Dining with vegetarians (when not one)

[Hutong]

Has anyone ever had this experience with people who are religious/strict vegetarians.

I have many vegetarian friends with who I can order my own meat/fishes dishes and it doesn't bother them.

Being an Indian and coming from a Hindu background, there's a certain side of the family that's strict vegetarian. So much so that when we're with them we do not order eat. And if they come to visit we do not have meat as well.

I'm personally okay with it and can happily enjoy vegetarian food. It's just I'd like the choice.

I wouldn't go to a vegetarian household and eat meat though.

Does anyone else have this with friends/family who are vegetarian?

Yes absolutely. I am a vegetarian. I don't mind friends ordering meat while dining out. Not sure what your question is though?

Wouldn’t bother me at all. I’m white British and love Indian vegetarian dishes.

In someone’s home, I will of course respect their rules. For dining out, I will adapt for allergies because I would not want anyone to spend a meal nervous. I’m not changing my preferred order because of religion or philosophy.

I’m already very limited in what I can order when dining out because of allergies, I’m not making my life even harder because of something that does not have any real consequences.

I meant to ask do you have people that when you are eating out with them, do not want you to order meat

Eating out - I prefer to order meat or fish as I often choose a meal I don't normally cook myself. I have a vegan colleague who doesn't even blink when I order a medium steak.

I wouldn't expect a vegetarian to cook meat/fish for me.

If I invite one for dinner I normally cook a vegetarian dish as I find it easier than cooking two or adjusting recipes/adding another main dish. There are plenty of vegetarian dishes I can cook or even cook at home in general.

Some of my family don't eat pork for cultural reasons. I don't eat pork around them. They know I eat it though.

Of course I respect the rules in someone's else home and wouldn't dream of demanding I have meat to eat.

I’m pretty much a lifelong veggie and wouldn’t dream of telling someone they can’t eat meat around me

I'm vegan and I couldn't care less what other people eat when we're out. The only thing I ask is that we pick somewhere with a couple of decent vegan options. I also personally wouldn't have an issue cooking meat/dairy someone else brought to my house for events like Christmas etc, I just wouldn't eat it. It's about supply and demand for me, so I don't find this problematic, though some vegans would 🤷

Honestly though there's lots of great veggie/vegan food and I truly believe it won't hurt anyone to go without meat/dairy for one meal outside of special occasions lol. I think it would be very rude tbh if someone was cooking for you, to ask if you could bring meat along to their house or something 🙈

No one has ever asked that I not order meat or anything else. I have definitely had raised eyebrows eating meat in fridays during lent with my family. I don’t follow their beliefs so I get to enjoy my steak.

I live with my adult child and their partner. Adult child has been a vegetarian for nearly 50 years. They are also the main cook in the house (they find cooking relaxing, I don't understand that , but there you go.)

They cook meat for us regularly, and use a meat thermometer to get the desired (by me and their partners) result.

However, if they didn't want to, finding it distasteful, id hope I would understand.

i don’t eat a lot of meat when out but would if I wanted to

As PP said I’d avoid pork if I knew about religious reasons and I prob wouldn’t order a rack of ribs to chomp on but that’s about it

I have been vegetarian for 35 years and never once in that time have I expected anyone to refrain from ordering meat when eating with me in a restaurant or cooking it in their own home. I wouldn’t have it in the house though.

In fact I prob eat more meat now when out due to the lack of vegetarian options that have been replaced by nasty vegan recipes

No.

If I did, I'd rather go to a veggie restaurant, and indeed there is an Asian vegetarian place I sometimes go to out of choice despite being an omnivore. I think I'd prefer to do that than to go out with someone who wants to control what I order, even though the outcome would be the same. It's also possible this isn't based on logic but rather my enjoyment of vegetable samosas.

I have friends who are vegetarian and some who are vegan. No one has a problem with me ordering whatever I want.

I tend to avoid ordering things like ribs and wings because I can only imagine how seeing me eating off the bone might make them feel but no one had ever asked me to change my order.

SIL is vegan, she doesn't mind if we eat meat around her (DBro eats meat too).

I'm perfectly happy eating vegan dishes at their house, though some of the dairy replacement products she uses don't seem to agree with me so I tend to just eat a bit to be polite.

Is it the cheese?! I can't take to vegan cheese

I’ve had the opposite. I’m a vegan and have a couple of relatives who have made comments about me ordering a vegan meal when we’ve eaten out together.

I’ve never come across and vegetarian or vegan who mentions others eating meat when there’re eating out together but have one friend who is vegan and she avoids eating out with people that eat meat.

Absolutely the vegan cheese! I have massive intolerance to it so would rather go for the steak.

I was in a fancy restaurant and the only vegetarian/vegan starter was broccoli! For a starter. I had chicken wings that I wouldn’t normally have

If I'm around vegetarians I will usually pick a veggie option though not invariably. I've never ever had anyone ask me to do this though.

The nearest I've come to this is having vegge friends check that their food will be cooked separately from meat (usually at a barbecue). No issue with that.

I couldn’t care less about others eating meat but I am quite fussy about utensils being kept separate. People can be so careless. I was helping out at a church event and the woman stirring a meat chilli thought nothing of using the spoon to stir the veggie one. She was mortified when I pointed it out, but too late!

I've been a vegetarian for more than 30 years. I don't expect people not to order meat in a restaurant or to refrain from eating it if I'm at their house for dinner. I won't cook meat for them though, and they definitely don't expect it.
I won't eat anything that has been in contact with meat, and definitely not on the same bbq.

I've been a vegetarian for more than 30 years. I don't expect people not to order meat in a restaurant or to refrain from eating it if I'm at their house for dinner. I won't cook meat for them though, and they definitely don't expect it.
I won't eat anything that has been in contact with meat, and definitely not on the same bbq.

No never had a vegetarian or vegan say anything other than a work colleague who said something about eating ‘decaying flesh’ when we had to each buy a sandwich on an outing (I got a ham sandwich). Didn’t stop me eating it though.