I love meeting up with my mates to eat 'high-carb' vegan food in order to switch off after a weeks work. Dining out with meat-eating mates can seem harder than completing a game of 'asteroids', but it's actually pretty easy. I thought I would give you some tips on how to do it.
1. Take Charge
People are usually either very lazy or extremely busy, if you volunteer to organise the meal, your mates will most probably see it as far less hassle for them. This way you can avoid eating at meat pits. Look for some places that offer food for you and your mates.
Beware, some restaurants are deceptively anti-vegan. I have had the odd occasion where you look at the menu and realise that everything, and I mean everything is fused with animal products. So calling to check is a good idea, sometimes they will prepare a special dish just for you. I enjoy using timeout to discover my eat outs, picking out just one of many.
2. Go East
Asian cuisine such as a Thai or an Indian restaurants are your go to venues. They make mega tasty vegan dishes and are very accommodating for all, I find it very easy to ask for low oil and low salt as well. This way you can relax in the fact that you will have several meals to choose from without your mates giving you the evils. Italian restaurants are a good second bet, but be wary of egg in the pizza and pasta.
3. Be creative
For whatever reason, you end up inside a meat pit, don't worry I have done it too! This is where you need to adjust your perceptions on eating out. I actually see this as a perfect opportunity to train my vegan creative juices. Search for a few side dishes or a couple of starters that you can eat to make up a full meal instead of one main.
Make a suggestion on a meal that could be made vegan for example cooking with no cheese on a pizza or cream in a soup. The waiting staff are there to help you out, so use them. It's becoming very trendy for restaurants to be vegan friendly, so abuse this trend!
4. Don't be afraid to ask questions
I am now that annoying guy at the table who constantly asks questions about the food. I used to be awkward about this but once you realise that you have the choice over what goes in your mouth, it really makes sense. If a random person were to offer you a plateful of food I am pretty sure you would question what was in it, so why would it be any different when you are paying for it?! If anything I would ask more questions!
I have realised over time that these 'awkward' questions create stimulating conversation at the table, and it prolongs the food making the whole experience last longer. Which actually is a bonus, as I like going to restaurants for the primary reason of being with my pals. Now I wear my veganism as a badge of honour in restaurants and look forward to exclaiming what I stand for!
5. Don't kill yourself over mistakes
Just last week whilst at a restaurant I took a bite into what I thought was vegan friendly gluten and egg free pasta with a vegetable ragu.... I soon discovered through taste there was butter in the ruddy ragu!! I was a bit pissed, but only because I was hungry and couldn't eat it, not because I ate butter. The restaurant refunded my meal and made me a quick salad on the house to apologise. So hats off to them!
In times like this I remind myself that veganism is a mindset, and just because you have eaten a bit of butter or milk it does not 'De-veganise' you. As long as you have done everything you could to avoid eating animal products and that you realise your mistake and improve from it, you have done as well as you could of. I personally will never look at ragu the same again.
Food for thought..
Learning what is and isn't vegan is a bloody Nightmare and making mistakes is inevitable if you eat out a bit. Just realise that the more questions you ask and the more research you do, the less likely you are to make a mistake. Treat your budding veganism like learning a new sport or starting out at the gym.... you wouldn't expect to be a master at these right away and it's the same with being a vegetable eating, planet saving, superhero!
No comments:
Post a Comment