Vegetarian or not!!

[twocockersarebetterthanone]

We've invited my family for Christmas but one is a vegetarian. Now I've got no problem with that (and will cater accordingly) BUT she's said she eats fish. How the hell does that work? She's a veggie for animal welfare not Heath beliefs so how can she justify a fish, but not say a turkey, being killed to eat.

AIBU to want to (but obviously won't)!say you'll get what you're given. Just don't get it - someone please enlighten me!!

Agree with flipper . I'm vegetarian, went to a local restaurant that claimed to have many vegetarian options, turned out 90% of them were fish based.

Oh for goodness sake people, does it matter?

As we all know the more well known term is 'vegetarian' so 'pescatarians' use that and say they do eat fish though, it's just easier. Frustration to some but minor in the grand scheme of life.

Sorry to see you were given fish as the veggie option FlipperSkipper that's terrible! I hope you fed back via TripAdvisor or similar!

One of my best friends is a vegetarian who eats fish. It's her choice to do that and who cares about bloody labels?

Oh and whoever said they're 'attentions seeking'?? Jeeeeez get a grip!

Make her a nut roast. A real vegetarian (like me) would love that.

It's not a huge deal, but it is irritating as a vegetarian who has been frequently offered fish. Plus it makes zero sense to call yourself vegetarian when it just isn't correct. If I ate pork but no other meat, no one would expect me to call myself vegetarian. Why is fish-meat an exception to this? Really don't understand why people think of fish as somehow "not-meat".

Sounds like my SIL.

She's a devout veggie she says and won't eat anything that's been cooked in same pan/pot (even after being washed) as meat.

However she loves a bit of fish and wears leather shoes and carries very nice leather handbags.

You can't pull her up
On it though. She is a VEGETARIAN and says she doesn't have to explain her reasons behind wearing leather or eating fish.

I am vegetarian, trying to go vegan.
I think not eating meat is a great positive. Bit of a bummer she still eats fish, but pescatarian is better than meat eater.

What would you call my friend who is a vegetarian, so won't eat meat or fish but will eat both beef and tomato and chicken and mushroom pot noodles?

Your friend is pescatarian, not vegetarian op, buy a nut roast.

It does matter sarah- it's only labels but it obviously makes thing unclear for some people- vegetarians being given fish in restaurants.

I was a pescatarian. It's simply easier to say Veggie as no menus etc say suitable for pescatarian for obvious reasons. You basically eat the diet of a veggie but with fish.

It's unfair you are judging her. Many people love animals and are against animal cruelty yet eat meat. Is that not similar? I ate fish as a veggie as I was against the abuse of animals such as crowded conditions, born and bred never seeing daylight eg chickens etc. With fish you can buy produce that is caught from the sea. I view that as the natural circle of life, I always believed we should eat meat but the whole process and manufacturing had become too extreme for farm animals. I believed fish had a natural life in the sea. Animals caged etc and fed god knows what hormones in cramped conditions don't. So Yea that was my take on things and a lot of my veggie friends thought similar.

Nicky you are aware most pot noodles are veggie? A lot of gravy granules and crisp labelled beef or chicken are too.

In my experience, it is the meat eaters who are self-righteous and confrontational, like making bad jokes, complain about others' choices, and give people who are struggling to improve animal and planet welfare a hard time.

What would you call my friend who is a vegetarian, so won't eat meat or fish but will eat both beef and tomato and chicken and mushroom pot noodles?

From the pot noodle website, all of their products are suitable for vegetarians. It's obviously more fun to judge your friend as not a proper vegetarian than think she'd have checked this.

That was supposed the be a not .

Clara that's so true. They look at everything in a black and white way and judge if a veggie is less then perfect. A person shouldn't have to justify themselves.

My dh's aunt is a pescetarian - or a veggie who eats seafood including fish.

In her early 20s she got food poisoning from a piece of pork and ended up in hospital for days. It took her weeks to recover. It was one of the worst events in her life.
She has never touched meat since. But will eat fish.

It's not always political.

I'm pretty sure the only non-vegetarian Walkers crisps flavour is Cheese & Onion (because of the rennet) - although they may now have sorted that.

Ooh, hold the phone. The meat flavours now contain actual meat (free range, fact fans). I stand corrected.

It's all just food though. I don't know why people get so upset about the v word. I don't like meat. I do like fish. Some folk don't like Brussels sprouts. I love them! I just don't mention it if I'm in a meaty situation & eat everything else.
People have preferences whether for ethical reasons or not. And as another poster pointed out, eating beef is no different to eating your dog. But it's your choice to do so. It's my choice to eat fish (same as dog too!) & prefer veg to meat.

very annoying for real vegetarians who then have to explain to people that a fish is not vegetable
but I can see there could be some logic to it as most fish is not farmed and presumably lives a happy enough life until caught, also there are not the land use/water use/CO2 implications
what she should have said-
'thanks so much for the invite, really looking forward to it, but I don't eat most meat so I'll bring along (eg a mini salmon en croute) that can just be heated up, hope that's OK'

And the cheese and onion is now vegetarian.

Some fish might have a nice life swimming about in the sea, (farmed salmon, tuna and prawns that have their eyes removed to increase breeding certainly don't) but being dragged out onto dry land to slowly suffocate and/or be crushed to death brings them down a peg or two in the animal welfare stakes.

If someone wanted to be selectively vegetarian on attention seeking animal welfare grounds, they would be better eating only red meat like lamb or beef from small farms as they are reared outside in less intensive conditions and killed quickly. Pork and chicken is likely to be more intensively reared unless it is organic and/or free range from a small farm, not a supermarket.

Some people seem to want the 'I'm a vegetarian' badge much more than they want to actually eat ethically. But to be fair, they are reducing their meat consumption, which is a good thing. If more people ate less meat, and moved away from the 'lots of meat and cheap as possible please' mindset intensive farming wouldn't be necessary.

I would serve her salmon or whatever she has asked for along with all the sides but I wouldn't call her vegetarian.

You can hold the face- I wasn't judging her. It's no skin off my nose what she eats! I stand corrected on pot noodles not being vegetarian though- i still think it was a fair enough assumption that 'beef and tomato noodles' would have meat products in it!

Off to wonder what the hell they put in them.

Is she Asian? Over there vegetarians are people who eat fish eggs and poultry but not red meat.

Soya and artificial meat flavouring is usually what is used instead of meat.

It does make things so difficult for real vegetarians when people act like this. I've lost count of the times that I've been offered fish after telling a restaurant that I'm vegetarian.

Why can't people who don't eat meat just say that rather than confusing things.