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difficulties eating out
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 10:43 pmI've been having difficulty at restaurants lately, even at restaurants at which I haven't had difficulties in the past. Once in a while I order something like a rice or noodle dish, not even considering that they might put egg in it, and then I'm unpleasantly surprised.
Several times lately, at different restaurants, I've ordered a dish which by its description seemed completely vegetarian. But when I tasted it, it tasted like beef fat... perhaps they fried it in the same pan after having made a meat dish, without cleaning the pan out. Or perhaps they used meat on purpose for flavoring. Today I ordered a chinese dish of sauteed greens, which turned out to be baby bok choi... but it smelled and tasted strongly of beef fat. I only ate a few bites, before deciding I didn't want to force myself to eat any more of it. I'm wondering if I'm getting paranoid, or if it really is meat that I'm tasting. Sometimes I've even found bits of meat in my dish.
Even when I get a vegetarian dish, I'm never sure if it's actually vegan. At Indian restaurants, I can avoid the dishes that mention cream or paneer, but for the rest, I don't know if they are cooked with ghee or not. With the last Indian dish I ordered, I asked if it could be made without butter, and they said yes they would do that. But when I got it, it looked likely that it had been made with ghee after all... perhaps Indians don't consider ghee to be butter? When we order breads like naan, maybe those are made with dairy... I never know. I'm afraid to ask, because then there might be hardly anything at all on the menu which I could eat.
When I order vegetable sushi, it usually comes with a mound of wasabi paste. I like wasabi. But the wasabi paste I've seen for sale in stores always has lactose in it; does that mean the stuff in the restaurants which I've been eating isn't vegan either?
Sometimes I order something, and it comes with some kind of creamy looking sauce drizzled over it. Am I really vegan, when I end up eating these kinds of things?
I don't want to have to declare to the waiters at each restaurant I go to, that I'm vegan, and what do they have which I can eat? I don't even expect people to know what "vegan" means, so I'd have to explain what I did and did not eat. But I don't want to have to say or explain anything. I want to be able to just order sauteed greens or lemongrass tofu curry or vegetable fried rice from the menu without having to ask what the ingredients are, and without having to specifically request that the cook clean the pan before cooking my food.
What's the likelihood that someone who orders a vegetable entree is *not* vegetarian? It seems quite unlikely to me. So why would a chef cook a vegetable entree in beef fat or with meat as a flavoring?
Several times lately, at different restaurants, I've ordered a dish which by its description seemed completely vegetarian. But when I tasted it, it tasted like beef fat... perhaps they fried it in the same pan after having made a meat dish, without cleaning the pan out. Or perhaps they used meat on purpose for flavoring. Today I ordered a chinese dish of sauteed greens, which turned out to be baby bok choi... but it smelled and tasted strongly of beef fat. I only ate a few bites, before deciding I didn't want to force myself to eat any more of it. I'm wondering if I'm getting paranoid, or if it really is meat that I'm tasting. Sometimes I've even found bits of meat in my dish.
Even when I get a vegetarian dish, I'm never sure if it's actually vegan. At Indian restaurants, I can avoid the dishes that mention cream or paneer, but for the rest, I don't know if they are cooked with ghee or not. With the last Indian dish I ordered, I asked if it could be made without butter, and they said yes they would do that. But when I got it, it looked likely that it had been made with ghee after all... perhaps Indians don't consider ghee to be butter? When we order breads like naan, maybe those are made with dairy... I never know. I'm afraid to ask, because then there might be hardly anything at all on the menu which I could eat.
When I order vegetable sushi, it usually comes with a mound of wasabi paste. I like wasabi. But the wasabi paste I've seen for sale in stores always has lactose in it; does that mean the stuff in the restaurants which I've been eating isn't vegan either?
Sometimes I order something, and it comes with some kind of creamy looking sauce drizzled over it. Am I really vegan, when I end up eating these kinds of things?
I don't want to have to declare to the waiters at each restaurant I go to, that I'm vegan, and what do they have which I can eat? I don't even expect people to know what "vegan" means, so I'd have to explain what I did and did not eat. But I don't want to have to say or explain anything. I want to be able to just order sauteed greens or lemongrass tofu curry or vegetable fried rice from the menu without having to ask what the ingredients are, and without having to specifically request that the cook clean the pan before cooking my food.
What's the likelihood that someone who orders a vegetable entree is *not* vegetarian? It seems quite unlikely to me. So why would a chef cook a vegetable entree in beef fat or with meat as a flavoring?