Buffets and Vegetarian options.

[perhapsiwill]

The last buffet I went to there were meat options and veggie options, great.
Unfortunately the meat eaters enjoy eating non meat food too, as they should, but this meant that as I was not first in the queue, the veggie options were gone and only meat left. Apart from some cakes.

I am not blaming the people who eat meat, the veggie options were attractive, but why does whoever provides the buffet not realise that the meat eaters don't always only eat meat!? There were only three vegetarians out of forty people.

This is not the first time by the way. Anyone else get this?

As a fellow veggie I always hover so I'm one of the first in the queue to avoid this happening. I don't expect meat eaters to avoid the veggie options as most people like some variety and not every meat eater likes all meat, or they might only eat meat of known provenance etc.
Plus I'm always starving and hate being at the back of the queue

I've been 'faddy' for 33 years. Lol.

I once went to a training session where half the people there were veggie and half meat eaters. The buffet was half veggie and half meat. The meat eaters took meat and veggie. The numbers were small - 3 of each so it wasn't hard to tell. I mean, just so fucking rude.

'm not curbing my normal eating patterns to faciliate your weird shit habits.

You are choosing also to eat that food - what is the difference between you choosing to eat meat and me choosing not? I think your shit habit of eating meat is weird, it is not your right to say who is allowed to eat when.

Usually they calculate how many have said they are veggie and just order the same percentage of non-meat food as the participants. So fucking rude.

If we stop eating cows, do you really think people will keep them as pet?

Anyway It’s pretty rude of the meat eaters to take all of the veggie stuff and leave nothing for the actual vegetarians that again. Some people should learn the difference between being carnivorous and omnivorous, I thought they did teach you that at school.

It's entirely the mistake of the caterers. If they want to reserve vegetarian options to vegetarian, they should label it clearly , or put it on another table! As someone said above, meat eaters do eat salads, omelettes, quiches. How are they supposed to know some of the food should be reserved for others?

Same with food allergies, if something is labelled "reserved for lactose intolerant, celiac" I won't touch it. If I see a green salad without label, I will help myself, why shouldn't I.

I am the only veggie at work and when we have a buffet the manager always tells everyone else to leave the veggie stuff alone until after I've had first pick at it!

I would literally hate that. So everyone watches you mull over the food, and take what you want, and they wait patiently at the side lines. Sounds very odd.

Happens every time at a buffet. But I don't really blame meat eaters, the caterers should have more veggie food that everyone will eat and some meaty choices. Plus it's cheaper for the caterers for have the bulk of the food veggie. I've often gone hungry at buffet style events.

DarceyBusselsNose eating meat, after having seen footage of abattoirs became mental turmoil for me. The thought made me emotionally' and physically sick. I'd say this is a more of a "lifestyle habit".

Agree with you notacooldad the amount of meat eaters who claim they couldn't never be veggie/need meat-2 veg with every meal/cant stand veggie options- then at buffets and events home in on the veggie food never ceases to amaze/piss me right off.

I don't eat meat, but I've noticed at most buffets, the veggie things are always more popular. Meat eaters I know can be mistrustful of the meaty stuff served up, unless it's a safe option like pies or sausage rolls or something similar.

The only problem I see here, is the fact you're clearly a novice when it comes to a buffet 😂 everyone knows its handbags at dawn to get there first!

If we stop eating cows, do you really think people will keep them as pet?

What?

I am often gobsmacked at the amount of heat at buffets. Totally unnecessary IMO - and I'm a meat-eater.

OTOH I've been to 3 buffets this week, and all of them were vegetarian. Two included a fish dish. Delicious, popular food. Nobody complained about lack of meat, I don't think anybody even noticed!

Fakeplastic

I would literally hate that. So everyone watches you mull over the food, and take what you want, and they wait patiently at the side lines. Sounds very odd.

We are a very small team ( about 10 of us) and it's at our team meeting so I think really isn't a big deal, we all know each other very well so no one gives a toss really.
Now if it was at some big corporate do and an announcement was made that would be different and I would probably deny that I was the veggie!

This drives me nuts! It always happens at catered events, I reckon it's because the veggie options are so much more interesting than a slab of meat on a plate.

We recently had only veggie options at the wake for my father and everyone ate everything with gusto with no-one noticing that it was all vego.

notacooldad haha, makes more sense. Being the self obsessed person I am, I was just placing this in the context of my current work place! Where most people think I am a vegetarian, even though I eat both chicken and fish...

The thing is I couldn't get there any quicker as I was coming from the part of the room which was furthest from the buffet when it came out!

Poor seat choice OP The same way that you find me in a kitchen at parties, I'm always as close to the food as possible

My twenty year fad based on knowledge of the farming industry.

I'm a (rare) meat eater but my husband is veggie. If I'm catering for a group the food would be primarily (sometimes exclusively) vegetarian with a meat and a fish dish. No meat eater has ever complained they haven't got anything to eat.

It's always easier to cater for the minority I think. I gave a party for 14 children one of whom had celiac - making the whole party gluten free was much easier than catering separately for her and no-one else was concerned.

The caterers at fault really

Whilst its true meat eaters may like the veggie options, in a small group it seems very odd not to consider others when helping yourself.

I wouldn't count things like green salad as a veggie dish, I'd expect there to be enough for everyone.

For work meetings/buffets a bad default catering model supplies veggie dishes based on the number of listed veggies/vegans. So in practice the veggie stuff really is for the vegetarians whether the meat eaters like it or not. People also will eat vegetarian if they have dietary restrictions on types of meat or fish.

I have standing instructions now with our events teams/meeting organisers to supply the opposite ratios - majority veg with some meat and fish. We never run out of the meat and fish and it has made me wonder why caterers stick to meat dominated catering ratios.

The thing is I couldn't get there any quicker as I was coming from the part of the room which was furthest from the buffet when it came out!

Poor seat choice OP grin The same way that you find me in a kitchen at parties, I'm always as close to the food as possible

Being the greedy guts veggie that I am, this is why I often offer to help et out the Buffett or take off the foil and cling film. That way I scan the table to see where the best food is and ignore the beige bits and have a grab plan ready ( I may only be half joking!)

The buffet was half veggie and half meat. The meat eaters took meat and veggie. The numbers were small - 3 of each so it wasn't hard to tell. I mean, just so fucking rude

No. You know that is ridiculous. You cannot seriously expect the meat eaters to eat only meat, you know that is ridiculous. I eat meat as well as everything else, I do not have to choose a ham sandwich instead of a salad one because a) you have chosen not to eat the ham and b) the organiser has not provided enough so people could choose.

Now, because I am a nice person I would give you MY salad sandwich if you had not got one and there were only ham left, even though I don't really like ham, but I would expect you to be thankful and not to call me "fucking rude" if I didn't.

I went to a birthday do once that was a hog roast, host knew some of her friends (like me) were veggie, so had provided quiches for us. There were big bowls of salad for meat eaters and veggies to share. The hog roast was served in a big long sub type roll.

So the meat eaters who were first in the queue, took slices of quiche, hog roast roll and salad despite the quiches being labelled 'vegetarian' - so they had massive plates of food and by the time I got to be served there was vrye little quiche left.

And basically people queued for thier food - it wasn;t a 'be quick off the mark get to the front, punch everyone else out of the way' bun fight that some people seem to relish.
It was middle aged people in a queue but they still pigged out and thought they'd eat everything going, half of them left stuff on their plates at the end because people are greedy and take more than they can actually eat.
Bit annoying to see nibbled at quiche left by greedy bastards when you've had to settle for salad becuase they took the food specifically provided for you.

I'm gluten free and have exactly the same problem
Was at a conference last week and ticked option for special diet etc - whilst in queue could see at the end of table a few plates labelled up e.g. Vegan, halal, gluten free - when I got there mine had gone
At least they had provided fruit along with cakes and biscuits as that's all I could manage!

Years ago I learned that when it comes to buffets and parties to expect the worse and hope for the best.
You know like people pre load drinks at home before a night out, I do that with food!
So when a manager specifically things of me or a host puts my favourite food to one side I really do appreciate it.
On training days I do tend to take my own salad, butty, whatever, just in case.

You'd be able to get to the buffet faster if you had a bit more energy from some nice steak OP.

Really though, I don't know any carnivores. We all eat meat and veg. You know, a balanced diet. I'd take veg and meat and not consider whether this was fair; so long as I was taking a fair amount of food and a fair amount of each dish.

Did anyone even know that there were vegetarians there?

'Bit annoying to see nibbled at quiche left by greedy bastards when you've had to settle for salad becuase they took the food specifically provided for you.'

Why didn't she, the caterer, but them to the back in reserve for veggies? 'Veggies, see me! I have your main in the back!'

Buffets bring out the worst in some people, though, who are innately greedy.

I'm lactose intolerant so usually load up before going to buffets in case I'm confronted with loads of dairy. Even if I take those tablets that help me break down lactose, a) they don't work 100% so I still get unpleasant side effects b) I've been this way all my life, before those tablets were readily available, so I'm pretty adverse conditioned to dairy-based dishes now.