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!

Well firstly there's the whole issue of not wanting to cook or handle dead flesh.

Then there's the fact that surely no one eats meat at every meal?

And then...I can't cook meat, I have no idea how to as I never needed to learn. So you'd really prefer me to cook something badly that I think is disgusting and won't even be tasting at any point to see if it's edible over something I know I can cook well?

Your generalisation isn't accurate. I know vegetarians willing to cook meat for their carnivorous friends.

I cook nice vegetarian food, and anyone veggie or non veggie can eat it. If I go to someones house I inform them I am vegetarian and I always say I am happy to just eat vegetables - no one died from missing protein for one meal. But usually they are happy to cater for me. I've always got the option of not going.

I don't cook or consume meat or fish - those are my principles, so if you want to eat at my house you have to accept that or not come. That's your choice. If you are rude and awkward about it and too thick to see that my choice is a belief not a preference, then I doubt you'd be on my guest list anyway.

If I invite friends to dinner they will get a tasty vegetarian meal. i don't know how to cook a tasty meat meal because I've never done it. To my knowledge none of my friends have ever been bothered by this. I doubt I'd ever invite you for dinner because I don't think we would be friends :)

It probably depends on why they are a vegetarian - one friend cannot digest meat due to a health problem but she has no problem cooking meat for the rest of the family and friends, my sister is a vegetarian because she believes it's more healthy for her but again has no problem cooking it for others. Then another good friend doesn't eat meat for ethical reasons and quite obviously that extends to preparing it for others.
In all these situations I can understand and happily accept the background.
I've cooked vegetarian meals on many occasions for my family and guests as well as meat dishes. It usually depends on what I feel like making. It's not a biggie - when you go to somebody's house for a meal then they get to choose the menu , if they want to make other choices available great if not,that's kinda the luck of the draw. If you don't like this try a restaurant - that's what they are for.

Meh. You try being married to one. When people come round to our house I make meat and vegetarian. It's the only chance I get to cook adult non-veggie food. I hear from other friends that some of my friends are marvellous cooks and make legendary beef Wellington, chicken which is the stuff of dreams, seafood which is exquisite and the most beautiful duck. But I don't know. Because when we go to anybody's for dinner they make pasta and pesto or some dreary goat's cheese thing. If I'm lucky some kind of glorified omelette. Because he is vegetarian in other people's I am by default and they always just make one vegetarian dish. An awful lot of restaurants, particularly abroad are off limits.

Food was one of my great pleasures in life. Being married to a vegetarian has largely destroyed that which is very sad.

Yabu

You surely understand why some vegetarians don't like handling dead animals? ( I'm not veggie btw)

I'm a vegetarian - the only one in either of OH or my extended families - and I happily cook meat every single day.

Wow so you only eat meat - how is that working out for you health wise?

Good grief. I must have imagined the goose I cooked at Xmas, the many roast chickens I've cooked and spag bols too. That's the trouble with being the only veggie in my extended family.
Yabu.

I'm not sure where to start with this. Maybe eat out?

That is V unreasonable!

Because non-vegetarians do eat vegetarian food!

"You just dont get where Im coming from."

You just don't get why many vegetarians find it distasteful to handle or cook meat.

It is possible to be a good host without meat. Most people are happy to have a friend cook them a meal. Never knew there would be people so fixated on meat that they'd consider it a slight to have a home cooked but vegetarian meal put before them!

It's just food.

Chill out and go bowling or something instead.

OP - if you had some health condition which meant you could only eat meat, or had some deep-seated ethical objection to eating fruit/grains/vegetables/dairy products , then as a vegetarian who never cooks meat (I never have, wouldn't know how to, and the smell of cooking meat makes me feel sick) I would do my best to cater for you if you visited, probably by buying something ready-made to heat up.

In the same way I do special food if I have to cater for friends who are vegan or on a gluten-free diet or who have allergies or who really, really can't stand mushrooms etc.

But if you are normal omnivore, who eats meat as well as all the other staple foods like vegetables, grains etc, then I would generally assume you could survive for one meal without eating meat.

In any case, when I go round to visit friends, the main point as far as I am concerned is to spend time with them, not what is on the menu. I've been given some pretty boring and/or odd things to eat as the token vegetarian (I always offer to bring something or help out, but rarely get taken up on the offer), but I don't mind - it's not about the food. Is that really all you care about?

Do you need meat with every meal OP, or just those cooked for you by people who don't eat meat?

I'm a meat eater but eat vegetarian food regularly out of choice, because the absence of meat isn't an issue for me and we really don't need as much protein in our diets as the average person's meat intake would suggest.

YABU anyway...you don't have ethical objections to cooking vegetarian food. Vegetarians do have ethical issues with eating meat, and for many, this extends to cooking it.

I actually have no idea how to cook meat. I could get a chicken fillet in something from marks and stick it in the oven but that's about it. I cook that sort of stuff for the bf but he wouldn't ask me to cook things like bacon as I don't know how.

My x never appreciated my vegetarian cooking. And it was a far cry from pasta with a tomato sauce and a bit of grated cheese on top.

I always used a ton of garlic, chilli, ginger, basil, coriander, whatever I made it had flavour. Everything started with sauted onion!

My x would consider it a nice tasty sauce to go with a steak. when he cooked for me, it was dried up old bits of meat.

OP - YABVVVVU

LazyLohan - don't you ever see your friends without your husband? I understand they don't want to cook more than one main dish but surely it wouldn't come up much unless you take him to all social stuff?

Huh? Do you eat meat with every single meal? Have you never had a cheese sandwich or mushroom omelette? If that's the case then you must be very unhealthy. You, as a meat eater, are capable of eating and enjoying a meal without meat.

Do you really think it's the same thing? Really? if you really think? Using your brain?

I wouldn't expect a Vegetarian to cook meat for me, although I would be extremely impressed by their thoughtful hospitality if they did. Maybe by providing ready-made frozen appetisers that were meat based?

I used to be friendly with a Mormon woman and when I first went to her house, I was expecting to be offered a cold drink, but she in fact offered coffee or tea. I expressed my surprise and she said she knew non-Mormon guests liked it so she kept supplies in her cupboard. I thought what a warm, kind-hearted and thoughtful person to think of me before herself.

I can't get worked up about it. I cater for others it's nice if they cater for me.

I bet you have friends and family that don't like fish, bananas, coffee or whatever and you don't bat an eyelid cooking for them but somehow it's an issue to cater for veggies. Well, you say it's not an issue but your vocabulary suggests otherwise. I'm sure your vegetarian friends would love to know how you're doing them a 'favour' and 'pandering' to them - you sound lovely. YABVVU - and that's from a die hard carnivore. They shouldn't have to reciprocate. You won't die from one vegetarian meal once in a while - in fact you might actually enjoy it!