To be sick of people thinking vegetarian eat fish

[Dearaugust]

Also, people who eat fish but not meat calling themselves vegetarian!

When people find out I’m vegetarian, a lot of people ask me if I eat fish. If I ate fish, then I wouldn’t be vegetarian! It wasn’t a big deal really, but an incident has happened recently where I was choosing a meal for a wedding and there was only meat options and a “none of these due to dietary preferences” option. So I ticked that. The person then contacted DH (it’s his friend who is getting married) and he explained I’m vegetarian. A few days later she said not to worry, they have sorted a fish meal for me. So he’s now had to go back to her again saying I don’t eat fish. What a faff!

I honestly thought it was common knowledge that vegetarians don’t eat fish. But apparently not because i get asked it a lot.

I'm not sure about his drinking habits tbh. None of my business.

I know people that don't eat meat because they don't like the texture. several of them, they've visited for roast dinners, and basically had everything BUT the meat. including the gravy. they don't call themselves vegetarian, because they're not. they just say "I don't like meat"

It's not vegetarians' fault. It's pescetarian's fault. And people like you who perpetuate the incorrect use of the word vegetarian. You even argued the toss over it! And then you implied that you knew all along!

What's wrong with accusing the people getting it wrong of getting it wrong?

But it didn't appear to be obvious to you in your previous posts.

All these conversations took place yesterday, you are a bit late go the game

I agree - my daughter is vegetarian and i always had to put on forms for school trips does not eat fish as several times the veggie option was tuna pasta bake! I am not sure why its so hard to understand. Its so easy to serve veggie food i really dont understand what the problem is?

In that case I think you’d describe him as someone who ate a mainly vegetarian diet, but wasn’t a vegetarian. I don’t drink very often, but wouldn’t describe myself as tee total.

Perhaps it’s already been mentioned on the thread, I’ve only read a few pages, but I watched someone doing a chicken stir fry on a morning tv show recently. The presenters tried it and said “oh that’s lovely. I presume a vegetarian could substitute the chicken for tofu or something?” The lady cooking replied “yes that would work, or perhaps prawns.” It was hysterical. She wasn’t the most switched on person, kept rustling packets in front of her microphone while she was talking. I don’t think they’ll be asking her back!

1/2 the world have an IQ of less than 100.

That is a true (and scary) fact that I don't want to think about-however I do propose that someone with an IQ so low wouldn't be working in a school I'm probably wrong and don't want to know if I am

IQ level isn't always a good measure of applying common sense either though.
I'm pretty educated and intelligent but sometimes I worry about myself. 😬

I do when I get a lecture in subway about how tuna is vegetarian so she really didn’t need to change her gloves before preparing my sandwich. Happened more than once in different outlets.

i’ve been presented with fish at weddings too when I’ve said I was veggie. Once I got a salmon starter while everyone else got a vegetable tart 😂

I am exactly the same.Postgrad etc etc but I do some insanely stupid things. 😂

This is true.

I remember reading ages ago about a small firm that hired out boats, who had a group hire one from them for the day.

The group wanted to put their flag up at the top of the mast - which wasn't an unusual request - and the hire assistant told them how to attach and raise it; all very straightforward.

When they returned the boat, they apologised that they hadn't been able to work out how to lower the flag again, so they'd had to leave it for the time being, all tangled up atop the mast.

Later, the assistant went to retrieve it and opened it up to see the flag proudly displaying the group's affiliation: MENSA

When I very first went vegetarian, a couple of months before xmas in the 1990s, my Sister cooked me a salmon quiche for xmas dinner. I ate it out of politeness, figuring I was only just vegetarian and she obviously didn't know (turns out she did but you know, fish aren't an animal and all that)...

1)I HATED salmon (and most forms of fish to be honest) even when I wasn't a vegetarian)
2)I was vegetarian and didn't eat fish
3)She did something wrong with it, never did find out what, and I had the WORST food poisoning I've ever had in my life. To this day food has never made me so ill! I was dizzy, sick from both ends, faint, had the worst stomach ache possible. Ugh.

She's not known for her cooking skills, to be fair.

That is hilarious.

The epitome of the quote 'Those who brag about their intelligence are often not the most intelligent'.

I do sort of agree with that quote. Intelligent people know what they don't know.

I think there is some confusion partially because of the difference between the ‘real’ definition and the culinary ones.

A tomato is a fruit, rhubarb is a vegetable, but for culinary purposes they are the other way around.

On a restaurant menu dishes are frequently divided into Meat and Fish - sometimes Meat, Poultry and Fish.When the Catholic Church prohibited eating meat on Fridays, fish was the alternative.

If someone hasn’t thought about it much, “vegetarians don’t eat meat” can easily be seen as “vegetarians don’t eat beef, lamb or pork etc.”

I described myself as pescatarian recently on a form for a place I was staying for work for a week. I got fish at every single meal. Three times a day. Never eaten so much tuna in my life.
They thought pescatarian meant “must have fish”.

That is interesting.

I wonder if It's the somewhat old-fashioned theme now that 'Meat has to be in every meal' therefore from their attitude of 'meat is pork, lamb etc' they assumed that you'd really not be happy if you didn't get the one 'meat' you did eat, in every single meal. Same as the 'It's not a meal if it doesn't have meat in it' attitude that some more traditional folk have? I am not explaining it very well!

My family are very much like that.

Ask risk of being the vegan in the room, both veganism and vegetarianism are primarily MORAL positions. Diet is a factor, but it's about far more than just that. That's why some people refer to themselves as 'vegan' and others refer to themselves as 'plant-based' - both might have the same diet, but a vegan typically is vegan b/c of moral beliefs, whereas someone might be plant based for health/because they don't like the taste of meat etc. A vegan wouldn't buy leather or use products which had been tested on animals, while someone who was plant-based might. I don't say this as a judgement thing (I have loads of friends who are meat eaters), just as a distinction thing.

My suspicion is that it's the same with vegetarians who are veggie for the animals, and people who eat a primarily vegetarian diet for health. I think it makes sense for someone who is only veggie for health reasons to eat fish b/c that would still be in line with their moral code. I would find it weird if someone claimed to be vegetarian 'for the animals' and still ate fish though!

Vice versa as well.

i have a phd and work in academia but can I do those IQ test questions? Nope, my brain does not work that way. If I do one of those tests my IQ is well below 100 😂

I tried doing one once and got extremely bored half way through. I do have suspected ADHD, but I did it out of curiosity and half way through thought 'This is bloody boring and does it really fecking matter?!' and gave up. 😂

Agree. But the definition of a vegetarian isn't down to common sense, it's just knowledge.

Reading through this thread I'm not sure I share your confidence.

They should call themselves pescatarian.

I was watching a history documentary the other day, and apparently in Tudor times, during Lent, people were not allowed to eat meat, just fish. To get round this, ducks, geese etc were redefined as fish, so they were able to eat them without breaking the rules!

I thought of this thread.

I don't say I'm vegetarian, precisely because so many people think we eat fish. If anyone's interested, or if someone will be preparing a meal for me, I'll say, "I don't eat meat or fish - anything that has a face." Can't go wrong with that, I thought, until someone served me chicken. I reminded them that I had said I don't eat meat, and was told, "It's OK, it's chicken."