and would be happy to see more variety.
Obviously I'm speaking from a UK perspective but having holidayed a few times in the US, I'm pretty sure you have the same problems. Whilst there I tended to eat in the food courts of malls and walk around the whole place trying to find somewhere that didn't consider the addition of meat an absolute necessity to anything and everything. Mainly I chose Chinese food having a veggie spring role and egg fried rice which was nice for the first three attempts but soon got boring. I even tried a corn dog, expecting it to be - well - corn. I spat it out pretty quickly!!
I think we should all ask at any and every restaurant why they don't offer more choice and maybe we could even give them some recipes to show them how quick and easy veggie meals can be.
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Many years ago I'd taken the kids to McDonalds for a treat (in their eyes) and was munching through some fries which was all I could eat, when my husband decided to make use of their suggestion box. He made exactly the argument I described above and, of course it can't have just been because of us, but a few months later they introduced a veggie burger. It was a disgusting spicy concoction but I made sure to buy it every couple of months to show that it did sell!!
If you have a good veggie food place near you, PLEASE send me details and perhaps a sample menu and I'll publish it on my site. It doesn't matter where in the world it is.
Let's get veggie food on the menu!