BBC Magazine readers' tales of vegetarian woe

[Second Summer]

20 readers tell their tales. You have to wonder what some of these people were thinking when they went seemingly unprepared to these places!

1. Breanna, Whistler, Canada: I was a vegan when I moved to West Africa in 2002. I rapidly started eating dairy, eggs and fish again just to be able to survive. I not only encountered bewilderment but inevitably would get asked "why no meat?" and end up in long discussions where my friends and colleagues tried to convert me. I tried every explanation: loving animals, hating plants, being a Buddhist, but all in vain. After a few months, I finally hit upon gold. I simply told people that my grandfather had forbidden it before he died. Nobody would dream of asking me - an unmarried young woman - to go against my grandfather's wishes. After that, everyone went out of their way to find meatless dishes for me to eat.

Read it all: 20 of your tales of vegetarian woe (BBC)

 

[Freesia]

From my travels in Puerto Rico, the best thing to do is to get away from the tourist bit and go to an actual supermarket and buy some fruit, vegetables, rice, pasta, lentils, canned tomatoes and beans. An make sure you are staying at a place which has a kitchen/kitchenette, ie avoid hotels and stay in a backpackers or holiday apartment. I just didnt eat out because there was nothing to eat but french fries.

It would be hard on a tour group but then I havent been on a tour since becoming a vegetarian.

 

[Pirate]

From my travels in Puerto Rico, the best thing to do is to get away from the tourist bit and go to an actual supermarket and buy some fruit, vegetables, rice, pasta, lentils, canned tomatoes and beans. An make sure you are staying at a place which has a kitchen/kitchenette, ie avoid hotels and stay in a backpackers or holiday apartment. I just didnt eat out because there was nothing to eat but french fries

Yeah going self catering seems to solve a lot of problems, Id always go self catering if I went away. Not quite as cultural but easier. When I went to Disneyland Paris I went with omnis, stayed in the disney hotel, and it was off-season - so any resteraunts with vegan options I found online before going were closed. couldnt look at french fries for a while after I got back haha. Going to a competely strange country not even armed with a cereal bar seems like madness to me.

 

[AeryFairy]

Uh, some of those people aren't really vegetarian. Like the kosher dude traveling with his Spam because he couldn't get kosher meat.

Looks like I won't be visiting Italy any time soon.

I actually found Italy really easy. The only time I had an issue is where the language barrier caused some confusion, there was a mix-up, and I ended up with a cheese and bacon dish :s

 

[PTree15]

From my travels in Puerto Rico, the best thing to do is to get away from the tourist bit and go to an actual supermarket and buy some fruit, vegetables, rice, pasta, lentils, canned tomatoes and beans. An make sure you are staying at a place which has a kitchen/kitchenette, ie avoid hotels and stay in a backpackers or holiday apartment. I just didnt eat out because there was nothing to eat but french fries.

It would be hard on a tour group but then I havent been on a tour since becoming a vegetarian.

This. I hardly ever eat out when I go to the beach in P.R. because everything has pork or ham in it or lard or whatever. I end up with fries and salad most of the time. We stay in these bare-bones beach cabins that do have a stove and what-not.

 

[thefadedone]

Ugh, the Italian grandmother story reminded me of mine. She always tries to sneak things into food. She always brags about how she sneaks raw eggs into my cousin's milkshakes so he'll gain weight!! It infuriates me.

 

[PTree15]

Ugh, the Italian grandmother story reminded me of mine. She always tries to sneak things into food. She always brags about how she sneaks raw eggs into my cousin's milkshakes so he'll gain weight!! It infuriates me.

Yuck! The thought of that makes me ill. That's awful that she tries to sneak in foods. Why can't people just be accepting already instead of presuming to know what's best for someone? Sheesh!

 

[Freesia]

Also it mentions the South Island of New Zealand. It is actually not "meat country" down there at all. There is amazing produce and you can drive to a supermarket and get anything in terms of dried legumes or fresh vegetables, tofu sausages etc. I first went vegetarian when I was living down there and I just ordered things like scones, muffins etc at cafes.. There were Asian restaurants there too so I could get a vegetable stir fry so there are vegan things to eat in those parts too. I had no problems there, some people hadnt heard of vegetarians but they were still willing to cook things without meat.

 

[Envy]

Geez that could give him salmonella. :/

Only in countries with poor animal handling, I'd say.

 

[lucky_charm]

Yeah going self catering seems to solve a lot of problems, Id always go self catering if I went away. Not quite as cultural but easier. When I went to Disneyland Paris I went with omnis, stayed in the disney hotel, and it was off-season - so any resteraunts with vegan options I found online before going were closed. couldnt look at french fries for a while after I got back haha. Going to a competely strange country not even armed with a cereal bar seems like madness to me.

I've been to Disneyland Paris in off season too- I've stayed in a hotel and gone self catering. The latter was better as I had breakfast at the appartment and made my own packed lunch, but even when staying in the hotel it was fine. Agrabah cafe was probably the best place to eat, but there was also tomato pasta in a couple of the restaurants which I had a few times, I got a salad and avocado sandwich for lunch one day (albeit it came with chips) earl of sandwich does pb&j sandwiches and I've seen a blog post of someone who got a cheeseless pizza at cafe mickey, apparently all the hotels do soya milk at the breakfast too (I found this out on my last day!) so it's not the best but it was ok, plenty of vegan snack foods around the park as well (cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, candy floss, popcorn etc).

I'm going to Rome in summer and we decided before we booked that we would definitely go self catering so we can do breakfast at the appartment and take packed lunches- my experience in Verona was that I could always get something (pasta or cheeseless pizza or bruschetta and salad and chips etc) in the evening at a sit down meal but it was harder to get a snack on the go, although the big tubs of fresh fruit sold on the street were amazing. I have heard there's even vegan ice cream in Rome so ill definitely need to try that.

 

[SummerRain]

I spent a month in Tanzania, with a group so I couldn't get my own food, and despite being reassured countless times I would be catered for as a vegan it was very difficult. I ate plain rice or pasta with either carrots of green beans twice a day, for about a week and a half (with bread and peanut butter every day for breakfast), and two of the other weeks were just as bad. That was hard and I felt really rotten, but luckily they made it possible for me to take a trip into a city and buy some food for myself which really helped. To be fair though, I appreciated that the concept of being vegan was going to be ridiculously alien to the local people serving the food.

So now I think, it can't get worse than that wherever ago! If for no other reason than I'll bring more food for myself in future, no matter how many reassurances I get before hand! I like to try to eat out abroad though, for me that's part of the fun of going to a different country.

 

[Envy]

With the current globalization, I'd say that there is less incitement to go to other countries for food when you just as well could have made it at home.

 

[thefadedone]

So now I think, it can't get worse than that wherever ago! If for no other reason than I'll bring more food for myself in future, no matter how many reassurances I get before hand! I like to try to eat out abroad though, for me that's part of the fun of going to a different country.

With the current globalization, I'd say that there is less incitement to go to other countries for food when you just as well could have made it at home.

But that's the whole point of eating out. You don't have to cook and do all the work.

 

[Lord Snot]

Vegetarian wasn't hard at all in South Africa, we toured round the entire country and I didn't struggle. Vegan would have been very, very hard though.

 

[Pirate]

I've been to Disneyland Paris in off season too- I've stayed in a hotel and gone self catering. The latter was better as I had breakfast at the appartment and made my own packed lunch, but even when staying in the hotel it was fine. Agrabah cafe was probably the best place to eat, but there was also tomato pasta in a couple of the restaurants which I had a few times, I got a salad and avocado sandwich for lunch one day (albeit it came with chips) earl of sandwich does pb&j sandwiches and I've seen a blog post of someone who got a cheeseless pizza at cafe mickey, apparently all the hotels do soya milk at the breakfast too (I found this out on my last day!) so it's not the best but it was ok, plenty of vegan snack foods around the park as well (cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, candy floss, popcorn etc)

Agrabah cafe was closed - I was looking forward to that one! as was practically any resteraunt that wasnt just a burger and chip takeaway. We ate in Planet Hollywood one night and I had a cheeseless pizza. Mickey Cafe was open but it had a massive queue/was expensive so we didnt go in there. Our hotel (the cowboy one) had a breakfast thing but they didnt do soymilk (I asked), lucky Im not big on breakfast anyway. See I read all this stuff before I went, then I get there and its all bloody closed. I did eat a lot of popcorn though! Never saw the PB&J in Earl of Sandwich, thats a shame as my friends ate in there and said it was amazing.