An unusual or standard Vegetarian?

[Bistrobore]

I work in a busy bistro.

We had a customer email for a booking recently and listed a couple of dietary requirements for the booking, all fine, all normal and completely easy to accommodate.

But one of the diners was a "lacto ovo vegetarian".

Staff had a chat about this and our conclusion was this is a vegetarian who eats dairy and eggs.

Customers came, had lovely meal, and all was good. And left 5* TripAdvisor review 🌟.

So my AIBU?

Yanbu : you're right, this is a bog standard vegetarian.

Yabu : totes wrong this is some sort of Special Vegetarian.

Also, I have had more than one person tell me fish is the difference between vegetarians and vegans (apparently vegans also eat dairy, eggs and honey in their world).

Rennet in cheese confuses a lot of people as well. My PIL can't get their heads around why DH and I won't eat parmesan (see also goose fat, fish and chicken, plus turkey on Christmas day).

It’s an Indian thing as some people there see eating eggs as meat.

Lacto-ovo vegetarian (ie someone who eats milk and eggs but not meat and fish) is just the term for the most common type of vegetarian in the UK, but not necessarily worldwide. Eg in India, eggs are not considered vegetarian, so most vegetarians there are lacto-vegetarians, in that they eat dairy but not eggs, meat, or fish.

I have noticed this phrase is increasingly used on planes now. I always choose this option. I'm actual pescatarian but usually chose vegetarian options when out and about, and definitely on a plane. But I don't want diary free butter and vegan cheese!

Like another poster I have found that the increase in veganism, especially social vegan lifestyles (so for eco reasons, etc), has led to normal vegetarian food being removed from menus and replaced with vegan and plant based alternatives instead. But I really want real cheese, and I want real butter and real milk with my meals and drinks. I also don't want just plant based versions of meat (like the burgers that bleed, the quorn/soya/ etc meat fillets, etc. I used to like the 'old fashioned' mushed up vegetables type burgers topped with proper cheese, but that is never an option anymore.

By preference I don’t eat meat replacement or fake chicken etc. as I don’t like or miss taste of meat. So yes I’d prefer a salad, halloumi, stuffed peppers not fake meat etc .I do think overall though the uplift in number of vegan has increased choice

Like a previous poster has said, I’ve only seen this term used when ordering special meals for airlines. I’d assume vegetarians in the uk to be ‘lacto-ovo’ as standard.

I’m lacto ovo and consider myself a standard veggie but I don’t eat cheeses made with animal rennet, or sweets containing gelatine etc etc.
It’s good they were up front!

Someone's probably already said this. But vegetarianism takes many forms and veganism is a type of vegetarianism. Ovo-lacto is a well established term that refers to vegetarians that eat eggs and cheese.

In this country, we tend to assume "vegetarian" means ovo-lacto vegetarian, but it's not always the same in other countries. I also have experienced that people over a certain age in particular have varying understandings of the word vegetarian.

I've flitted between vegetarian and vegan for nearly my whole life, and it would probably surprise you how many professional chefs don't know much about vegetarian diets so I do try and be as specific as possible if I'm asked what my dietary requirements are.

They were probably just trying to be specific to be helpful.

The worst thing to happen to vegetarians was vegans. There are hardly any vegetarian dishes anymore. Pisses me right off

this. Also the insistence that vegan food has to contain some sort of fake meat.

on holiday recently and no veggie option, the vegan offerings were the meat dish but “vegan nuggets”, “vegan steak” etc.

i stopped going to subway after they kept trying to tell me that tuna is vegetarian.

i recently asked for a vegan dish but with normal cheese- the reaction was a if I’d asked for a rare steak.

Lots of vegans don't like this either! 🥺

I first went vegan many years before vegan meat was readily available. All Quorn stuff had egg in it at the time. I think Linda McCartney sausages were pretty much the only thing I ever saw in the supermarket (and I will defend Linda sausages to my death!!)

But the reason I've always been a vegetarian of some description is that I don't like meat! So I very much don't want to eat something that resembles it.

I always think it's laziness on the part of the restaurant tbh. I imagine it's easier to buy in a load of beyond burgers and call it a day than to come up with something from scratch made from vegetables.

@Lunabun yes I’m vegetarian because I don’t like meat, I do not miss the smell , the taste and I don’t want to see it presented as my meal. I like vegetables and I want a meal with vegetables,herbs,cheese in a recipe that doesn’t mimic meat

The worst thing to happen to vegetarians was vegans. There are hardly any vegetarian dishes anymore. Pisses me right off

This, a million times this.

And I can see why vegans don't like it. We don't even get proper vegan food, we tend to get processed crap that was only just passable when it was vegetarian and completely inedible now it is vegan.

But the existence of a lot of stupid people who think vegetarians eat fish plus the 'I'm vegetarian for the kudos but do eat fish and sometimes chicken for various reasons' crowd don't change the definition of vegetarian or vegan.

Lol I have encountered the vegetarian who occasionally eat chicken. Totally missing the point.

Omg I hate the fish thing!!! Been a veggi for 23 years now and I hate when people ask if I still eat fish!! Do people not realise fish are f'ing animals!!! No I do not eat any animals! This includes anything in the ocean! 🐟 😆

Vegan who also hates all the fake meat options. I like veggie burgers with pieces of sweetcorn in them. I think outlet places could have these options with an option to have cheese (of the cow kind) on them.

"But the existence of a lot of stupid people who think vegetarians eat fish"

But, as you say yourself, there are people who call themselves vegetarians who eat fish. It's hard enough trying to work out if a particular vegetarian eats eggs, or dairy, or some types of dairy but not others, or fish, or chicken sometimes, or meat-substitutes, or some combination of some of these, etc, without also having to decide whether or not s/he is a 'vegetarian for the kudos', which, apparently has all sorts of other implications.

I don't think it's the people who have to work out what an individual means by 'vegetarian' who are stupid.

Try being celiac but wanting to not have dead animal for every meal now GF isn't the trendy option.

I've eaten more animal products in the 2 years since diagnosis than I probably ate for the preceding 30, simply because the vegan option is almost invariably riddled with gluten.

I have been a vegetarian for over 40 years and sometimes have to say lacto-ovo for clarification. There is so much misunderstanding and I blame people, not food professionals. I have friends who are pescatarians who describe themselves as vegetarian. Lacto- ovo just mean not meat, egg and cheese ok.

It’s a term that’s been used for years. It’s in one of my mum’s old veggie cookbooks from the 1980s 😀 Some vegetarians don’t eat eggs, some do eat eggs but don’t eat dairy - there are all kinds of varieties. This person made it helpfully clear to you that they ate both eggs and dairy but some vegetarians don’t.

I don’t think they were trying to bamboozle you or use a strange term at all. I’d be glad to have such helpful info 😊 And no, it doesn’t mean they eat non-vegetarian cheese whoever said that above 🙄

I don't think there is a standard vegetarian. I think veganism is a lot easier with less variations.
I appreciate when people are specific. People say they are vegetarians even though they are pescaarian. Also some vegetarians are fine with some animal based products like gelatine. I also know tons of vegetarians that don't eat eggs. I think more info, the better.

This is me! I also agree with Darkness 22. I want real cheese please. So many restaurants have taken the easy option of just changing their vegetarian dishes to vegan to cater for both. Now I find eating eat out quite difficult but this is also don't like mushrooms, so I don't help myself there!

Ooo @NeverDropYourMooncup that sounds so annoying. I recently had a friend visit me in my not-very-cosmopolitan part of the world who is a celiac and a vegetarian. She lives in London so is used to having loads of choice.

It was very frustrating to go through the menus and find the only GF option in many of the posh gastropubs was a beef burger! Luckily the local curry houses had loads of options for her 👍

Blimey, I've been a vegetarian for 43 years and I've never heard the phrase before.

A few years ago now I was served fish at a Michelin starred restaurant because the person booking had said I was vegetarian but had not specified that I was a lacto ovo vegetarian. For some reason the chef, who presumably was a professional, seemed to think that vegetarians ate fish, and only lacto ovo vegetarians did not. I was not impressed.

So I don't blame your customer for specifying, it doesn't help when some famous celebrity chefs also express their contempt for vegetarians and imply they would serve them non vegetarian food by stealth.