To be annoyed that vegan options have replaced vegetarian?

[Sacredhandbag]

It's only a silly gripe in the grand scheme of things but it's bloody annoying.

I've been a vegetarian my whole life but since veganism has become more popular and more and more people are becoming part of the movement (and good on them!) it's like restaurants, cafes and hotels have skipped adding vegetarian options and thought "well vegan options covers both so we'll just add a few of those"

No! I am not vegan. I am vegetarian. I still want my eggs, my cream, my cheese, my butter. I want a stilton and broccoli bake, not a grilled bit of cauliflower!

Afternoon tea (I'm a fan and have one as often as I can) is the worst for it. There's an ordinary menu and then there's a vegan menu and that's it. You order one or the other. I don't want chicken or fish sandwiches but I sure as hell want my scones with proper clotted cream! So I have to be specific about the sandwiches and say I want some from one menu and some from the other. Bloody annoying.

Any other veggies feel the same?

To be fair, if you look at that menu as a whole, including burgers, salads, flat breads, brunch etc there are plenty of options that include eggs and real cheese - cheddar, halloumi, feta.
Five of the eight vegan dishes are salads or dishes that don't need dairy or eggs, like an Asian vegetable stir fry.

Vegans, possibly due to their diet, have much more strident voices.
That is the reason.

Some fillings for the sandwiches were carrot and hummus, fake beef slices and horseradish, tofu egg and cress, vegan Philly and cucumber

I appreciate everyone's tastes are different but this sounds absolutely awful to me. And I say this as someone who has been vegetarian for life and cooks almost exclusively vegan at home.

The only vegan cheese I like is the cathedral city one. Even non vegan family members will eat that happily and one relative who is very anti vegan didn’t realise it was vegan when he ate it. He was gutted. 😂

The only one of these I would eat would be the hummus.

I'm not vegan (or even vegetarian) but love tofu so would love the tofu "egg" cress ones, and the carrot and hummus ones.

Whilst I obviously understand animal cruelty in the food industry I (who eats everything in moderation) have issue with vegans them eating soy and palm oil which is fueling the destruction of the Amazon and the habitat of all the animals there. So I eat a small amount of locally produced higher welfare meat and dairy instead

Some fillings for the sandwiches were carrot and hummus, fake beef slices and horseradish, tofu egg and cress, vegan Philly and cucumber

Using tofu for egg is lovely when it’s done well. Using black salt works well, as does adding things like turmeric, mustard, nutritional yeast etc. Hummus and carrot is nice, better with beetroot and seeded bread. 😋

We have a vegan cafe and vegetarian/vegan restaurant very close to us who do great food, no fake meat at all.

@Strictlymad , that is, I believe, the sensible attitude.

I looked at my local restaurants too, (post upthread) and going by what vegetarians on this thread have said, the choices here would be okay. Lots of cheese pastas pizza curry chilli etc, some faux meat in the vegan options but only one in the vegetarian options and more vegetarian than vegan. I think it is the same for lounge? I've been once and they did have a 'faux meat' burger that they'd ran out of but the rest were veg and pulses based.

Vegan 'faux meat' using palm oil makes up a teeeeeeny part of the palm oil industry. It's in around. 50% of supermarket produce and vegans are a tiny minority. Nationwide they make up (at the very most in certain regions) 4%. Most regions much fewer vegans.

That is without even mentioning that a lot of vegans wont go anywhere near faux meat. So even fewer consumers of palm oil within it.

Around 75% of soy production is in order to feed the animals that are eaten by non-vegans. 'Have an issue' with vegans for being hypocritical, I understand that but they're by far to blame for that problem.

Some fillings for the sandwiches were carrot and hummus, fake beef slices and horseradish, tofu egg and cress, vegan Philly and cucumber

Using tofu for egg is lovely when it’s done well. Using black salt works well, as does adding things like turmeric, mustard, nutritional yeast etc. Hummus and carrot is nice, better with beetroot and seeded bread

Even without debating the taste, it's just all so horribly processed. Tofu, fake beef, vegan cream cheese (made of?). I bet they're not making the hummus fresh either.

If I'm going to eat vegan then I want something that can stand on its own as a nice meal, not be a sad substitute of something much nicer. I find that so depressing!

I bought myself a vegan cheese board for Xmas and only ate some of one of the cheeses on it(there were 5, and I prefer very strong flavours and despise cheeses with cranberries etc). I left it at my parent's and my 'no nonsense I'd eat roadkill your diet is appalling the bible says to eat meat' dad, scoffed the lot without realising. 🤣

Tofu is not an ultra processed food.

Tofu is minimally processed and very nutritious. Lots of foods are processed, like the milk and bread most people eat, it doesn’t make them UPFs or unhealthy. Minimally processing foods is beneficial to humans.

I make my own hummus, as does the cafe local to us. Even lots of shop bought ones don’t contain anything I’d worry about. It’s interesting that UPFs
and terms like ‘horribly processed’ are used much more when talking about vegans. The shops are full of UPF foods and most people aren’t vegan so non vegans are consuming most of them. Most vegans I know eat a lot less processed foods than non vegans.

I've said this same thing upthread. "Vegan food is soooo processed!!'

Yes, the faux meat types of food are.

But of course we don't clutch our pearls over the 1000s of UPFs that non-vegans regularly eat, do we? Even if all vegans ate UPFs every day, they'd not be anywhere near the majority who do.

Exactly. Non vegans don’t want to hear it though. Read threads on here about what people eat, it’s mostly non vegans, and they eat a lot of UPFs. But then on threads where they want to vegan bash, all of a sudden all these non vegans eat only whole foods to suit their argument. 🙄

Tofu isn't a processed food
It's a natural one (usually made with soy bean curd, I think)

Tofu is pressed and fermented bean curd.

Fermentation is a process.

So is making yogurt or cheese. Tofu isn’t ultra processed, which is what a lot of people are trying to avoid these days.

Part of the problem with the vegan argument is when you get posters coming on with the 'your eggs? Your milk?' bollocks and trying to bully people into becoming vegan. I actually find reading the rational posts interesting and sometimes wish I could eat the food mentioned as some of it sounds lovely but other posters don't help the cause.

I think a lot of people don’t understand the difference between processed and ultra processed. Processed foods are generally beneficial, the same can’t be said for ultra processed foods.

Spare a thought for people who are gluten free where the gluten free cakes/puddings are the vegan option too so they can’t avoid it!

Well if a non vegan says, my eggs etc, which they did, I think it’s fair game really. Animals are suffering so that humans can have these products after all. Non vegans seem to expect vegans to not react to any of the shit they come out with. Non vegans can say what they like but when vegans react they’re preachy or whatever. The comment about my eggs was goady/inflammatory so the answer was deserved.

I never said it was 'ultra processed.' The poster to whom I was responding said tofu was not processed, but it very much is.