to think it tedious that vegetarians never reciprocate the favour

[Hermi0ne]

Now, I´m not mightily peed off at this, and I really dont want to offend any veg´s here but I have quite a few veg friends and over the years you invite ppl over for meals and in turn get invited etc. I always cater for their vegetarian lifestyle choice (because thats what it is, its not an allergy, thats different), but they never cater for mine. This is just something I´ve been musing about for awhile now, nothing too serious. But I really like my meat and think its unfair that vegetarians expect meat eaters to pander to them but most of them never even dream of doing meat eaters the same favour!

Risottos and the like seem a bit poor if you are used to having shellfish or chicken in them

I make a really good green veg risotto with a melting lump of fried blue cheese on top.

What do you mean by "poor"? Not filling enough? Lacking flavour? Or is it "in your head"?

"Risottos and the like seem a bit poor if you are used to having shellfish or chicken in them."

I wouldn't know, lol, but I tend to make tomatoey ones and they don't seem to need anything extra in them.

I don't think anyone on here has said they will be seriously offended or let down if they are served a vegetarian meal. I also don't think anyone is saying that they actually expect a vegetarian to go and buy a joint of lamb to cook for every meal.

But if you do eat meat with most meals, then there is the possibility that you just don't enjoy vegetarian meals quite as much as you enjoy meals that contain meat.

Doesn't mean you don't like or enjoy the vegetarian meal at all. Doesn't mean you're offended or disappointed eating it. Just means that as a personal choice, you prefer roasts, ribs, seafood paella etc.

Butternut squash and feta cheese risotto is one of my favourite things and I served when my best friend came around for dinner last week. Sides of posh olives, fresh rosemary and potato bread, rocket and watercress salad. No meat in sight.

We are both meat eaters. Presumably I was being unreasonable.

Keepit - yes: I mean when you check with a vegetarian that (say) they are OK with mushrooms (as lots of people aren't), and they say 'don't make me anything special, I'll just have the veggies, honest'. Although I probably still would.

CultureSucksDownWords

I enjoy the whole process.

Planning my hunt I study the weather, where the intended animals to hunt are on my land by use of trail cameras and my dogs tracking the scent.

I then head out with my guns and set about tracking them or laying in wait until they (hopefully) show where I think they will.
Often this can be quite odd hours so you see some amazing things - sunrises and sunsets over the river, the stars at night. All the animals that come out when you're just sat quietly for a couple of hours are eye opening, you'd never see them walking your dog as they smell or hear you a mile away and hide. I've had foxes, deer, hares just stroll past me feet away. Last year I had rested my gun against a fence as I waited and a kingfisher came and sat on the barrel - I could have reached out and touched it!

Once they show up, you have to steady your breathing while you take your shot ( you wouldn't believe how much your hands shake and heart pounds when you're in that moment before a shot). Once you shoot, you have the satisfaction of knowing that your quarry had a swift , humane end without being transported to an abattoir and then electrocuted.

I use everything that is useable from the animal and endeavour to waste as little as possible. If I kill a large animal then it's venison or wild boar all round for friends and family.

As a keen cook, I then enjoy expanding my repertoire of recipes.

Walter, is that you?

Thurlow
I don't think anyone on here has said they will be seriously offended or let down if they are served a vegetarian meal.

I'd say that the OP is feeling let down.

But if you do eat meat with most meals, then there is the possibility that you just don't enjoy vegetarian meals quite as much as you enjoy meals that contain meat.

Preferring some dishes with meat might be understandable, but if somebody feels that no meal without meat is quite good enough/complete, then the issue is a psychological barrier.

Suburban.

I'm veggie, and will cook meat for others. My husband and daughter are meat-eaters, I used to eat meat, and I can't impose my personal values onto them.

But I'll only do it for people who don't have massive chips on their shoulders. People with the OP's attitude can fuck the fuck right off.

I'm veggies and ai have cooked meat for friends, lots of whom only eat meat a few times a week. Eating it twice a day every day is really unhealthy.

This thread is absolutely hilarious. Surely a windup.

My suggestion would be, if you have to go to a previously pandered to vegetarian's house and have to go a couple of hours without meat, perhaps you could put a cow's leg or something in the boot of your car and nip out for a quick gnaw every so often.

HTH.

Jules that is plain silly.

People who aren't vegetarians don't eat, or expect to eat, meat constantly - it's not that 'going a couple of hours without meat' is an issue, as I'm sure you realise.

It's that if you spend time and effort providing vegetarian food for guests because they prefer it, as a good host, then in some situations it can be annoying to be expected to yum up Quorn and agree that it's really no different from actual meat (or butternut squash, or spinach and ricotta, whatever). If the vegetarians the OP is thinking of are fairly demanding, as I assume is the case or she wouldn't be thinking in this way, then I can see that it is irritating that you eat on the vegetarians' terms whether you're in their house or your own.

It was meant to be silly SteamingNit
It made me laugh

You could go to the meal wearing one of these T Shirts.

www.cafepress.com/antivegetarian

Vegetarians don't just "prefer" not to eat meat. They have chosen not to, often for ethical or moral reasons, or for religious or cultural reasons. If you have a vegetarian around for dinner then serving them meat when you know they are vegetarian is beyond being a bad host, it's rude and offensive. If you are annoyed or offended by being forced to eat non-meat meals occasionally when seeing your vegetarian friends then I really think that is ridiculous.

No one as far as I can see has answered the point about Jewish/Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist etc people being required to serve meat that they wouldn't have in the house normally for religious reasons? Perhaps someone could explain why that's different (or the same?)

Maninawomansworld - do you actually enjoy seeing an animal being shot/killed? Not the hunt, the chase, the targeting etc but actually deriving enjoyment from seeing an animal being injured, then dying?

Here is how to solve the problem op - next time you have a vegetarian round for dinner - have the vegetarian for dinner. You have a delicious long pig supper and there is no awkward unsatisfying return meal at the vegetarian's to worry about. Easy.

From hosting vegetarians to human cannibalism in seven easy pages.

If there's going to be cannibalism, it should be autocannibalism on the part of the meat eater. That way, the vegetarian isn't forced to comprise their beliefs.

Maninawomansworld - do you actually enjoy seeing an animal being shot/killed? Not the hunt, the chase, the targeting etc but actually deriving enjoyment from seeing an animal being injured, then dying?

No, obviously not - you'd have to be some sort of sicko to enjoy that bit.
I go to great lengths to make sure the time from the animal getting shot to actually loosing consciousness is as short as possible by selecting the correct gun / ammo and making sure I am proficient in it's use. Death is normally instant, I would judge anything more than a couple of seconds to be unnecessary and cruel.

It is satisfying when a bird hits the ground and you know from the thump that it is stone dead - no suffering! Or a the 'thwack' a bullet makes when it connects cleanly with a larger animal such as a deer or boar. Again, you know from the sound that you've hit it absolutely perfectly and the animal would have known absolutely nothing whatsoever of it's death.

It's the way I'd want to go.

I'd rather be ancient, in bed and with my family around me but each to their own.

So if the actual killing of an animal is not what you enjoy, can't you find a way to satisfy all those other parts of the hunting process that don't include the suffering and killing of animals? Why do the animals have to die to entertain you?

Can you be 100% sure that everything you eat didn't directly or indirectly cause the suffering and killing of animals? It is a slow and nasty death to be poisoned by the runoff off from pesticides, and much nastier than being stunned. I think maninawomansworld means that the satisfying part is not so much in the death or the killing but in knowing where the food comes from and how it was raised/grown. I agree with that, it is one of the nicest things in life. You know nothing suffered, nothing travelled and nothing is being exploited. Everyone should eat ethically, whatever they eat. Killing wood pigeon with one shot and eating it IMO is more ethical than eating bananas if you don't live anywhere near their origin and have no clue how they were grown and if anything else suffered in order to ensure a good crop.

You're probably completely right Tomato, the ethics of modern food production suck generally.

However, I cannot understand how anyone can choose to deliberately and personally kill another creature when they don't have to.

I go to great lengths to make sure the time from the animal getting shot to actually loosing consciousness is as short as possible by selecting the correct gun / ammo and making sure I am proficient in it's use. Death is normally instant, I would judge anything more than a couple of seconds to be unnecessary and cruel

it's great that you can eat meat which comes from animals that have led a natural life and been dispatched with the minimum of suffering.
well done you

I expect many others would ideally like to only eat mean which was cruelty free but as I'm sure you realise it wouldn't be possible to satisfy modern demand without factory farming.

Your clear conscience is a luxury that you wouldn't be able to have if everyone else also wanted to eat meat ethically

I am not a vegetarian because I am squeamish about meat and I started life in a farming community where I watched my neighbour skinning rabbits and our dog used to help the local hunters and we had a cow field at the end of our garden.

The reality is that a mainly vegetarian diet is more sustainable than a meat based diet. I am happier as a vegetarian. If you want to hunt and scavenge all your own food marvellous. But if you are Hugh Fearnley-total twat then you can take your middle class aspirational man of the land bollocks and place it on the dark side of your moon.

I'm not sure that modern factory farming is really so much about meeting demand, there is actually a big problem of over production in many areas. As the wife of a dairy and beef farmer I can say that a lot of factory farming is about saving time and making more money for the farmer. That's not production because the demand will be met either way.