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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Catering for vegetarians at a house-warming party, do I need to provide separate food?

713 replies

IslandCanary · 06/04/2016 07:06

Everyone is bringing a dish, so far most of these contain meat/fish (apart from the salad) as we're doing tapas-style.

One couple have just told me they are vegetarian.

Do I need to ask everyone to bring vegetarian dishes instead? Or is it ok to just provide some salad/rice and let them bring a dish they can eat? I don't want them to feel excluded.

I find most vegetarian food bland and unpleasant and would rather have meat/fish dishes to cater for the majority (I'm planning to make spicy chicken wings, someone else is bringing meatballs, another is bringing battered tempura prawns, crispy squid, vegetable risotto etc.

If I need to provide more veggie options does anyone have any ideas?

OP posts:
YellowTulips · 06/04/2016 23:14

Oh and probably outing myself (thinks of thread when I sieved DS poo to retrieve a tooth he'd not even swallowed) but am in York.

SuburbanRhonda · 06/04/2016 23:17

Those who like seeing people eating healthy, balanced food? As opposed to just meat.

Nope, still not giving a toss. Unless I'm feeding them, obviously.

Pipbin · 06/04/2016 23:20

Those who like seeing people eating healthy, balanced food? As opposed to just meat.

Nope - couldn't give a shit. I have been a vegi for about 20 years now and the whole concept of meat eating seems utterly strange to me but I would never dream of commenting on someone else's food choices.

YellowTulips · 06/04/2016 23:29

Sorry - just for any prospective guests I did replace the sieve Grin

HoundoftheBaskervilles · 06/04/2016 23:32

Pleased to hear that Yellow, DD swallowed a tooth once. I did not sieve. You have gone far beyond the call of motherly duty there.

YellowTulips · 06/04/2016 23:44

Indeed - it was grim.

And totally useless as advise from MN dentists was they wouldn't replant a tooth (actually a part of a tooth) that had been through the digestive tract.

Just to de-rail - the NHS dental care was fab. They re-built his tooth and it looks perfect. Pic's attached.

HoundoftheBaskervilles · 06/04/2016 23:49

That is some excellent dental work there, and no, I couldn't imagine a tooth that has travelled through the gut as a suitable candidate for reintroduction.

Was that at a dental hospital or an NHS surgery? (sorry, vested interest, total derailment I know).

YellowTulips · 06/04/2016 23:52

All NHS Smile

YellowTulips · 06/04/2016 23:54

Sorry to be clear not a hospital but the local NHS dental practice

HoundoftheBaskervilles · 07/04/2016 00:02

I'm impressed, I suspect children get far superior treatment from NHS practices than adults do due to charging bands.

Sorry OP - what was it you asked?

StuffEverywhere · 07/04/2016 00:19

So, meat eaters shouldn't eat vegetables at parties because that's inconsiderate.

But vegetarians should be served vegetables first, and if others have to eat meat whether they like it or not, that's entirely between them and their colon? Hmm

Yeah, right...

Salfordlass · 07/04/2016 00:31

Never 'eard of spanakopita but when my veggie in-laws come round for a buffet I get this fab cheese n onion quiche from lidl. 99p. In fact, I'd get two cos the meat eaters love it also.

HoundoftheBaskervilles · 07/04/2016 00:44

Stuff, I feel you may be deliberately obfuscating there. You can't just go round conflating disparate arguments and condensing them into an apparently coherent narrative you know.

Honestly.

Have you been drinking?

BillSykesDog · 07/04/2016 00:51

Yep. At parties 75% of the buffet must be veggie but the vegetarians must be served first and the 90% of eaters who are none vegetarian may only eat the 25% of non-vegetarian food unless their is a label on them which says they're allowed.

And that label will basically be on the fuckng aubergine.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 07/04/2016 01:13

I still want a chicken pie

AnnieOnnieMouse · 07/04/2016 01:38

I'm not simply awkwardly choosy about what I do and don't eat. Some stuff - milk, especially - makes me ill. If I go somewhere and the only food has beef in it, then I am ill afterwards.
Being a vegetarian or vegan isn't always about choice, sometimes it's about not throwing up on your host's carpet!

TippyTappyLappyToppy · 07/04/2016 04:38

If everyone is bringing a dish then unless they are only cooking enough for two there will be way too much food anyway. Ask a couple of people to cook something vegetarian, the meat eaters will probably have a taste as well so there will be a good selection for everyone.

TippyTappyLappyToppy · 07/04/2016 04:39

Plus the veggies themselves will bring something obviously, which means that there will be three veggie dishes to choose from plus salads and rice etc, plus whatever meat dishes.

Roussette · 07/04/2016 07:38

I think there's some misconceptions here... I think some veggies think us meat eaters only eat meat, every meal has to have meat in it, we're always deboning chickens and chopping up pork fillets and a meal isn't a meal without meat. Wrong! I love meat but my non meat dishes, I love too! I do the best spaghetti puttannesca, my red pepper lasagne (see above), I love me a vegetable pizza and my farm shop make the best veggie quiches! It's not an either/or, it's a both, which is probably why there is a problem with buffets... but if anyone tried to convert me, they'd get short shrift from me, I can't give up my bloody steak or bacon sarnies!

In our social circle, I only known two vegetarians, or at least I think they are. They've been to a do at our house and I over cater massively for them. But then I saw one of them at the pub having chicken so now I'm just confused! Is there a name for part time vegetarians?!

StitchesInTime · 07/04/2016 07:41

Is there a name for part time vegetarians?!

How about omnivores?

Roussette · 07/04/2016 07:48

Yes, but she insists she is vegetarian and makes a huge fuss with the Christmas meal out I organise, i.e. I have to trawl all the places we might go and run the veggie options on a Christmas menu past her. Most irritating. Just have the flippin' turkey if you eat chicken!

I thought omnivores applied to animals not humans!

StitchesInTime · 07/04/2016 07:57

An omnivore is an animal that can obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal origins. This applies to humans too.

Although I suppose by that definition a vegetarian is an omnivore who chooses not to eat meat......

It does sound annoying to have someone make a big song and dance about being vegetarian, and then eating chicken at the pub though.

BarbaraofSeville · 07/04/2016 07:59

Of course omnivores applies to humans. It's only in richer areas of the world in the past few decades that people have eaten so much meat, as it simply wasn't affordable before factory farming and/or people became more wealthy.

In past times and even now in poorer parts of the world, people simply can't afford to eat meat every day or make it the main component of a meal.

A normal everyday human omnivore diet includes lots of dishes, many of which contain no meat, or only a small amount of meat as a flavouring.

whois · 07/04/2016 08:08

Is there a name for part time vegetarians

Yes, flexi-tarians and it is an increasing trend to eat mainly veggie and meat only occasionally.

BarbaraofSeville · 07/04/2016 08:10

So an increasing trend is to eat like people are supposed to and give it a bollocks name Grin.