Vacationing vegetarians

20 January 2003 ~ 00:00

I want to make it clear that I'm not talking about specialist vegetarian restaurants. Believe it or not, although I've been a vegetarian for seventeen years, I've never, ever eaten at one. No, I'm just talking about how well ordinary food establishments cater for us non-meat and -fish eaters. Even supermarkets in Britain seem to have a much wider selection of vegetarian foods. A perfect example of this is Quorn, a relative of the mushroom, which is often used as a substitute for meat which I've never seen in any other country � not even in the U.S.A., which many think of as the land of multiple consumer choice.

Of course, in France, they've hardly even heard of vegetarians, let alone begun to cater for them. Eating in the restaurant on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower (in Feb. 1999), Mark and I enjoyed scenic views of the Seine river, but a limited menu from which to choose. It was alright for Mark as he eats fish and so chose the salmon, but I had the French equivalent of poached eggs on toast with marmite. I later made up for it by having a huge sundae for desert!

In TGIFriday's in New York City (where we went on business in October 2000), even the cheese and tomato pizzas had seafood sauce on them. There was nothing else except French fries, so we had to have that (Mark was conscious not to have chicken or the like in front of me).

In this country, Italian restaurants are one of the best places for vegetarians to eat. But in Rome, my mum and I found a different story. In one restaurant, I ordered spaghetti with pepper, thinking this must be an incorrect usage of English on the menu; they must have meant sauce made with peppers. What I in fact got, however, was a plain cooked spaghetti with pepper (yes, the condiment) sprinkled on top! When I asked for a plain tomato sauce, they regarded me as if I were stupid. Needless to say, I did not eat the dry spaghetti but they still charged me for it. Bloody cheek.

As far as I know, Britain is the only country where McDonald's and Burger King sell veggie burgers. They even have a choice of either a spicy bean burger or a vegetable burger. In other countries, all a vegetarian can do is just have the fries.

Now obviously, the reason for this must be that there are greater numbers of vegetarians in the UK than anywhere else in the world � and the market, as such, dictates to them. (Readers should be aware that I've never been to Canada yet, or Australia, or beyond Western Europe, so please correct me if I'm wrong.)

In conclusion, I have to say I'm pretty thankful that I just so happen to be living in the country which best caters for my diet. It's not a problem for short holiday breaks, but if I had to live in another country, I would find it troublesome.

To all my fellow veggies, happy traveling and bon apetite!


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