Meat-free travel: vegetarian hits and misses

#7 Your misinformed.

The food in the UK I think gets a bad rap from the rest of the world, I think there is a huge diversity in the food available. The comment in #7, I think refers to the 'food image' the UK had back in the 1960's and 1970's. However, although there are a lot of vegetarian options on UK menus, when we last visited I found it difficult to find a veggie meal which didn't have some kind of cheese involved. This cut my options considerably as I can't eat a lot of cheese and these dishes were smothered in it!

The other place where it is almost impossible to eat vegetarian is the Philippines, when you ask for a veggies dish you are asked if you want the chicken or pork version, when you clarify no meat, the reply is usually 'oh, plain rice?'.

Areas with large Buddhist populations (and India as mentioned) are fantastic for veggie food, Thailand, China and Malaysia are particularly good for vegetarian food.

#10 &#11.Just joshing,but partially based on personal experiences,mostly in and around London, back in the '60's &70's.:-))
"Stimson on the Strand" served marvellous and affordable English roast beef buffet lunches though.
"Veerasamy's" served excellent "authentic" Indian/ Briddish Indian curry dishes at relatively astronomical prices as did "Lee How Fook"(Garrard St) flogging "Chinese/Cantonese" roast duck/barbecued pork rice and noodle dishes.
Italian resturants were everywhere as well.

(Sub-Saharan) Africa is to a very great extent vegetarian no man's land. Most people just can't get their head around the idea that someone would willingly give up something they consider a treat and a privilege. In Kenya, for example, if you refuse your host's generous offer of an evening of beer and nyama choma, he might be seriously offended (and not entirely without reason, if I may disclose my personal view). The larger cities will have Indian communities, however, and these are mostly your only chance of finding decent vegetarian food.

W.

I'm surprised that you think Italy would be bad for vegetarians. Sure, a main course in an Italian restaurant almost by definition involves meat, chicken or fish, but you can easily find vegetarian pasta dishes in pretty much every restaurant, as well as vegetarian pizzas, and these are almost guaranteed to be prepared without any non-vegetarian ingredients because of Italian cooking techniques, which unlike in some other countries don't usually use animal fats or stocks in preparing such dishes. There are also increasing numbers of vegetarian restaurants in bigger cities.

#11 Sorry I forgot the british empire was still going during the 60's & 70's...silly me.

"Stimson on the Strand"

Simpson's in the Strand. Your definition of affordable was different from mine in those days.

I think the problem with Italy might be vegan, rather than vegetarian. An awful lot of pasta is made with eggs. There's cheese. Butter is used in northern Italy. Good old minestrone often has a meat broth or a piece of cheese rind in it. There are cheese-free pizzas, and, of course, vegetables & salads, but I expect those could get tiresome.

I looked at a few vegan travel sites & the consensus for most of continental Europe seems ot be "vegan is doable, but not easy."

I met a couple of vegans in eastern Turkey a few years back. They were having a hard time of it.

But on reflection, is there anywhere in Europe and the Middle East where vegans wouldn't have a hard time?

Edited by: fear_rua

Greece and Turkey tend to use just a little bit of meat with vegetables. Then they will use that as a main course, which is probably healthier than the northern European/North American way of doing things, and better for the animals, but still not so good for vegetarians.

In the Arab world I guess you could get by on foul, hummus, bread, chips, salads, falafel/taamia, and mutabbel/baba ghanouj, but it would get pretty boring.