Life is too short for the latter. You tried with your biscuit thingy and got some ham. The whole point of buying it was to eat something, and next time you’ll know not to get that. Meanwhile it’s a tiny bit of meat in a mostly meatless diet. No biggie.

I actually think vegan is easier than vegetarian. Here (Boulder, CO) and in northern CA restaurants understand vegan – but lots of people call themselves “vegetarian” and still eat fish/chicken/etc. and then say “mostly vegetarian”. So vegetarian doesn’t mean anything in a restaurant, but vegan does. Add to it by saying “and dairy makes me sick” and they’ll be sure to be careful.

RE: touching. If you tell the waiter that you’re vegetarian ahead of time and have issues with meat touching your food, they will tell the kitchen so they don’t touch. How will they know unless you tell them? If I eat at a restaurant, told them I’m vegetarian, but due to uncleanliness meat entered my food, the situation varies. Sometimes I’ll pick it out and keep eating or sometimes I’ll return the food (it depends on the food). But you have to give the restaurant a fighting shot to keep things acceptably veg.

if I got food with meat in it when I asked for something meat-free, I think I would ask for them to get me the proper meat-free dish but also ask to keep the dish that did have meat in it, so I could give it to a meat-eating friend later on!! This obviously isn’t always possible but my family and my boyfriend and half of my friends it meat and I doubt they would mind free leftovers! If the restaurant says “We can’t let you keep it AND give you a free veggie one, we have to throw out the dish with meat in it” (as they sometimes may do, they don’t want people pretending to be vegetarian and trying to get free food out of them, fair enough), tell them it’s very important to you not to waste the meat now that it’s on the table and that you will give it to someone who’s not vegetarian so that it doesn’t go to waste.

And if they keep fighting you ask to talk to the manager, raise a big stink, really communicate how important it is to you, generally it’ll all work out in the end :)

Of course your way is good, too! I personally can’t eat meat anymore, it’s been so long I couldn’t bring myself to do it (it doesn’t taste right anymore!) so I’d rather give it to a friend but if you’d rather eat it yourself than carry it around then that’s good too, the point is not to have made that animal die just to go in the trash! I’d rather someone eat meat than throw it in the garbage because they don’t eat meat!

I would say that’s a lot harder to be plastic free than vegetarian. Especially where you live. I’m from the Bay Area originally, and I didn’t have much trouble finding vegetarian options once I knew the right questions to ask. If a server doesn’t seem to know if something is vegetarian or not, I don’t have a problem with saying “Are you sure?” or “Can you ask?” If you don’t see something you can eat on the menu, ask. A lot of restaurants are very willing to prepare something vegetarian if you request it.

You have mentioned that your parents live in Hawaii, and I have to say, that is one of the places that I’ve found it most difficult to find vegetarian food. It really surprises me because I would expect Hawaii to have a lot of vegetarian options, but that hasn’t been my experience. (We were on Maui.)

One of my favorite vegetarian restaurant moments was when I went to dim sum with some co-workers. I asked “Does this have any meat?” and the woman said “Oh, no, no meat. Just a little bit of chicken.” Needless to say, I excused myself and went to eat somewhere else. :)

I work in the international district of our city. It’s unfortunate that I feel like I can’t try new places because things like fish sauce and chicken broths aren’t considered “meat” by some restaurant workers. But I have seen more and more places popping up that specifically advertise vegetarian menus, so I patronize those businesses. I’ve also found that Greek, Indian, and Italian restaurants tend to be safer choices than Asian for us vegetarians.

If it were me, I wouldn’t have eaten the biscuit with ham. There is enough other waste in my life that I don’t feel like I need to eat meat accidentally served to me. If you were at a dinner party and there were a bunch of leftover meat dishes that were being disposed of, you wouldn’t feel compelled to eat those.

And for Laurel who said the Parfait at McDonald’s is vegetarian, unfortunately, it’s not. It contains gelatin. The french fries and hash browns are seasoned with beef fat. It’s pretty easy to order an egg and cheese muffin (Egg McMuffin minus the Canadian bacon) but outside of breakfast time, I don’t know of anything at McDonald’s that’s vegetarian.

If we’re in a pinch, we’ll go to Taco Bell or Burger King. Not really the healthiest, but it happens.

Sharon

I am not overly keen about eating around meat in a meal, but if there was really nothing else, I would do it (especially if a friend or family member made it). However, I’m not wigged out by eating out of a pan someone else has cooked meat in, as long as it has been washed between times.

I’m so new to vegan (from vegetarian) that occasionally my mother forgets and makes me a cake with egg or milk, and I just eat it… then a little while I casually mention it (otherwise it will keep happening). It’s a fine line to walk though, ensuring your not hurting other people’s feelings, especially when they are genuinely trying to be supportive. If I have to eat another batch of Mum’s vegan hot pot..! But I just eat it and tell her it’s great cos she is trying so hard. lol.

The first transition from one thing to another is always a bit tough and a definite learning experience, whether it’s omni to vegetarian, vego to vegan or plastic-using to plastic-free. If you’re committed though, you’ll do fine. Keep your eye out for those doobie-smoking waitstaff though – you can’t trust ‘em! ;)

I think a lot of vegetarians and vegans learn to adjust. We know what places serve veggie foods. We know what foods are almost always “safe”. We call in advance. I know, it’s the dorkiest sounding thing of all time, but when we’re planning on hanging out with friends or family, and they say we want to try *restaurant we’ve never been to* we call and ask if they have vegetarian options. If we end up at a place with no obvious options, we ask the waitstaff and have them ask the chef/manager.

Also, a lot of times, if the waiter is a complete idiot or doesn’t speak English, I go somewhere else, or just don’t eat.
.-= Ruthie´s last blog ..Every day is jeans day in May! =-.

My switch to vegetarianism was quite abrupt — found some things out I didn’t want to support anymore — so at first I felt like I was starving myself. I also felt like the whole world was working against me, like I was somehow inferior if I asked for that wrap MINUS the chicken, or inquired about a veggie burger even if it wasn’t on the menu. When I went out with friends, I would get strange looks if I couldn’t find anything on the menu I could eat. Or if I went over to someone’s house and asked basically for only the side dishes… well, it’s awkward sometimes. But you get used to it, and start to realize that more people than you think are vegetarian or completely understand the decision.

There are some restaurants you just learn to avoid completely (mostly chain ones, such as Applebees, Fridays, etc… but we all know local stores are better anyway!), and a lot of times it’s better to say “Is there any meat in that” versus “I am a vegetarian, can I eat that?”

And for me, avoiding plastic is MUCH harder than avoiding meat! Maybe it’s because more people understand the vegetarian thing.

It’s a big step, a big improvement for the environment & your health to limit meat and try to cut out as many animal products as you can, every little bit helps. Do you look down on yourself for not being 100% plastic free? Nope, so don’t fret over not being 100% animal free. You have years to perfect the art of living animal & plastic free!

I’ve found it hard to eat healthy at restaurants and vegetarian, many have options but they aren’t good unless you want a plan ole salad.

BTW McDonald’s does have vegetarian options…some yummy ones like their parfait :) If given a fast food choice I will take them over BK, Arby’s, etc since I know I have multiple choices of safe and lower cal/fat things to eat.