Vegetarian Meals In Pubs
- Thread starter Badgers
- Start date
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Nonono, not "totally equal".
But when there's 10 or 12 meat choices, and one veggie choice, especially if it's something many veggies don't like, that's not good.
And if they are clearly putting effort into keeping their meat menu fresh, but apparently not making any effort with the veggie option, that's not good either.
I think most vegetarians are pragmatic enough to recognise that, as 5-7% of the population, they're a minority. But if we go out to eat, we want a similar experience. If a meat eater doesn't like the ingredients of one of the menu choices, it is easy to select something else. If you're a vegetarian who finds mushrooms unpalatable, and the only option's mushroom stroganoff, you're screwed. Some places will try and push the boat out a bit if you explain your difficulty - I generally avoid eating omelettes as they're so often the standby option and I don't want to get sick of them! - but a lot of places will look at you as if to say "and this is my problem because...?".
It doesn't take too many of those uncomfortable experiences to take all the joy out of going out to eat, which is clearly what people like Badgers (more power to his elbow!) are trying to resolve.
Oh, and that's another tip, Mr B. Try and have a chef on duty who knows how to cook a decent omelette au fine herbes. Because if you get that total PITA vegetarian who can't eat anything you've offered, a really well cooked omelette can save the day!
Jeff Robinson
Marxist-Lentilist: Jackboots and Jackfruit
Like all the elements, but it sounds pretty heavy going though tbh.
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
it is very disheartening to find the usual veg lasagne etc... but I do love a good nut roast and I would find it hard to turn down deep fried battered halloumi and chips - even though it's so very very naughty. What is really nice is a really really good imaginative salad - usually involving cheese of some sort - but it's probably a bit more gastro pub than every day pub (that's not meant to be an insult). Some pubs the food goes with(soaks up?) the drink, rather than others where the drinks go with the food iykwim...
eta... in short - yeah deep fried cheese and chips ftw!
eta... in short - yeah deep fried cheese and chips ftw!
I just assume I'm going on a diet when eating in France, and pack chocolate. Occasionally, I apply sarcasm to the waiter, but mostly I just write their food off. You can only eat so many eggs in a three-day stay without having to order prune juice as a dressing...
With chips! And good bread.
existentialist said:Nonono, not "totally equal".
But when there's 10 or 12 meat choices, and one veggie choice, especially if it's something many veggies don't like, that's not good.
And if they are clearly putting effort into keeping their meat menu fresh, but apparently not making any effort with the veggie option, that's not good either.
I think most vegetarians are pragmatic enough to recognise that, as 5-7% of the population, they're a minority. But if we go out to eat, we want a similar experience. If a meat eater doesn't like the ingredients of one of the menu choices, it is easy to select something else. If you're a vegetarian who finds mushrooms unpalatable, and the only option's mushroom stroganoff, you're screwed. Some places will try and push the boat out a bit if you explain your difficulty - I generally avoid eating omelettes as they're so often the standby option and I don't want to get sick of them! - but a lot of places will look at you as if to say "and this is my problem because...?".
It doesn't take too many of those uncomfortable experiences to take all the joy out of going out to eat, which is clearly what people like Badgers (more power to his elbow!) are trying to resolve.
Oh, and that's another tip, Mr B. Try and have a chef on duty who knows how to cook a decent omelette au fine herbes. Because if you get that total PITA vegetarian who can't eat anything you've offered, a really well cooked omelette can save the day!
No omelette
Nine Bob Note
Self-Isolating before it was fashionable
Well, I'm staying at a four star hotel next month for a wedding. I have the dinner menu, everything described in great detail except for the enigmatic 'vegetarian option' tacked on at the very bottom. May be sampling yorkshire's fine chippies that weekend.
In a pub I'll always opt for a veggie burger and chips because a) I don't buy them to cook myself and I don't eat out often enough to get sick of them. B) I know I'll be full, whereas if I order whatever pasta dish they have I'll go hungry for the sake of the few pennies they save by being stingy. And c) I'm either included in whatever silly 'buy seven get four half price with a free pint' promotion they're running or I'm not, either way that's what I wanted before I sat down, so I can stick to it and if that means someone else has to pay full price for whatever they want, tough shit. I'm real good company that way
In a pub I'll always opt for a veggie burger and chips because a) I don't buy them to cook myself and I don't eat out often enough to get sick of them. B) I know I'll be full, whereas if I order whatever pasta dish they have I'll go hungry for the sake of the few pennies they save by being stingy. And c) I'm either included in whatever silly 'buy seven get four half price with a free pint' promotion they're running or I'm not, either way that's what I wanted before I sat down, so I can stick to it and if that means someone else has to pay full price for whatever they want, tough shit. I'm real good company that way
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Haha, I'm in France at the moment. Nightmare. I'm filling up on pizza, galettes (almost invariably trois fromages), and occasional omelettes. I have nightmares about camembert.
And Mrs E wants to come and live here!!!
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
When I studied in France in the early 90s I lost a lot of weight - I was in student halls and there was no food storage for us and it was summer. I just couldn't be bothered in the end. But nowadays it is much much better tbh... we're off tomorrow for a week's camping. I will probably eat a lot of goat's cheese salads, omelettes, gallettes/crepes and pasta. Could be worse!
el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
"we can pick the meat out for you"
DrRingDing
'anti-human wanker'
el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
"fish isn't meat"
cyberfairy
http://unicycle-emptiness.co.uk/
The best meal I had in utterly ages (in a bar in Penrith tbf but costing under eight quid so pub price) was a veggie chilli, the thing I normally scorn as so dull but this was the best thing I had ever eaten, served on a charred flatbread, containing chocolate, jalepenos and with a fried egg on top, based on a Turkish dish. Unfortunately when chasing my badly behaved toddler off the main road outside, it was cleared away. I will never forget this and am slightly less fond of the child.
kittyP
Pluviophile
Indeed. I guess it helps knowing the place that Badgers is talking about but while some of the suggestions are great, they are too much prep and not enough shelf life (ie too Gastro Pub) for there
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Really????
Well, frankly, any pub that can't offer that stuff - which, I'll remind you, *I* can cook!
- doesn't have any business getting into the food game, in my view. It's a matter of perception - it's only "gastro" because it didn't fall out of the back of a 3663 lorry 
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
i did it quite a bit in Japan... this was deepest darkest countryside, middle of nowhere - no other English speakers in sight - started at my "welcome to Japan" banquet... wasn't really the time to get too pissy about it - and happened a good bit from there on in until I got more proficient at the language.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I'd go with a fakon sarnie or a nice meatless curry. Fakon is rank though, so probably best to go with the curry.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
I take those isphagula husk capsules
It is a significant problem, and I'm speaking as someone who spends 3 weeks in Brittany most years.I'm told Germany's worse - there, they think you're ill if you're a vegetarian.
kittyP
Pluviophile
Really????
Well, frankly, any pub that can't offer that stuff - which, I'll remind you, *I* can cook!
Its got nothing to do with being able to cook it, its the sourcing and storage of ingredients, prep and shelf life, and ease of cooking while preparing other stuff in a teeeeeeny kitchen, by one person.
You mentioned that you can easily make your version of veggie lasagna when making meat lasagna, the meat lasagna comes from a freezer too as it is too much prep and not enough shelf life making from fresh.
That's why the battered halloumi would work coz you can just dip it in batter and drop it in. There is virtually no prep and it is easy to make to order.
It really is mostly a beer and burgers kinda place that they are trying to stretch further for veggies.
cyberfairy
http://unicycle-emptiness.co.uk/
Well, I'm staying at a four star hotel next month for a wedding. I have the dinner menu, everything described in great detail except for the enigmatic 'vegetarian option' tacked on at the very bottom. May be sampling yorkshire's fine chippies that weekend.
In a pub I'll always opt for a veggie burger and chips because a) I don't buy them to cook myself and I don't eat out often enough to get sick of them. B) I know I'll be full, whereas if I order whatever pasta dish they have I'll go hungry for the sake of the few pennies they save by being stingy. And c) I'm either included in whatever silly 'buy seven get four half price with a free pint' promotion they're running or I'm not, either way that's what I wanted before I sat down, so I can stick to it and if that means someone else has to pay full price for whatever they want, tough shit. I'm real good company that way
I get utterly fucked off when the crappy work do comes around and the hugely overpriced menus feature every detail of every meaty offering including sides and sauces but then have a crappy italicised 'Vegetarian version available'. Before Christmas that's like spending thirty quid on a food lucky dip and just occasionally, just because veggies don't eat meat or fish, they may possibly not be able to eat or hate something not containing either of the above. I have had a roast dinner with no veggie gravy or meat, just a flaccid omellete and 'trimmings' and paid the same as those who gorged on salt marsh lamb.
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
Yeah, I think some people are overrating what you get as a meat eater in a typical pub tbh. No doubt you get more choice but innovative changing menus prepared by skilled chefs? That's not my experience of most places that don't market themselves as gastropubs.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
That seems a pity. I am really not sure food pubs should be trying to define themselves in opposition to "gastro pubs" anyway, but I can't see how portions of veggie lasagne base couldn't be kept frozen in exactly the same way that the makings of meat lasagne would be, albeit in smaller quantities. Similarly, your reach-in would just have a big tub of walnut balls, 3 out and on the plate, 10 mins in the combi oven and lazz the bechamel sauce over - we're really not looking at insuperable catering problems here.
People these days won't settle for boil-in-the-bag - pubs have had to raise their game, and I KNOW there were pubs back in the day who sneered at the idea of cooking proper food in a pub. Nowadays, most pubs that call themselves anything worthy of the name wouldn't dream of serving that kind of slop: times change. Maybe the industry needs to change a little more, too, to cater for a customer base who want a little more variety and a little more choice without necessarily having to go to a gastropub to get it.
I take those isphagula husk capsules
I'm told Germany's worse - there, they think you're ill if you're a vegetarian.
Germany has a huge "bio food" culture, so unless you're eating in a bierkellar you can usually get something decent. Might be deep-fried cheese, or noodles, but at least it's there. Also, the Turks seem to have moved quite a lot of civilised food into Germany, too.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
We're basically talking 3663 specials, then?
Have no fear, I am nowhere near your pub, but I suspect it's the sort of place I'd come to eat in once.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
So how far can they go in sorting out a decent veggie burger? I don't want to come over all cynical here, but I've got the feeling that if I start suggesting some kind of squashed-flat-falafel job, maybe with some spinach in, it's going to get the "G*****pub" treatment?
