Work trip restaurants have no vegetarian options and I hate fuss

[Clockinginat2pm]

Away abroad with work.
We have clients with us, there’s a few of us flown over.
Activities all organised by head office, lovely, it’s really well organised day & evening.
Restaurants booked for each evening… Smash burger place and steak & fish place x2. Checked out menus and there is zero, and I mean zero vegetarian option on any of the menus at all. Starters/mains ALL meat or fish pf some form. There’s not even any sides (which would usually be more go to)

I do not want to draw ANY attention to myself at all as I am excruciatingly dreading these events as I am introvert, socially extremely anxious and feeling very very out of my depth with it all.

Fade into the background is my main aim..

So, do I order something with meat/fish & just pretend to eat it and be hungry for a few days?

I don’t speak the language, the waiter from last night spoke no English so ringing them to order something else is not an option here at all. (I ended up with an appetiser of grilled asparagus which I couldn’t eat so pushed it around my plate for 40 minutes.

Ive used my emergency pack of biscuits as I was starving.
What would you do in my shoes???

Contact head office asap, and tell them to get right on to the agency. This is ridiculous.

Google translate "I am a vegetarian. I do not eat meat or fish. Please help me." in the local language on your phone, and show it to the waiting staff.

France is ok for veggie options in a good size town which has say, galette places and a Lebanese restaurant. Less so in tiny villages with one restaurant where they are really proud of their local beef/duck/pork etc.

OP literally said she was prepared to pick off meat wrapped around asparagus and then eat the asparagus, so I can't see how chips potentially cooked in some sort of meat fat would some how be more meaty than that!

Since when is tomato salad 'a plate of tomatoes.' The key word is SALAD i.e. a mixture of veg, including tomatoes. A salad is a meal. Perhaps not the most filling meal, but a meal nonetheless.

If you have anxiety around eating then maybe going abroad to a multi day work event which you know eating out clearly forms a significant part is not the best idea? Just like someone with a fear of flying probably shouldn't train as a pilot?

It's not like people are saying 'You clearly have extreme social anxiety, maybe you shouldn't get a job as a carpenter.' OP has chosen a job that clearly involves a large amount of professional socialising. The two things are completely connected and thus relevant.

None of this will exist in a typical small Spanish (or French) town. Pretty much every option on the menu will be meat or seafood based. One of the great things about living in the UK is how accepting and accommodating we are of allergies or dietary requirements.

Since when is tomato salad 'a plate of tomatoes.' The key word is SALAD i.e. a mixture of veg, including tomatoes. A salad is a meal. Perhaps not the most filling meal, but a meal nonetheless

In Spain, a tomato salad often is just tomatoes, with salt and olive oil.

A mixed salad usually contains tuna, but it often isn't mentioned on the menu.

Why not? I would be mortified if I had booked something that meant someone going hungry!

Use google translate, write what you need to say and show it to the server. You can then converse using google translate to get something you can eat.

This is what I do as a vegetarian on holiday.

Find a shop and get healthy filling snacks to stay alive

Everywhere has vegatable dishes and potatoe dishes chips salad rice pasta egg cheese, everywhere has bread and deserts and coffee

This! I’ve come back from Spain so malnourished I was vomiting blood and had to be hospitalised.

I think there's an obvious division on this thread between vegetarians who have spent time in small town France and Spain and people who haven't attempted to find something which was meat or fish free in small town France and Spain!
Quiche and a baked potato just doesn't exist.
Germany and Poland are better for baked potatoes! And assorted other good things.

Ha, I spent two weeks utterly miserable in northern Spain with work. I am a lifelong vegetarian, I was early on in pregnancy (so hadn’t told anyone) and the food options were roasted meat. Restaurants weren’t great at providing vegetarian options - it was salad or bust. And given you’re away with work, it’s not always easy to say that you’ll sit a meal out.

I think here is be more comfortable speaking to the restaurant or hotel than my manager and would tell them directly there’s possibly been an error as you’re vegetarian and the message hasn’t got through. Can they help you work on an alternative eg tortilla, chips , omelette, grilled vegetables (give them examples of what you’ll eat “sin carne”) and ask if they can help

No, everywhere doesn't.
Off the beaten track Spain is very traditional and probably only offers local dishes, which are heavily meat or fish.

We travelled round inland Andalucia several years ago and vegetables weren't exactly abundant at mealtimes.

TBH I'm really surprised that the agency booked your party in at a burger place in Northern Spain @Clockinginat2pm when there are probably better places to eat.

I actually sympathise OP, I think people are imagining you're in France or something and this could all be resolved by a simple conversation. There are some cultures where it would genuinely not be widely understood and would definitely come across as rude.

You may have more luck if you can share where you are and there might be some good insider knowledge about how to approach it but otherwise I think you just have to play with your food and come back a bit lighter.

If you visited my inlaws in Ireland you would also struggle to convince them that tinned salmon wouldn't be nice in your salad sandwich or a fried egg cooked at the end of an fry up would be tasty. Or that you can pick the bits of chicken out of your soup.

I feel your pain, last work trip (food included) was a burger place and then the following night fish and chips.
I have no interest in eating unhealthy fried food.
I didn't make a fuss and just didn't order anything - although I fed back to HR that it was not inclusive or healthy/

We have also had a work dinner where they also tried to feed everyone processed vegan shite - so maybe that was a comeback from that?

This is brilliant. Thank you!

Of course you did!

Well, perhaps because I have a son who has issues surrounding food and getting him something he would eat was more important to me than your opinion on my choice. Tapas, middle Eastern? I'd have loved that. He would have starved himself.

Ive been to lots of places in Northern Spain including small villages (and other Spain) and theres nearly always tortilla, certainly will be cheese, olives, often egg and chips although often with ham.

I'm sure there are thanks, but my son with eating issues would not eat at them.

I had tortilla in a cafe in a park in Spain. It was good...but wouldn't be open at dinner time. That was northern Spain.

Along the Northern Coast, particularly in small villages, very little English is spoken. We spent a week in Cantabria, in small villages although small towns are the same, very little or next to no English is spoken.