Good lord. This strikes me a very nitpicky question based on some obscure definition of “vegetarian meal” that even the OP seems unable to articulate.
Mr. S and I (semivegetarians) often make a meal of mashed potatoes and an assortment of steamed/nuked veggies. Believe me, it’s a full meal, very filling.
What about mac & cheese, cheese pizza, a big salad, pasta with marinara sauce, or a PB&J? I’ve made meals out of each of those. And I’ve run into nonvegetarians who either don’t realize that those foods are just as “vegetarian” as the inedible roots ‘n’ tofu that they imagine veg food to be, or don’t consider them “real food” because they don’t include meat. (I loved the long-ago comment from some Doper, along the lines of, “You have to have meat in everything you eat? What are you, a puma?”)
The OP seems to be claiming that, say, mashed potatoes and green beans by themselves are not vegetarian. Would crumbling tofu over them or sticking a Boca burger on the side make them “legitimately” vegetarian?
I gotta agree with the people saying the vegetarian food is simply food with no meat products in it – whether any of the ingredients are intended as a protein/meat substitute or not.
Other person:
Did you have a good Thanksgiving?"
mangeorge:
“Yes, I had thanksgiving dinner with my friends last night.”
Other person:
“Was it vegetarian?”
mangeorge:
“Nah.”
Should I have explained that yes, there were some veggies and stuff? I, having once been vegetarian, would not have thought of those veggies as vegetarian. Even though they might have been not sullied by meat stuff.
Do the rest of you hate vegetarians too?
And no, I don’t think you should have said yes. The fact that there were some dishes that could have been eaten by vegetarians doesn’t make it a “vegetarian meal” - to me a vegetarian meal implies that all components served are vegetarian friendly.
If there was a Tofurky in addition to the turkey main dish would you have considered the meal to be vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian? I certainly would have. The meal would have been both - individual dishes would have been one or the other.
I would probably label it “vegetarian friendly” or “vegetarian options”. If there was turkey as part of the meal, then it wasn’t a vegetarian meal, strictly speaking.
Other person:
Did you have a good Thanksgiving?"
WhyNot:
“Yes, We bellied up to the trough at my mother’s.”
Other person:
“Was it vegetarian?”
WhyNot:
“Nah, but there were plenty of vegetarian options.”
I think you might be the only person on the planet who thinks that vegetables that have no meat products in them are not vegetarian.
I have no idea why you keep asking who “hates” vegetarians “too.” But I stopped trying to figure out what you think you are saying since it’s fairly incomprehensible.
I love it when people act all snotty to someone else and then when called on it, try and turn it back on the person they were snotty to. It always gives me a laugh.
More so than anything else so far. There is a huge difference between “vegetarian food” and a “vegetarian meal.” If you define “meal” as: meal = main dish + side dishes. Scraping the turkey of my plate and giving me the side dishes is not a “vegetarian meal” because the main dish is absent, even though the side dishes may be vegetarian. If you replace the turkey with a slab of eggplant parmesan, then yes, with a vegetarian main dish and vegetarian side dishes it would be a “vegetarian meal.”
But that doesn’t appear to be what the OP is asking either. And as for “Can restaurants claim to serve vegetarian food?” and other poorly articulated questions, I still have no answer because I still don’t understand what the OP is try to say.
If you use multiple questions marks, as in “When did I ever say that???” it suggests an indignant or hostile tone of voice and it isn’t bunny’s fault if you can’t ask a clear question.
I’m outta here too. I have some apparently “non-vegetarian” carrot sticks to put in my lunch.
FWIW, I perceived the post in question as being angry. I’m talking about Post #34, where you said:
The tone just seems snarky and confrontational to me. I realise that may not be how you were feeling when you wrote it, and it may not have been your intention, but it reads that way to me, nonetheless.
It’s the “hate vegetarians” part?
Believe me, there are, or were anyway, plenty of people who hate them. “You wear a belt, don’t you?” (leather, get it?) was a familiar attack.
This is IMHO! All the OP asked is if others always consider veggies to be vegetarian.
No, it’s just the perceived tone of the whole quote - the multiple question marks are part of it, but it’s the wording too and the circumstances in which it was posted, but I don’t really see any point in flogging this horse any further.
Multiple question marks express confusion. Confusion in this case as to where the “kosher” reference came from. Kosher certainly isn’t vegetatian.
But yeah, I’m also going to put away my cat o’ nine tails.
Bub eye.
I come from a culture which has no notion of “side dishes,” so that point is sort of moot for me (heck, many of the so-called “veggie sides” aren’t even counted as veggies hereabouts, we don’t consider potatoes a “veggie” even though they’re vegetables).
But what would make a dish “vegetarian” is not having any meat (i.e., green beans with potatoes are vegetarian; green beans with potatoes and a bit of bacon aren’t); harsher degrees of vegetarian (no dairy, no fish, no eggs) mean less possible ingredients. Whether the dish is intended as a side or not is a cultural thing and has nothing to do with vegetariness.
Here you can find vegetarian foods. They have no vegetables. You can get those in any not vegetarian supermarket.
Other common foods eaten by vegetarians:
Apples, bread, carrots, tomatoes, cheddar (for some), potatoes, rutabagas, butter (for some), olive oil, catsup, onions, watermelons, and on and on. Pretty much anything that doesn’t contain meat stuff.
I, personally, don’t think of any of these foods as “vegetarian”, and you won’t find them in the vegetarian section of your local progressive food market.
My case is resting comfortably in my mind.
Peace,
mangeorge
