Can you be a Vegetarian without being a PITA?

[charlietherednosedpussy]

I am a vegetarian and I dont object to my food being cooked in or near meat. If someones threw a sausage on my plate I will discreetly throw it onto dps plate for him to eat.
If I go to someones house for dinner I will take my own stuff to pop in the oven to save the hassle of them looking for something.
I will cook a bacon sarnie and serve it without saying OINK.
I dont think im a PITA but veggies seem to be getting really bad press on MN at the moment.
Am I ? ...Are you?

PantomimEDAMe - you have said so brilliantly what I wanted to say on this thread. I wish that anyone who eats meat or fish of any description would stop saying that they are vegetarian. I rarely trust the "V" symbol on menus.

It makes life so difficult when you eat out and get asked "would you have fish?" They look at me in complete amazement when I say that it had a mummy, so why would I want to eat it (as if they hadn't realised!)

My eldest dd is an absolute gem when it comes to putting meat-eaters off their food. I tend to keep quiet about my views, she thinks it's her duty to educate people - I love her description of where whey comes from, what various E numbers actually are etc. My mother is not at all appreciative!!

Oh, and I certainly wouldn't take my own food without having a discussion with the hosts first. I have taken my own food to the out-laws for years because they cannot cope with me at all!! They still think I should have turkey because it's Christmas.

Why thank you, Theprisoner (is that a Portmeirion reference, by the way?). It just feels as if people who claim to be veggie but who will happily eat fish if it's the 'veggie' option are giving the rest of us a bad name. Grrr.

But surely, ThePrisoner.... if its wafer thin turkey.....

What about veggies who preach from a great height about their superiority while cooking with battery hen eggs?

I'm quite happy to cook pure veggie food if veggie friends come round, but resent being lectured by someone like this.

I honestly don't know any vegetarians who habitually lecture people about their eating habits. Just vegetarians.

I've know one Caligula. And she did this while tucking inot jelly made with gelatine! LOL!

Rather like the guy who yelled at me for wearing a fur coat. 'It is fake,' I said

I swear to you he was disapointed. He just wanted the chance to preach.

I once saw someone on a tube wearing a leather jacket with a very graphic badge which said "I hate your disgusting fur coat"

Oh that is priceless! LOLOLOL!

my dad was once attacked by animal rights activists for wearing a leather jacket which was fake.

I used to be veggie and would be very easy going about it. I even ate leftover meat sometimes (but only leftovers).

Was a veggie for many years but not now.
Sisters are though.

How difficult is it to do some pasta with bought-but-fab tomato sauce? Hardly worth complaining about, is it?

Have known Sis1 (in her more militant days) refuse to eat a meal coz pan had been used for meat in past, which was a PITA. but that's about her, not her veggieness.

It wasn't you at my barbeque was it SenoraPostrophe???

Hmmm - barbecues ... I live in dread of them. I always say that it would be easier to bring my own food (something wrapped twenty times in foil), but people so want to accommodate me. I don't know how to say, "please don't cook vegetable kebabs between the chicken drumsticks" (I can't eat anything that has been cooked on a meaty BBQ anyway - even though it's all psychological).

PantomimEDAMe - never yet been to Portmeirion, but definitely want to. Do you think there are any veggie restaurants there??!

PITA veggies are the ones who don't tell you they are veggie until they turn up for dinner or your wedding. They just expect you to KNOW they are veggie?????

We had a group round for a thai meal earlier this year. We made an individual three bean chilli with cheese topping for the veggie and served it up with a selection of mini breads.

He just sat there staring at our thai food and looking sorry for himself. After a few drinks, he confessed to being disappointed that we hadn't cooked two sets of thai food (one veggie for him). Turns out he didn't object to fish sauce.

WTF?? Cook two sets of food at the same time? (there were four different dishes!). We've only got one wok! The bean chilli was gorgeous - I was a bit put out that he didn't recognise the effort we'd gone to. Bloody ungrateful, especially as he's never likely to invite us round and cook for us!

Portmeirion is lovely... and fine for veggies! There is an expensive restaurant in the grounds called Castle Deudreth (not sure I've remembered correct spelling) but haven't been to it for years so can't remember how good they are re veggieness. Apart from that it's normal cafes and a hotel restaurant. But stay in one of the cottages if you can, it's so entertaining (and you get to go past signs marked 'private').

Ds almost too his first steps there and got his soft shoes all soggy...

a member of my family claims to be veggie, but can eat fish, chicken and beefburgers (but not mince or pork chops)

she also has a wheat allergy but is fine eating bread, pastry and cake.

oh yes, and she can only drink really expensive red wine like the one my mum buys (£2 per bottle in netto, but she doesnt know that haha)

being a pita is nothing to do with being veggie, i am veggie and eat whatever is available but skip the meat

one of the most satisfying moments ever was when the pita carnivore at a family barbeque who spent the whole time telling me i should be eating sausages grabbed the sausage that was about to be thrown in the bin cos it had fallen on the coals and started gushing about how wonderful it was and how much i was missing and veggie crap couldnt compare to what he was eating. we let him finish it before we told him it was quorn

I think it is possible to be a vegetarian and not a PITA but I get really peed off with people who think it's ok to cook meat and veggie stuff together. If someone's a vegetarian they almost certainly don't want meat on their food, of course they don't. And I agree with Caligula, what's so hard about that? Use a different knife/tray fgs. I'm not sure if they still do it but Burger King used to cook their veggie burgers on the same hot plate as the meat burgers, very stupid imo.

I also can't believe how often vegetarians are expected to justify their choice - one rarely hears a meat eater quizzed about their choice to eat meat and yet mentioning that your children are vegetarian (as mine are) arouses such strong feelings and/or pointed questions. I don't know why it still surprises me but it does.

And people who eat chicken and fish AREN'T vegetarians, I wish they'd stop using the word!

WWW - my SIL is a 'vegetarian' and stuffs fish into her gob like it's running out in the next 5mins. Makes me laugh!

You'd be ok at our Barbeques The Prisoner - we even have seperate sets of tongs and flippers. I was a veggie for 10 years so I appreciate the principles (I just lost mine, obviously )

The last BBQ I went to, there was a veggie in charge of the cooking, and it was her who was cooking the veggie kebabs on the same BBQ as the meat, and then stacking them together on the same plate. In her eyes I was the PITA for refusing her food, in my eyes she was the PITA for not having the brains she was born with.

We have to take our own food to my mums for xmas because her idea of a vegetarian xmas dinner is to substitute the turkey with vegeburgers. Hardly very festive.

She's coming here this year and as she can't survive one meal without meat in it goodness knows what she'll do- we haven't dared ask.

and a comment further down the thread about feeling "morally superior" for being vegetarian, WTF?! Can't say I ever feel superior to anyone- don't have a problem with other people eating whatever they want, although it always tickles me when people in the UK get outraged about other cultures eating dogs- what's the difference? (and I say that as a dog lover while watching my ds play with his terrier in the garden, bless 'em)

The Prisoner - raw eyeballs etc wouldn't gross me out. Not eating them of course! But not bothered about talking about it. I think it comes from having biologists as parents - nothing grosses me. I do eat meat but don't eat offal etc.

I do see your point though.

I think there could be gross veggie dishes though - raw seaweed? al la Gillian McKeith ...

Oh and no I don't think they are a pain unless they do say they are morally superior which is just plain daft.

Other animals eat other animals so why shouldn't humans? And we kill our meat in a much more 'humane' way than a tiger kills its prey for example.

Meat provides a lot of energy calorie wise and a lot of nutrients which can be more difficult to get with veggies. Think of how much chewing a sheep or cow has to do - they spend all day eating. I am sure that some starving people in the world would rather have some meat and wouldn't think twice about it being 'yukky'.... so one could argue that vegetarians generally belong to fairly affluent societies....

Just throwing this in - I don't know enough about it and would be interested to be proved wrong...

the PITAs are the ones that go on and on about how vegetarians are a pain.