I can turn into a startling hybrid of the Cookie Monster and Taz the Tasmanian Devil if I’m hungry. Really hungry that is. I cease all activities and that can include talking or being reasonably friendly with whoever I’m with, until I have food again in my belly. After which I continue on merrily as if nothing had happened at all, almost instantly!
This is of more than moderate concern for our world tour ahead. Especially considering that we are both vegetarians. For some reason many people still struggle with the notion and seem more satisfied to simply believe that we are just being unnecessarily problematic or demanding. Considering the difficulties I’ve had in Europe I can’t imagine what lies ahead of us in some less progressive places. One time in a restaurant here in Den Haag the waitress, upon seeing my disappointed face when served my horrific looking meal announced in a very patronising voice It’s your fault for being vegetarian!
France has always proved to be a particular challenge. For a country with a reputation for good cuisine they can be astonishingly narrow minded and unadventurous when it comes to food. I was once forced into a debate with a waiter in Paris about the sandwich he served me after I had asked for one without meat. This, is not meat! he yelled pointing at the ham in my sandwich. Of course it is I retorted, deciding that my argument was strong enough to keep my line of defence simple. After a moment’s thought he simply spat back It is not! like a spoiled 10 year old, turned his back and stormed off leaving me to contemplate the ham sandwich and the bill he’d left with it.
My last trip to Paris was no better when it came to food. The worst was in a restaurant where we ordered the stuffed peppers, being the only item on the menu not to have meat in its description. When it arrived it was a pepper stuffed with beef. Describing our dilemma the waiter informed us they could whip up an omelette and vegetables. While a little underwhelmed my hunger monster was beginning to grow so I agreed to the offer. When they arrived the omelette and vegetables turned out to be a half raw poached egg on rice with tasteless green beans. The dish was inedible. When the waiter returned later to take our plates he didn’t say a word at our obviously untouched food but the implication was that he shared the views of that Den Haag waitress.
So I’ve decided to employ some preemptive strikes against the inevitable challenges ahead. I’ve come to the conclusion that it is actually a ridiculously fabulous excuse to eat as much as I want! I keep telling myself that it is essential I store up an impressive reserve of fat for the difficult times ahead. At this rate I’ll be rolling into South America.
You will indeed struggle a bit in South America as a veggie but there are options if you’re determined enough – practice your “Sin carne por favor – Necessito Vegetarino!”
quick – great phrase to learn, thanks a million!
I have now shared my life with a vegetarian for eight years, and, ahem, no sympathy, sorry!
hidh – then you will not need to be told how fabulous we are
Hell no – I think it’s just as annoying and morally self-gratifying as any other religious dietary law. As I said, no sympathy!
it sounds like you have unresolved issues there
I tend to deparate morals from food!
I do
Living with a veggie should be classified as a form of domestic violence.
lol. you do make me chuckle. i cannot cope at all with hunger. drives boyf mental when we go on our hols. even now i have oat cakes and a plum in my handbag. just in case.
roll in to south america lol. i have visions of that little girl in charlie and the chocolate factory!
Somehow, I find the idea of an emergency backup plum terribly, terribly funny.
As a veggie for 34 years, I sympathise totally. I’ve also had plenty of inedible rubbish and belligerent servers. All you can do as you say is scour the menu for veggie options and hope they really are. And I suppose look for Asian and Italian food where veggie options are more likely. Better still, head for somewhere like Gujarat where the diet is almost exclusively vegetarian and it’s carnivores who’re treated with contempt.
towny – must remember to keep an emergency stash with me too
nick – it’s on the cards, in fact food is one of the big reasons we’re both so excited about India!
You should be fine in most places in India, anyway, yep…
omg I feel you on this one!!! Sometimes I wish I was a vegetarian because veganism is damn near IMPOSSIBLE in restaurants!
Are you still going to blog during your travels, because I’d really love to follow along and see how you’re doing, where you’re going, etc.
amanda – too true, I can’t imagine how difficult you must have it! The plan is to blog when I can – I have bought a little netbook and all soon I’m well prepared
Oh I can so sympathize, I was vegan and/or vegetarian for years annd years and am nearly there again. It is a huge travel challenge and on trips to Ireland back then it was pasta or die and appalled contempt from my meat and spuds chomping rellies.
I know about the insta-grat thing on the food, I become an animal when unfed.
XO
WWW
thank god bread is not a meat. you can have bread, cheese, fruit and wine everywhere you go. and chocolate.
(i wonder what that waiter thought ham was, exactly??)
www – actually Ireland and the Netherlands are way better than they used to be – there is usually at least one option on the menu – not always though
laurie – they are pretty much all my favourite things anyway
You’ll struggle in South America . . land of the meativore. They also include fish and chicken as ‘vegetarian’ fare. If you ask if a dish contains ‘carne’ you’ll likely get a ‘no’ and find yourself eating fish or chook. . . fortunately, unless you’re really roughing it . . there are good vegie restaurants and plentiful fresh produce and cheese . . everyone loves cheese righ? Practice this line: “Sin carne, jamón y pollo”. Qué significa “puerco”?
Good luck! Storing up is always a good thing. It’s what I tell myself if I eat too many cookies: storing up sugar for the weeks ahead (and then I eat an enormous amount of cookies again the next day of course).
i thought of you yesterday. boyf and i went on a wee road trip and just before we left boyf turned to me and said “now towny, do you have the required amount of snackage with you?” lol
the MITM has taken to carrying chocolate covered animal cookies when we go out, for me, of course. since everyone knows i turn into a 7 yr. old when i’m hungry! (i have no idea what this has to do with y’alls post, but i think y’all will understand. right, sugar?) xoxoxox
Really, the French are not narrow-minded and unadventurous with food – quite the opposite in fact. They just don’t understand why anyone would be a vegetarian.
Like with every other aspect of life in France, there’s the French way of doing it and the wrong way. If you don’t do it the French way, then you’re doing it the wrong way. Annoying, I know (trust me, I KNOW) but hey, as they say – c’est comme ça…..
baino – I certainly love cheese, as does the newfie
marjolein – it’s delicious fooling ourselves isn’t it!!
towny – hehe I love it!!
savannah – that would certainly do for me too
travelling – ‘there’s the French way of doing it and the wrong way. If you don’t do it the French way, then you’re doing it the wrong way’ nope doesn’t sound narrow-minded at all
Anyways our good friend Patrice also used narrow-minded to describe French cuisine when I told him the story and he knows A LOT about French food!
One of the main reasons I’m not a vegetarian, other than my all consuming lust for the flesh and blood of dead things, is that it restricts your potential to try new things. It narrows your pallet, no two ways about it, and that would drive me spare-especially when traveling.
one, two, yup, there’s my two cents