{"id":11570,"date":"2013-01-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2013\/01\/25\/vegetarian-tales-of-woe\/"},"modified":"2013-01-25T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T12:00:00","slug":"vegetarian-tales-of-woe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2013\/01\/25\/vegetarian-tales-of-woe\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegetarian Tales of Woe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source<\/a><\/p>\n

ENGLAND, January 23, 2013: HPI Note: This entertaining article is comprised of responses the BBC received to a question: “What do vegetarians eat in a country where refusing meat is regarded as a sign of madness?” <\/p>\n

It might be tomato pasta. Again. Or salad. Plain rice. Or vegetable stew… with lumps of chicken to pick out. For the BBC’s Dany Mitzman in Bologna, Italy – where vegetarianism is seen as an exotic illness – it’s tagliatelle with mushrooms. Here is a selection of tales from our vegetarian readers trying to find meat-free options when far from home.<\/p>\n

1. Breanna, Whistler, Canada: I was a vegan when I moved to West Africa in 2002. I rapidly started eating dairy, eggs and fish again just to be able to survive. I not only encountered bewilderment but inevitably would get asked “why no meat?” and end up in long discussions where my friends and colleagues tried to convert me. I tried every explanation: loving animals, hating plants, being a Buddhist, but all in vain. After a few months, I finally hit upon gold. I simply told people that my grandfather had forbidden it before he died. Nobody would dream of asking me – an unmarried young woman – to go against my grandfather’s wishes. After that, everyone went out of their way to find meatless dishes for me to eat.<\/p>\n

3. Grant Finepen, Subic, Philippines: Try being a vegetarian in Texas. My friend went to a BBQ and said he didn’t eat meat so, after many sympathetic words of consolation, he was given a burger bun with a salad.<\/p>\n

6. Demarest Campbell, San Francisco, US: In South Africa, requesting vegetables is like swearing at the wait-staff. One bewildered waiter told me haughtily, “But, vegetables is what food eats.”<\/p>\n

11. Kedaar Raman, Troy, New York: I have travelled far and wide. My family raised me as a traditional Hindu Brahmin vegetarian. I have found it hardest to find vegetarian food in Malaysia, China and Vermont when I lived with local farmers. I was always given the look of pity when I told locals I did not eat meat. I explained it was a personal choice and that I did not feel like I was missing out on anything since I have never eaten meat in my life. If a mother does not put a piece of meat in a baby’s mouth and say it is food, the baby does not know it is food.<\/p>\n

18. Jonathan Pagden, Chesham, Bucks: I once stayed in a hotel in Munich (in a land famous for offering six varieties of meat for breakfast), and asked for the vegetarian lunch option. The waiter brought a plate of bacon. When I pointed this out, he said, with a completely straight face, “It came from a vegetarian pig.” I still don’t know whether he was joking.<\/p>\n

Much more at source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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