Catering for vegans

[PieandPotatoes]

We have friends who come and stay regularly. One is a vegan. They never bring any food with them. It takes me ages to do the food shopping (checking labels for ingredients). We spend loads on oatmilk, vegan cheese/yoghurt etc and we end up cooking two dishes at mealtimes as my husband refuses to eat anything without meat. I think that they should at least bring some vegan food with them. What do you think?

That meal looks fine if you like that sort of thing, but it's not to my taste at all. I love veggies but prefer them not covered in gloopy sauce. You might not like how I eat, however, and that's fine too. I think folk are forgetting that it's perfectly acceptable to have different tastes and preferences and to not have to start eating a certain way just because your vegan friend does.

This is exactly the kind of dish that puts me off being veggie

I'm mostly veggie. My food doesn't look like that. 😃

I totally agree, but a host shouldn't be telling their guests that their food looks like plastic, either.

Well, it does look like plastic so......

It's an opinion though, isn't it?

It's still rude. I might think a curry looks as if it's already been eaten once, or that fried chicken smells revolting, but I'd never say it to someone who was cooking or enjoying eating it, because I'm not 5(come to think of it, when I was 5 I'm sure I knew it was rude to make negative comments to people about what they were eating).

Yes, it's an opinion. Are we no longer allowed to express an opinion?
If you think a curry looks like someone already ate it you or whoever made it is probably cooking it wrong though.

If it is fine to say vegan cheese is plastic, is it then also ok for the guests to express their opinion that meat is disgusting and unethical?

Myself I think it is rude to comment on other people's food across the board

I agree with the last part, I do find it very rude. I've had it happen to me a lot (mainly I think because I eat quite differently to a lot of my family).

I think if vegan cheese slices look plastic-y also so does 'normal' cheese if it is the processed slice variety.

But if someone's enjoying their food I'm not going to say something rude and put them off and insult them by telling me the thing they like is gross or looks like something it shouldn't. Again because I'm not a child and I'm not classless enough to think my opinion has anything to do with something they like.

Curries can look like vomit or excrement, it's the colur/texture of curry, not that it has been cooked incorrectly.

@KittenPause "This is exactly the kind of dish that puts me off being veggie"

So you don't like curry?

Of course, opinions are fine, as long as we don't try to tell others how to live their lives based on them. I'm not sure why anyone would think otherwise.

Curry can look a lot more appealing that that, even a veggie based curry! My curries don't look like that.

I think randomly offering an opinion while someone is eating said food isn't great, but in a discussion it's fine to be honest about likes and dislikes.
My OH knows I think tuna looks and smells like cat food but he still eats it. I know he thinks my humus looks and tastes rank but I still eat it. 😁

Do you ever stay with them?

If you do stay, is the food all vegan (I assume it is) or do they buy some other foods that they know you prefer or perhaps see you eat at your house when they come to visit?

I get the idea that non-vegans can eat vegan food without issue, I’m more wondering if the effort to accommodate your preferences is reciprocated in any small way?

If you are finding it too expensive and wasteful (& stressful) just put them off coming or be upfront and say something to the effect of ‘we have a food budget, and this is on the menu - could you please bring any additional items that you’d like with you?’

You can have a happy medium of say a roast dinner where they don’t eat the meat & a shop bought vegan nut roast doesn’t have to cost the earth - it is not essential to cook veg in animal fat etc.

@Nolegusta "I mean if that's to your taste then great.
It's not to mine.
You can understand that we all have different tastes, likes and preferences, right?"

Of course. I was just pointing out that it's easy to cater for vegans, vegetarians and omnivores. In the unlikely event of you coming to my house for dinner, I would make sure that I cooked something you liked. Don't worry.

@pinkpjamas1 do you not like any sauced food then?

It's easy if you assume we all like what you like, that's my point. I wouldn't have enjoyed what you describe.

I always ask guests for likes and dislikes before they stay. Any decent host would do that, wouldn't they?

@Nolegusta "
"It's easy if you assume we all like what you like, that's my point. I wouldn't have enjoyed what you describe."
Do you not either check with your guests what they like or don't like? Or know, if you're feeding friends? It so happens that the meal I cooked (from The Vegetarian Roasting Tin if anyone's interested) is one I know we all like. There are many equally accommodating recipes.

Well quite!

It doesn't matter to me what your dislike is - if you don't like lentils or spices or eggs or meat, I will find something that you do like and make it if you are a guest in my home

I suspect @Nolegusta is playing some private game of her own. I wish she would
Explain the rules!

Hopefully.
That's not really my point though.
PPs are listing vegan food they made and then concluding anyone can eat it, and assuming we'd actually want to eat it just because they happen to like it.

I don't want accommodating food, I want food I like (not gloop).

That's not the point.
Never mind.
I'll never have to eat the accommodating gloop so it's pointless discussing it. 🤣