Who thinks vegetarians are cranks?

[unicorn]

only asking to glean opinion (not start a war!)

I was under the misguided illusion that being veggi was no longer a particularly interesting issue... yet I had a gang of adults gang up on me yesterday simply because I asked if there were going to be veggi burgers (as well as the usual stuff) at the school summer fair!

Why on earth do I need to justify my eating habits/choices to anyone?

I've never found anyone take issue with my vegetarianism. Meat eaters don't have to justify themselves to me; I don't have to justify myself to them.

most people hardly bat an eyelid when i say it now. i used to be all exotic and interesting when i first went veggie (sigh)

after that recent gordon ramsey thing, i had my sil tell me that if i fancied a steak i would surely just eat one. seems she thinks i can give up my morals that easily after 11 years.

It's fairly the norm now to have a mix of veggie/non-veggies..tbh I normally always choose veggie options now when I go out as prefer to know where my meat has come from.

Being veggie is a huge thing according to every meat eater I have ever sat down next for a formal dinner (office lunches are the worst)
I am continually asked to justify my position and have started to blatantly lie in response as it is the only way to keep this dull converstaion topic alive for me.
It is my choice, I dont force this on anyone and I dont ask meat eaters to justify their decisions to me.
I do however ask them to refrain from eating all the cheese sandwiches in a buffet environment - if they love the meat so much why do all the veggie buffet options go first?

Couldn't care less whether people are vegetarian or not. It's a choice thing and the vegetarians I know are Ok about me ordering a big steak for myself when we eat out as they know me as a big meat eater. I do tend to fail miserably if they come for tea and opt out and order chinese!

Luckily they are friend so forgive the fact that I struggle to feed them

sorry i didn't explain that very well. sil got on her high horse about the whole thing with gordon ramsey giving meat to a vegetarian.

I gave up being a vegetarian after 15 years of scrupulous eating..I became vegetarian to see if it was possible for me and it was..then i eventually developed a craving for meat..

But I thought vegetarian foods were pretty much mainstream now even to people who also eat meat...

Oh, I tell a lie - one person did tell me that he thought all vegetarian food was tasteless pap ... although as he said that as he was tucking into a plate of sag aloo, I didn't take too much notice of his opinion.

@ WWB
The old vegetarian food tastes of nothing argument - you are bringing back fond memories of sosmix (sp?)

The choice of food in restaurants with a few exceptions is terrible for vegetarians though but at home it is delicious and far more extensive than meat substitutes which are about as tasty as chicken nuggets

eating out, I stick to Chinese, indian and Middle eastern as they have some fab options.
The veg menu at some thai places is lovely too.
I avoid Korean.

I know lemonice but I am a terrible cook at the best of times and ths is a standing joke amongst all our friend not just the vegetarians.

No row starting intended but i also refuse to eat tofu and quorn much to everyones amusement.

When tackled on this by one drunken friend i replied I have never and would never push you to eat meat or something you did not want to so back off!

to me it's a non-issue, but to some being veggi is tantamount to being an anarchist!!!(kid ye not)

I was annoyed as they hadn't offered a veggi alternative at the bbq (ie bbq = meat)and made my point.
So follow the "so why are you a veggi?" questions... (which I refuse to answer now - as someone is always itching for a fight, yknow 'but you wear leather shoes !!

I find that all too often the only vegetarian options are curries and spiced dishes. It's almost as if the restaurants believe that all other veggie dishes really are bland and tasteless, and that spicy dishes are the only alternative to tasteless.

Good post dillydally - why do the meat eaters scoff all the veggie food first at buffets? Like you, I do get irritated by meat eaters asking me to justify myself - don't mind genuine curiosity but often it's quite hostile, as if they feel threatened that I've made this choice. They can only justify eating meat by denigrating vegetarians (the old 'but I bet you wear leather shoes line.. yawn...).

Message withdrawn

Agreed Unicorn. I'm veggie. I have no problems with people eating meat (dh and the kids do) and have lost count of the number of times someone's said to me, all angry and gleeful, 'Well I see you wear leather shoes. Explain THAT. If You can'.

It used to be worse (I became veggie in 1985) but things have relaxed a bit thank God!

Perhaps those people feel veggies are judging them.

I only had to do the leather shoes explanation once, and went into such precise and boring detail about the difference between lacto-vegetarians, ovolacto-vegetarians and vegans that I stunned my friends into total stupefaction, and they never asked the question again.

Ah but you don't force your child to be 100% veggie though, girrafeski. What annoys me is when strict veggies force their own choices on their children. I used to know a family where the poor kids were reduced to smuggling sausage rolls off the buffet table at parties...

Dh and I eat meat and give our son a big range of different foods but he has decided that he is a strict vegetarian. He will not touch meat of any kind and he is only 2!

The thing is logic, we all give our kids what we believe is best for them to eat. Vegetarians who do this for their children are doing it out of the same conviction. Their kids can always do things differently when they get older.

Absolutely agree spidermama, we all try and do the best for our kids BUT what then if a child asked for meat to try it and make that choice?

If my child asks for Macdonalds I have no hesitation in saying, 'NO'. They'll probably head straight for Mc's when they leave home but I will not allow it when they're with me. Any more than I'd allow them to smoke fags.

My dd eats meat now, because she saw dh eating meat, chose to try it, and liked it. Once she was old enough to make her own choice, I had to let her.

However, she's always asking me why I'm a vegetarian, and has just started to suss where meat comes from, and once she is old enough to take in the full facts, she will be able to decide for herself what she wants to eat. She's already started saying that when she's older she might not want to eat animals, so there's always hope!