One day, my friends and I were driving around hungry in the suburbs and couldn't agree on where to eat. We chose to let my friend's iPhone app decide for us, and it led us to some restaurant (houlihan's maybe? I don't quite remember). Upon getting menus, I realized that The vegetarian choices were pretty slim- nearly every appettizer, salad, pasta, soup, and entree contained meat (even the mashed potatoes had bacon in them). Since I choose not to consume meat, eat fairly healthy and money was an issue, my choices were very limited. I didn't want to pay $10 for a chicken salad or beef pasta minus the meat, because in my mind that was way overcharging. I also didn't want to just order fries or mozzarella sticks. Finally I ended up asking our waitress if I could just get the small side bean salad thing that was only offered with the larger, 3 course meal.
The factors that determined this meal were: the fact that I was with friends (I would not have gone to this restaurant otherwise), money, culture (the fact that there were no vegetarian meals at this all- american place both surprised and didn't surprise me at the same time), dietary restrictions as well as my hunger level.
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I can completely relate. I was for a while, during my young, trying-to-be-chic-like-the-celebrities-and-do-good-at-the-same-time phase, a (fish-eating, so not even really) vegetarian. I remember feeling awkward (though I was a teen, so everything was awkward) going to restaurants with my carnivorous friends because there never seemed to be any appetizing options for me. It was either spend way too much money on a salad, which oddly for a pseudo vegetarian, I didn't really like, or buy some wimpy appetizer and go home unsatisfied. And then, being in junior high, I also had to maneuvour around the school cafeteria. If I wanted to eat what the main line provided, I would usually end up with some very lack luster green beans or canned peas and a roll or perhaps some fake mashed potatoes, getting much less for my dollar than the meat eating child in front of me in line (I'm not sure if we could specially order vegetarian meals at my school...I was too shy to look into it I think). Either that or to go the alacart line and spend $3 on a pretzel with cheese. Then of course every kid has to work around what their parent buys. Considering the fact that the local restaurants were just then adding vegetarian menus, and I was an inexperienced teen going to school in an area with one other vegetarian out of 400 students, and had a meat eating family, it's not hard to see how the life-style seemed to leave me very little choice. So when all's said and done, I think my diet was actually worse as a vegetarian. Granted this would be much easier for me now, but it's amazing how differently you see food options when you aren't going with the "I'll eat anything that's cheap" frame of mind.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean but I'm not a vegetarian (infact I love meat). I am a runner and run marathons so during training season, I become avery picky eater trying not to eat unhealthy high sugar and high fat meals which makes it hard choosing what to eat, especially in America where many of our foods are like that. I find myself a lot of the time asking the waiter for them to take out things or maybe if they could add things to the meal. It can be a real pain sometimes and kind of awkward.
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