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.

The only nutrient you can’t get from plants is B12 (because we wash the soil off). You can get calcium and all the amino acids from a balanced vegan diet pretty easily. Soy for example is a complete protein.

I overheard a conversation between a customer and caterer recently:

Customer: which sandwiches are the vegan ones?

Caterer: They're the ones with chicken in them.

This was followed by a long silence while the customer tried to work out how you can politely say "wtf, how can you not know that vegans don't eat chicken?"

After puberty, a lot of men and some women can live on a vegan diet - it's not something I'd do as it's too processed and I want to know what I'm eating

what part of a vegan diet is “too processed”? Unless you are a vegan that recreates meat and eats a lot of soy, quorn etc a vegan diet can be as processed or not as you choose.

But...Kids do not grow as much on a vegan diet and I keep posting this - your children will be smaller in height if they don't eat meat

can you evidence this then please? If you can’t back it up doesn’t matter how often you keep posting it, it doesn’t make it true.

There are no data to suggest that final height achieved is negatively affected in vegan children or that it is of any clinical relevance

www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2792/rr

I’m surprised by the long term vegetarians on this thread that haven’t heard the term. It’s actually been around for a long time and was used to distinguish between those vegetarians who ate eggs/dairy and those who didn’t (but weren’t vegan, as vegans wouldn’t need to state that).

Sadly if you look behind the recent push or fashion for “veganism” it has mainly been the work of major corporates (and big tech companies for advertising) who have realised they can make a fortune from over-processed fake meats and junk food substitutes under the guise of it being healthier/better/the best choice for the planet etc.

I don’t blame genuine vegetarians for using the term to ensure they aren’t served a sloppy over-processed fake “healthy” junk food substitute instead.

We didn't have to puzzle it out.

We wondered why the extra qualifying words were needed.

After puberty, a lot of men and some women can live on a vegan diet - it's not something I'd do as it's too processed and I want to know what I'm eating

The thing is - it doesn't have to be. Much of what I cook is accidentally vegan or can easily be made vegan (like not putting milk and butter in the mashed potatoes for instance).

We eat very few processed foods.

The "fake meat" is a lazy cop out for restaurants.

It appeals to the wave of new vegans who have no idea how to cook vegan food and just want to sub the meat in their Spaghetti Bolognese with something rather than undertaking the rethinking of their food choices needed.

I had a fabulous tapas style meal out the other week with not a single piece of processed food in it.

I think it’s to highlight that they are not vegan and to please not sub their cheese for vegan fake sheeze. In the last couple of years I’ve really noticed that menus have started to offer vegan options over veggie options. So the veggie fajitas served without cheese and sour cream, the veggie Greek meal served with a vegan pitta and tzatziki which is not as nice as the regular pitta and tzatziki that a veggie could have eaten. Prezzo doesn’t have a veggie pizza apart from margarita - but you can order the pepperoni or chicken pizzas in a vegan version with fake meats 😣

Good that they enjoyed their cheesy offerings.

That’s not quite true, Prezzo now have the Erba Cipollina which is described thusly:

Our summer special white base pizza made with fresh Italian mozzarella, sour cream, lots of chives and a generous grind of black pepper

I thought it sounded nice, but it’s almost the blandest thing I’ve ever eaten.

Prezzo used to do a really nice mushroom pizza but they stopped that. Then they stopped the Florentine too. You’d think they could give us veggies at least one decent pizza rather than making us pay for extra toppings on a margarita.

Oh yes that’s the only other veggie option but I can’t stand “white” pizzas with no tomato on the base so I didn’t count that one.

I ordered the margarita with rocket on top and it was very nice.

But prezzo used to have a good veggie menu including nice risotto.

🥹

I am vegetarian but I don't eat any dairy products. I still eat eggs though so that is why I would not call myself a vegan.

I really don't think the the difference between vegan and vegetarian is that hard to grasp.

Prezzo doesn’t have a veggie pizza apart from margarita - but you can order the pepperoni or chicken pizzas in a vegan version with fake meats

This infuriates me and it's not just Prezzo it's everywhere when you start to notice it.

I'm not vegetarian but don't eat a lot of meat and don't like meat on pizza and just about every pizza menu or selection whether it is a chain Italian, a dirty kebab shop or supermarkets will sell a menu that is 60% processed pork of one version or another (pepperoni, meat feast, spicy meat etc etc), 30% chicken including disgusting BBQ bases with or without more processed pork, ham and mushroom or 4 seasons (bearable) and then margarita and possibly 4 cheese (effectively the same although the latter tastes of different/stronger cheese). So 10/20 pizzas and only two or three at most that are not some variety of processed pork or chicken.

If I'm lucky they'll do a mixed vegetable one (peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives) but quite often you have to either have plain pizza or get a custom one that costs more than the meat feast due to the 'extra' toppings.

The best place I like to eat out or get takeaway from is actually an Indian street food bar where the menu is 100% vegetarian, with over half of that being vegan and not a processed anything or fake cheese in sight.

It's not that they're offering vegan versions rather than vegetarian versions per se. It's that they're offering fake meat versions - some of which aren't vegan (eg some quorn or burgers with real brioche buns/mayo). I'm a vegan and I don't really like fake meats/cheeses and would rather have vegetable-based options. In fact I'd rather have a pizza marinara than one with fake cheese. The only thing that's changed since going vegan from vegetarian is having a legitimate reason to turn down the (disgusting) goat cheese option 😂

You may know the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian but unfortunately an awful lot of restaurants now only serve a vegan option. I find it very annoying as I like dairy and eggs. The vegan options, unless Asian, tend to be a much less exciting or else they have that awful vegan cheese substitute.

Obviously a vegan restaurant (and the occasional normal one) is different as they tend to go for much more imaginative options.

@Cheeselog - yes, the fake meat is an abomination. I'm a vegetarian. I don't want to pretend I'm eating meat, particularly when it's super processed crap.

That said, I love goat's cheese. It's the mushroom bloody risotto that's my nightmare meal.

So many posters on here complaining about vegan food being "too processed". You do all realise that heavy "processing" applies to dairy cheese, animal flesh and other non vegan products?

I'd rather ingest an absolute boatload of chemicals, soy and wheat rather than pus-ridden, bovine breastmilk products and flesh, which has had the numerous tumours and abscesses scraped out of it.

There is also nothing to prove that being vegan has an effect on your height, reproductive system or general health "before puberty". Any "research" making these claims will doubtless have links to organisations who want you to keep buying animal products.

I'll round this post off by saying vegetarianism as a diet is not the ethical choice it's made out to be. In particular funding the dairy industry is one of the cruellest things you can possibly do, and utterly pointless now that we have every plant based alternative under the sun. Bovine casein is why dairy cheese is so addictive - give yourself 6 weeks off it and you'll never crave it again.

@Kindofcrunchy vegan food isn't necessarily processed. However, a lot of restaurants seem to think that vegans want to pretend they are eating meat so serve up super processed crap.

I'm a vegetarian so I obviously don't eat crappy processed meat products. However, I also don't eat crappy processed vegetarian products or crappy processed vegan products. Unfortunately, many restaurants that used to offer a reasonable, albeit often boring, veggie option are now offering a fake meat vegan option instead.

@Kindofcrunchy

It's this sort of post that really antagonises non vegans and does your cause no good at all.

Cheese - milk, salt, rennet/vinegar/lemon juice, bit of heat, water.

Meat - bit of an animal. Heat applied, maybe some salt, pepper of dried herbs & spices.

Milk comes from other mammals (it's kind of the point of the name) - most frequently in Europe from Cow, Goat, Sheep or Buffalo. So no bovine protein in 75% of those. And none of them have breasts. Udders, teats, mammary glands, but no breasts, which are primary milk production AND secondary sexual organs that humans have.

Most meat is from animals that aren't old enough to have developed cancer in any case.

Eggs - they're eggs. Break, apply heat.

Honey - direct from the hive, filtered, possibly pasturised (heat applied).

Oysters - opened. Not even any heat applied. Other seafood - usually heat applied, shells removed.

The one thing an omnivorous diet doesn't have to be is highly processed. All you need to is make something dead or collect the items and cook them.

A comparable vegan diet in terms of processing would be purely vegetables and salt, plus some fruit.

You do you, but don't confuse simple cooking with complicated manufacturing processes to justify your moral stance.

A comparable vegan diet in terms of processing would be purely vegetables and salt, plus some fruit.

What? An minimally processed vegan diet contains all fruit (not just some of them?), pulses, wholegrains, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices as well as vegetables and salt.

A comparable vegan diet in terms of processing would be purely vegetables and salt, plus some fruit

plus beans, pulses, spices, simple breads, nuts, seeds, rice, hummus, guacamole, potatoes, tofu (production not much different to dairy cheese), tahini….

Meat - bit of an animal. Heat applied, maybe some salt, pepper of dried herbs & spices

that’s if you don’t eat nuggets, ham, etc. Plus “making something dead” is not considering what happens before- intensive farming, antibiotics, barn raising etc…

I’ve been vegan since I was really young. I’m above average height with a short mum and average height dad so doesn’t seem to have affected my height. But even if it meant I was shorter, I still wouldn’t have eaten animal products because I don’t think it’s right. I’m healthy, run a lot, no fertility issues. Vegans can be completely healthy, you just have to eat well, I don’t eat much processed stuff or fake meats.

As for the original question, I’d guess that the vegetarian in OPs post has been given some ‘interesting’ vege options in the past so was taking no chances.