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Original poster

Mushroom. Fucking. Risotto.

392 replies

CompleteBarstool · 01/08/2021 12:40

We're on a rare trip away, been looking forward to it for ages especially about having some lovely food.

Now I discover tonight's veggie option is mushroom risotto. Mushroom. Fucking. Risotto.

What's the meal that makes your heart sink?

OP posts:
PurpleDaisies · 03/08/2021 16:59

@amispeakingenglish

I often wonder why so much vegetarian food is encased in pastry????

Also why is it always GOATS CHEESE??? Who thinks just because you are a veggie you want stinking horrible goats cheese???

Yes! Pastry on a roast dinner is the worst. I don’t want a pie to replace the meat on my Sunday dinner.
OchonAgusOchonOh · 03/08/2021 17:22

I love goat's cheese. I also love pastry thingies.

Another atrocity I recall was a "stuffed vegetarian pancake". Out arrive two tortillas with a few veg swimming in a gloopy, tasteless white sauce. When I disputed their claim that a tortilla was a pancake, I was told that it was either that or just the veg on their own. I had to expected a shite meal in that particular restaurant (not my choice) but they really surpassed my expectations.

On a side note, why do some meat eaters (my main horrors were at meals organised by family or in-laws) not consider the tastes, preferences or dietary restrictions of those they have invited along?

Original poster
CompleteBarstool · 03/08/2021 17:34

It's possible to like something though but then be really put off it if it appears on menus or your plate too often.

For example, as a vegetarian in France 25+ years ago when every single place that was able to provide a meal served me goats cheese .....goats cheese and bread, goats cheese and salad, goats cheese and chips fries, just goats cheese .... They were all really goaty too.

I couldn't face it for years after that. Even now I'm transported back to that holiday if I have a a particularly goaty cheese.

OP posts:
Original poster
CompleteBarstool · 03/08/2021 17:38

Also, in a very posh French restaurant (that had been warned beforehand that vegetarian me would be there) served me a delightful dish of a few pieces of cooked vegetables with coarse ground salt on them.Hmm

That's one occasion where I would have welcomed Mushroom. Fucking. Risotto.

OP posts:
KittenKong · 03/08/2021 17:59

@CompleteBarstool

It's possible to like something though but then be really put off it if it appears on menus or your plate too often.

For example, as a vegetarian in France 25+ years ago when every single place that was able to provide a meal served me goats cheese .....goats cheese and bread, goats cheese and salad, goats cheese and chips fries, just goats cheese .... They were all really goaty too.

I couldn't face it for years after that. Even now I'm transported back to that holiday if I have a a particularly goaty cheese.

I generally found most vegetarian dishes in France included some form of pork. I’m sure it’s better now (this was on the 80s).

Actually I went to a family bbq. The only food served that didn’t have bloody meat or fish was the fresh melon. Even the potato salad and salad leaves had bloody bacon in it. Thankfully we had brought wine, so wine and melon it was...

moonbedazzled · 03/08/2021 18:01

I LOVE goats cheese. There cannot be enough goats cheese on my plate. 😋

HumbugWhale · 03/08/2021 19:20

Actually one of the best meals I have ever eaten was at a lovely village restaurant in France. I went in to book a table and explained in my dodgy French that I do not eat meat or fish. They said they would do me something special and they certainly did. Lots of small vegetable and lentil dishes and a whole, beautifully prepared artichoke with butter. My carnivore friends were quite envious!

KittenKong · 03/08/2021 19:25

When I turned veggie as a young teen we used to go to France a lot. Poor dad - I told him what the correct word for vegetarian was, but he I decided to tell the waiter on a restaurant what I didn’t eat (long list - meat, fish, hams, crab.....). The waiter said ‘aha!’ And looked happy with himself. He then brought over a large plate of various sausages for me 🙄. In another restaurant they brought me my vegetarian pasta dish - with a rotisseries chicken leg on top.

I lived on banana sandwiches! As the waiter in the local restaurant told dad ‘we don’t get many of them around here’

moonbedazzled · 03/08/2021 19:25

@HumbugWhale. That sounds lovely. I'm quite envious. I've found France one of the worst countries for vegetarian meals to be honest. And also, strangely, America. I thought there'd be tons of veggie stuff there. Oh, and China. China was the worst. You'd think they'd have loads of vegetarian food there. I just don't understand it.

Starlabear · 03/08/2021 19:40

Oh sorry!! I just meant generally - a friend has to temporarily avoid dairy, gluten, egg and soy so eating anything is problematic, but soy is the one that randomly seems to appear in stuff.

Starlabear · 03/08/2021 19:43

Last message was meant to be replying to @Slothkin...

HumbugWhale · 03/08/2021 19:47

@moonbedazzled I agree, France is hard work for veggies although I did find a really lovely veggie restaurant in Strasbourg many years ago. USA is dreadful in general. NYC is fine and has an amazing vegan restaurant that I loved, the food there was really imaginative and there was no fake cheese in sight! I imagine LA would be ok too but I've never been.

Nutrigrainygoodness · 03/08/2021 19:51

I'll have your mushroom risotto OP I haven't had that for ages.

My friend is currently living out of a hotel while doing some training. So it's weeks and weeks of looking at the same menu (pub grub) 5 days a week. She has to put herself on some sort of meal rotation 😂

Ddot · 03/08/2021 21:02

My friend went to france and was served chicken because apparently vegetarians eat chicken, so it was plonked in front of her by the landlady. I went to Turkey but after a few days I had had enough of eating fish (I eat fish but not meat) maybe once a week. The cook was sent out to talk to me, he promised to cook me something special. First time I'd eaten couscous and I've never had anything like it since. It was delicious, everyone had their fork in it 🤣🤣

Original poster
CompleteBarstool · 03/08/2021 21:18

Rather bizarrely Turkey was somewhere where I found a purely vegetarian restaurant almost in the arse end of nowhere about 30 years ago.

One of the classic dishes there was a starter that was what I think was garlic-y mashed potato with crinkle cut crisps to dip into it 😆

OP posts:
Slothkin · 03/08/2021 21:50

Thanks @Starlabear and @Elphame, I had a moment of panic it might be like parmesan cheese or something and surprise! not vegetarian! after I’d happily fed it to friends.

moonbedazzled · 03/08/2021 23:50

@Ddot

My friend went to france and was served chicken because apparently vegetarians eat chicken,

I went to Holyroodhouse Palace about 5 years ago. As a tourist not an official! We went into the dining room and it was all set up and on the side was a menu from the last official meal. The vegetarian option was fish! Sigh. You sort of think that uk govts should know better. I pointed it out to the housekeeper or steward - a woman in a managerial role anyway, and she glared at me and whisked the menu away. So if you ever dine there and you get a proper veggie meal, you're welcome.

Ddot · 04/08/2021 06:32

Ta x

BlueLobelia · 04/08/2021 07:40

Stories from vegetarian DH.

When his best friend invited us out for a meal for his 50th at a club where you had no options, just what they cooked. I reminded best friend that DH was a vegetarian.

When our meals arrived everyone had filet of beef en croute. When DH asked the server i there was a veg dish his best friend said incredulously; 'Oh I just thought you were taking the piss?'. TBF DH had only been veg for about 2 years at that point, yet wouldn;t you make sure if you were unsure and considering DH has never been a taking the piss sort......

going to a BBQ. I said to the host that DH was veg and would she like me to bring some items for him so she need not worry. Her reply was 'he can go sit in the kitchen with his fucking carrot sticks then'.

However, we used to live near an Ethiopian restaurant and the vegetarian and vegan options were beyond sublime. I still dream of them.

KittenKong · 04/08/2021 07:42

Nah. My family BBQ with the only option of melon and wine wins!

BlueLobelia · 04/08/2021 07:55

There is no excuse for it. Particularly nowadays when even Aldi offer a full range of vegetarian and vegan delectables you can throw in the BBQ!

HumbugWhale · 04/08/2021 08:16

We have a few family members who don't cope very well with me being veggie. I have been served a microwave veg lasagne for Christmas dinner before! A favourite trick is to cook a roast for everyone, provide a frozen ready meal for me, large enough to serve a family of 6, and then complain that they bought it specially and I haven't even finished it!

WhatsMyNameGonnaBeNow · 04/08/2021 08:18

@KittenKong I feel your pain! Three years in a row, me DH and 2 dc at my parents for Christmas dinner eating mashed potato and overcooked bland veg (cos the veg is only a side to the important bit of the meal ie the meat). Not allowed to bring a vegetarian dish because even that’s too stressful for them to cook/heat up 🙄, they forgot goose fat potatoes were out for us and, as has been the case since I was 14 and went vegetarian, only remembered when serving the food that they’d made sausage meat stuffing.

It wasn’t the only reason we decided to do Christmas at home but I’ll admit it was 50% of it! We’re actually pescatarian but the only fish my parents and siblings will consider comes frozen, in breadcrumbs. Also, see above re can’t possibly bring a dish…

I’m totally with all the posters unhappy that vegan options have replaced vegetarian. I do not want to eat fake cheese and I’ve come to hate butternut squash with a depth of feeling I didn’t know I was capable of. Just why is it added to every savoury vegetarian/vegan dish? It’s the equivalent of sprinkling a bloody flake on mashed potatoes!

Oh and eating fish but not meat can mean a better variety of options obviously but so many restaurants now seem to feel the urge to add meat to fish dishes. It was chorizo for ages, now it’s the ubiquitous ‘nduja ffs.

A couple of friends are determined to “treat” me as a thank you for some help this year. They’ve booked a very expensive restaurant they love and are always banging on about and it’s impossible to get out of it without offending. I’ve seen the menu - loads of varied meat dishes, meat in the fish options and the tiny number of veggie options are bns x 3 OR something that sounds like a very fancy way to describe………………..

Mushroom. Fucking. Risotto! Sad

inappropriateraspberry · 04/08/2021 11:06

I remember as a teenager on a school ski trip to Italy, trying to explain to the hotel waiters that, no, ham was not vegetarian! Luckily they did good pasta and I didn't mind eating similar each night then!

TheOrigRights · 04/08/2021 11:38

The best vegetarian meal I was served was at a conference near Seville.

It was a whole iceberg lettuce sliced in half. That's it.

Luckily they served copious amounts of wine to go with it.