Meat-free travel: vegetarian hits and misses

Look, Vinny vegans do think very much they are better that every body else food wise, they do have this terrible habit of telling people what they don't eat, yes WHAT THEY DON'T EAT. It seems that for them badge of honour to tell other people with more sensible eating habits what they will not eat, and for some strange reason they think this is a testement to their better human traits. Fancy not eating butter, milk, cheese or eggs?

for VietNam, may i suggest my blog?

SaiGon Vegetarian
www.saigonvegetarian.wordpress.com

glenn

mr. strauss 1944 -- you are stereotyping vegans. yes, i met this type, but they are not everyone... not to mention, they seem more this way , from your viewpoint, than they really are.

i was , like you, very critical of vegetarians and vegans before i became a vegetarian. i have my theories as to why i was like this... but i wont go into it here.

safe to say, your post has untruths in it. proof being that you said that all the vegans are like this or like that. the fact that i met at least one already disproves your argument.

and yes, i can imagine not eating the things you mentioned.
i generally dont eat them, i dont miss them... and at the same time, i almost never get ill and people usually think i am 10-18 years younger than i am.

g

Edited by: glennskii

#30 -- I've only known two vegans. Neither of them was like that.

I wonder if the difference is that I never said to either of them "I think it's crazy that you don't eat any animal products." Maybe if I had gone at them like that, they would have defended their position, and perhaps I would have perceived that as preachy.

@VinnyD

I don't know why it's OK for you to lecture vegans on how to behave (drink the tea that involved the killing of animals rather than upset your host) but not for vegans to lecture you on how to behave (don't eat foods that involve the killing of animals)

Ah, but I've not said (nor meant) that they may not lecture me (or indeed anyone) on why it's wrong to do this or that, just that there are certain situations in which I don't think it's appropriate.

I'm quite happy to listen to reasonable arguments of any kind and on any subject. What I don't like is the holier-than-thou attitude of some vegetarians and vegans.

W.

You have a right to tell vegetarians, and anyone, that you think it's bad for vegetarians to proselytize in certain situations.

Vegetarians have a right to tell you, and anyone, that they think it's bad to eat meat, ever.

#32, please do read what i write, please do show me where i said anything at all against vegetarians, please do show me. IMO vegetarians and vegans are two very different animals indeed, vegeterians have a wider range, more sensible, and far more heathy eating habits, while most vegans i have come accross do have i my viewpoint have unheathy ones. Any person who is strict vegan will not eat any animal products like, milk, butter, cheese, eggs and so on, while you may see myself as stereotyping people but i am afraid that is the way i see it, i do not think that vegans i have have known have had a healthy diet.

As an example, during the break up of my 1st marrige i lived in a shared househould, in with we all had rooms and there were 8 of us. We all used to go out every now and again up to Glebe Point Rd on Fridays and Saturday nights, in Sydney to eat at any Restraurant that took our fancy. This night one of our vegans was running late, so i ordered his starter for him, the dish from our local Itatial place was a simple dish of Penne pasta, with eggplant and tomato's with a glug of Olive oil. But our vegan, when he arrieved refusted to eat it because there was an egg used in making the pasta, as i said, a complete pain in the bum!

I worked with a number of people with very strict dietary requirements - including vegan. I had to organise their food requirements for many things.

They weren't unhealthy. No wait, one of the vegetarians was because she ate lots of cheese, did little exercise and basically began to resemble some of the animals she refused to eat.

The rest were normal. Some slimmer, some bigger. It's only the fussy sick looking vegans anyone notices. If someone is healthy and normal and eating an organic vegetarian peanut butter sandwich nobody notices. If someone is eating 3 pieces of lettuce and a celery stick they are assumed to be unhealthy.

I'm back from an extended weekend and with time for a few comments.

Ivor #4 and8, on British food.
While in big cities you can get anything you want, in smaller ones like Aylesbury, where I used to go and visit several times, there were three Indian restaurants in a row, on High Street, and other three or four varieties of Indian in other parts of the town.
There I witnessed also two or three attempts at opening new businesses with Italian or other modern cuisine, all of them unsuccessful and out of business within six months. Then there's pub food and kebabs.

strauss #6
I'm not quite sure if I understand you correctly. The comments that you call "plain silly" are not mine, they are quotes from LP's article that I referred to.

fear_rua #14
ditto strauss.
I'm not a vegetarian, but when in Italy, I often choose a veggie dish as a starter, not deliberately veggie, but it happens to be what I fancy, like a plate of grilled vegetables (zucchini, egg plant, tomato, endives) with a few leaves of green salad. And there is much more to choose from.

linfield #23
"I would imagine Argentina and other Latin American countries would be tough going for veggies"

Not quite. Argentina can be a challenge with omnipresent parillas. But, it can also be the opposite.
Among some indegenous people living in rural Bolivia or Peru, meat is a special treat. They'll have their own chickens and a pig, but they'll slaughter the animal only for a very special occasion. They'll have a meat dish twice a year as only. All the other days they live on mainly potato and quinoa.
There are places where meat is a luxury and the concept of voluntary vegetarianism would be beyond people's comprehension.