Being a Vegetarian on holiday

wannabe_a_mum

Spendless wrote: »

Hi, Thanks for reply. Ideally we'd like to go somewhere in Europe eg Spain.

I hadn't thought of Italy, that would make sense them having more vegetarian options.

We've recently returned from a holiday in Italy (Sorrento and Rome) - we are both Vegetarian and it was extremely difficult for the majority of Italians to understand the concept of pure vegetarian food! In a lot of establishments we found that 'veggie' food and non veggie food shared the same display plates (eg at Rome Terminus food/bar area) and very often they used the same serving utensils!
Even at the hotel in Sorrento for breakfast the veg and non veg topped bread rolls and other delicacies shared the same serving plate and also serving spoons.
At Rome airport we saw the Pizza bar staff cutting veg and non veg pizzas with the same pizza cutter and utilising the same paddle for the oven.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the 'concept' of keeping something veggie is not consistent in Italy - as you are a family with a mix of vegetarians and non vegetarians, I guess I am saying that you may struggle in Italy to accommodate tastes without having to go from place to place.


In the USA I have found that eating establishments recognise Vegan but not Vegetarian - the response I often get is "well it's got no meat in it" but don't recognise meat derivatives as added ingredients!!!


In Paris you can find Indian Pure Vegetarian restaurants - particularly southern indian cuisine


Hope this helps

wannabe_a_mum

wannabe_a_mum wrote: »

We've recently returned from a holiday in Italy (Sorrento and Rome) - we are both Vegetarian and it was extremely difficult for the majority of Italians to understand the concept of pure vegetarian food! In a lot of establishments we found that 'veggie' food and non veggie food shared the same display plates (eg at Rome Terminus food/bar area) and very often they used the same serving utensils!
Even at the hotel in Sorrento for breakfast the veg and non veg topped bread rolls and other delicacies shared the same serving plate and also serving spoons.
At Rome airport we saw the Pizza bar staff cutting veg and non veg pizzas with the same pizza cutter and utilising the same paddle for the oven.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the 'concept' of keeping something veggie is not consistent in Italy - as you are a family with a mix of vegetarians and non vegetarians, I guess I am saying that you may struggle in Italy to accommodate tastes without having to go from place to place.


In the USA I have found that eating establishments recognise Vegan but not Vegetarian - the response I often get is "well it's got no meat in it" but don't recognise meat derivatives as added ingredients!!!


In Paris you can find Indian Pure Vegetarian restaurants - particularly southern indian cuisine


Hope this helps

Just to add - we found Turkey was fine for vegetarian food. Most places made things fresh and were able to adapt meat dishes to be meat free too

Ainsley1

Anthorn,

Looks like you have the terms confused.

Well I don't think I am confused at all between vegetarian and Vegan!

Some vegetarians eat dairy products, eggs and fish

Thank you that just makes my point! As an example the OP's daughter would eat pizza (containing cheese) but there seemed to be some problems with parmesan chips (containing cheese) both probably using rennet in their production.

"Parmesan is not vegetarian."
"I know some veggies who are meatr free for health rather than ethical reasons and don't really care about animal byproducts used in making cheese, other food and drinks as well as leather and five pound notes."
" do eat cheese, eggs etc. " (including parmesan?)
"can handle my veggie burger if it's been on the same grill as the meat - I can pick out meat from a sandwich"
but then some vegetarians cannot eat anything that has touched meat, or have fish or fish sauce!

So, without there bring a definitive definition included I posts to quantify what is meant by the wide spread grey areas of vegetarianism , on what is forum to try and help how can we?

I have great sympathy with the OP trying to find things the daughter will eat and there have been plenty of suggestions but I wonder of the daughter would eat all those that , like proper parmesan, contain, have been derived from or have touched meat! Even milk will have 'flesh' cells in it or have touched them!

Any vegetarian who is easy going will have no problems whatsoever in many of the areas suggested.....but what about daughter?

sgun

One very simple point that seems to be confusing people...vegetarians don't ever eat fish. If you do, you are not a vegetarian, you are a pescatarian.

Heedtheadvice

Thanks for pointing that out, Sgun. {edit and indeed Anthorn relatinmg to ovo-vegetarian} Not a term that had crossed my mind and it was worth reading on Wiki.

I note that what many vegetarians eat is actually the ovo-lacto vegetarian diet or pescetarian i.e. with the addition of fish but not other meat flesh. [and there are other variations too such as the ovo mention by Anthorn!]

The whole topic is not as simple as it might first appear. Thanks for the enlightenment. :beer:

So Ainsley' post really is incorrect in that there probably not really many grey areas......just many (possibly including 'vegetarians' ) who, just like me, do not understand it all!

'Vegetarian' as a description therefore seems to cover a whole gamut of variations thus making answering the question even more difficult!

At least Spendless can just ask his/her daughter exactly what she is and then try and find ways to explain it all in a restaurant in the appropriate foreign language!!