Wednesday 23 January 2013

Vegetarianism in the news!

It's all a bit crazy here at the moment! I am trying to finish my uni course and so my essays are priority which means not much time for blogging about vegetarian food. However - there is still lots going on behind the scenes!

I have read a couple of good articles about vegetarianism around lately, so I wanted to share them with you and give you some thoughts on them:

Where Vegetarianism is an exotic illness and 20 Tales of Vegetarian Woe - These articles tells tales of how hard it is to be a Vegetarian in some parts of the world. As a seasoned traveller I can very much relate. Although Vegetarian food in this country has drastically improved over recent years - especially in the supermarket, it is still hard to find good veggie food in restaurants, and in some countries abroad, it is even harder.

In the USA, I typically end up living on Cheese Quesedilla's, garden salad's and potato chips, as it is virtually impossible to get anything else, although I do remember an awesome pasta dish I was served in a Steakhouse - Pasta Alfredo with lots of garden veggies in it.

When we went on a school Choir trip to Prague once, I think I ended up living on cheese and bread - the fail-safe vegetarian alternative as none of their dishes were vegetarian and as we didn't speak the lingo, it was impossible to ascertain whether they were or not!

We like to cruise with an Italian Cruise firm and I have to say, I never fail to find things to eat as Italian food is one of the most vegetarian friendly. You can't go wrong with a margarita pizza, or Pasta in tomato sauce. They even had some great vegetarian options for their 5 course dinner's every night - although they don't label the food vegetarian, so it's a bit of a guessing game to figure out whether the food is vegetarian or not. I have also had to send "vegetarian" dishes back on numerous occasions as they contained meat.

A recent trip to France proved quite interesting as although France is the land of bread and cheese - they don't do well at other vegetarian food, even though they have improved in recent years. A dance trip to France as a teenager is particular memorable as I think I lived on Fried Egg and Chips all week. This time the selection did include Vegetarian Burger's and more pasta, but I still don't think France is the most Vegetarian-friendly country.

Germany too is a Vegetarian's nightmare. Amongst all of the Bratwurst, beyond chips, and salad, there is not much that they sell in restaurants without meat. Thank goodness we were staying with lovely friends who did cook Vegetarian food for me.

Whenever I go abroad, I always go with the expectation that I probably will be living on very basic foods such as bread/cheese/salad/pasta - as then, I can't be disappointed, and I am always pleasantly surprised when I find something I can eat. After 20 years of being a Vegetarian, my expectations are typically low when I walk into any restaurant or shop - in this country, or abroad. Apart from the occasional gem, the only way I can typically get delicious, flavoursome food, is to buy tried and tested vegetarian brands in the supermarket, or,  if I cook it myself.

What are you bad or good experiences of eating Vegetarian food abroad? Do you have any secret tips to share?

10 comments :

  1. I find in Eastern Europe (starting in Germany) everything has sausage added to it - even soup. In France everything is with ham. Slowly slowly I believe things are changing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely - they do add sausage to everything, although hopefully, slowly, things are beginning to change - I think it's definitely better than it used to be!

      Delete
  2. We don't travel much, but this is my experience too. When we went to Barcelona 15 years ago I mainly ate fries and ice cream from McDonalds! We're going again this year and now I have a fussy vegetarian son too. I'd like to feed him more than that if I can! Part of the reason we went to Thailand for honeymoon was because we were told it was vegetarian. It turns out that mainly meant fish! I too had to send a fair few things back!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know - the word vegetarian means so many different things. Maybe you could find somewhere that does spanish omelette in Barcelona - or a nice tapas place - at least that should give you some options with various different cheese, veg and potato dishes..

      Delete
  3. I have been grateful for Margharita pizzas in country's all over the world! In recent years I haven't been abroad so often so had kind of assumed, that like it has here, many other countries may have improved, but perhaps not!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yum margharita - the fail safe veggie dish!

      Delete
  4. We've visited Sicily a few times in the last few years - it's been great because there are lots of dishes that are vegetarian, and for picky eaters there's usually the fallback of pizza. I also love having somewhere to cook for ourselves - it's a great excuse to visit markets and use local ingredients.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sounds good - we may be visiting scicily soon

      Delete
  5. Many people think Greece might fall in the category of a vegetarian's nightmare, but surprisingly almost half of what you'll find on the menus in Greek tavernas is actually vegetarian. They specialise in all sorts of veggie treats like cheese pastries, fried courgettes, bean stews and stuffed vegetables. Trying to find tofu in Greece is a different story though!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Lisa - Yes I love greek food!

    ReplyDelete

ShareThis

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...