Priceguy, waddle out of your little defensive cocoon for a tick and read the thread again. You might see that I have not asked anybody why they are vegetarian. You might also see that I was responding to a specific post by Rubystreak where she voluntarily proffered the information that the reason she is vegetarian is because of moral reasons.
I am not making a judgement or otherwise about her eating habits: I couldn’t give two shits about what another person eats (although some of the kosher restrictions make me giggle a bit sometimes). IMHO, it was reasonable to question her attitude towards meat-eaters because of the way her post was worded: if I have misinterpreted it, show me where.
Yes, and you went on to do exactly the thing she was annoyed by.
See? You did something much worse than just asking people why they’re vegetarians, you specifically asked for a condemnation of your own habits, from someone who clearly said she doesn’t want to do that and doesn’t proselytize.
And that’s the way it always goes. They ask you why, you tell the truth and hope they drop the subject, and they never ever do, they simply have to keep poking it. I never wanted my dietary habits to be the conversation topic of every single family dinner, but there it was. I’ve been accused of proselytizing, propagandizing, ruining dinners, in short being an asshole, simply because I had the audacity to truthfully answer an unwelcome question, that wouldn’t have been unwelcome if I hadn’t known it would automatically be followed by all that bullshit. In the end, I had to answer those questions with “Let’s talk about something else” and repeat that over and over again until they stopped asking. And why? Because I made a simple dietary choice.
I asked her a simple question and one that still has not been answered yet.
Oh, I see, this is about YOU, not about my question to Rubystreak. :rolleyes:
Y’know, with all the guff and rambling you’ve been carrying on with here, I’m not at all surprised you’ve been accused of ruining family dinners and being an arsehole.
Geez, you vegetarians can be cranky old farts sometimes. A good slab of (medium rare) meat would bring your emotional equilibrium back yaknow.
I told you what I did at those. I said “ethical reasons” and then shut up if I were allowed to, which I never were because of people like you. If that’s being an arsehole, then fine, I am one.
I don’t consider it immoral to eat meat. This is getting into a semantic argument, but I don’t consider myself any kind of arbiter of what’s morally right or wrong (beyond the basics, like murder and thieving are bad). However, on a visceral level, the idea of eating animals just grosses me out. That’s why I don’t do it, and although I very rarely share this opinion because I think what other people eat isn’t my business, yes, I think other people eating meat is gross too.
Okay, my last sentence there is slightly troubled by some bad editing. Normally I wouldn’t make a follow up post to correct it but it just looks so stupid:
As far as I’m concerned, if a vegetarian says they are that way because of religious reasons, medical conditions, or personal taste like your’s, Kyla, I give them a pass.
It’s the ‘Meat is murder’ crowd I have the problems with, and I don’t raise a fuss. I just walk away as fast and as soon as I can.
If a vegetarian is coming to my table, I provide both meat and vegetarian choices. I make sure there are at least three separate dishes that will appeal to a vegetarian so they don’t have to sit there eating a plate of pasta while everyone else is doing stuffing, turkey, green beans, potatoes and gravy, etc. I always provide a variety. And I always ask what their favorite holiday dishes are so I can make them feel at home.
Am I under some obligation to answer it? You’re acting entitled to an answer. You’re not.
How’s this? It’s not moral for me. I can’t do it. I don’t tell other people what’s right or wrong for them. I think the meat industries do commit some pretty egregious evils and wish people would not enable them to do so with their money, but I keep that to myself unless people like you get all in my face about it.
If you come back at me about how I’m wrong to think that way, then you’re being exactly the kind of person who alienates me. I realize my ethics are not universal any more than anyone else’s deeply held beliefs. They are as close to a religio-spiritual system as I come, and I wish they’d be as respected as people’s religious beliefs. You wouldn’t ask someone, “Why are you a Christian? Do you think I’m less moral because I’m not?” Because that’s obnoxious, out of line, and picking a fight.
AAaaaaaaaaaannd, now I know exactly what kind of person you are. I’m sure you’ve ruined your share of family dinners too. :rolleyes:
Obviously you are a sweetheart. I have eaten my share of pastas and salad/bread for dinner while everyone else is chowing down on their entrees. This happens more at restaurants and catered affairs than at people’s houses, though. Most people, if they know you’re a vegetarian, are very nice about it.
It’s the family dinners that used to be murder. The Italian relatives going, “Whaddaya MEAN ya don’t eat sausages? This is a nice salsiccia! What about the chicken? Calamari? Nothing? What’s wrong with you? It’s good.” I mean, you know, every fucking year, it gets old.
Randomly asking why someone is a vegetarian kind of implies that you’re going to judge them based on their answer. I especially think it is rude to ask while sitting down to a meal. Have that conversation some other time if you’re really curious.
My brother is a vegan and I swear, my stepmom is a total idiot. She will make some bizarre vegan dish and then put cheese in it. So then nobody eats it. Meanwhile, it has never occurred to her to do something like have a taco bar where he can put whatever he likes in it. I swear I haven’t seen him eat in years because of her.
How hard can it be for non-vegetarians to eat some veggies once in a blue moon? I have this friend who often took me to this vegetarian restaurant. It took me three visits to even notice there was no meat in the menu (and I am a serious carnivore). Don’t expect me to go without for ever, but a day on occassion should be no issue for anyone.
My tastes cycle between carnivore-steak-chowin’-chick to vegetarian naturally. I don’t require meat every day, or even every week. I just eat what I feel like eating at the time.
This thread has been very enlightening. To be honest, I never realized how many meat eaters confront vegetarians about their dietary habits. I am rather accustomed, however, to vegetarians proselytizing when they become aware of my omnivorous habits. Personally, I find these people to be a self-righteous pain in the ass on par with street preachers. Admittedly, a lot of these feelings come from having grown up with a vegetarian brother. Frosted brother does not eat meat because he has never liked the taste. He used to pick meat out of his food as a baby and he has not eaten meat since. The only other vegetarians that I knew growing up were vegetarian for religious reasons so I had never met a moral (ethical) vegetarian until middle school. At that age, few people have the common sense to be polite about the life choices of others so I listened to a lot of nonsense about how cruel I was for enjoying burgers. Seriously though, just because I eat meat, does not mean that I my dinners consist of steak, veal and lamb chops with a side of blood soaked potatoes.
It used to amaze me how many dishes that people were able to incorporate meat into. I have been to several holiday dinners where the only non-vegetarian item was the sweet potatoes and these people served greens and green beans. Why you need bacon in green beans is beyond me. I have found that the best approach when cooking for a large group of people, who have not already given you dietary restrictions, is to make a variety of dishes and exclude non-essential meat products from otherwise vegetarian dishes.
I have a friend of mine who comes over all the time. I love cooking, I am not a vegetarian, however sometimes I will go weeks without eating meat. It’s not deliberate, it just happens. So when this friend comes over and I say “I’ll cook dinner” he asks me what I’m cooking. So I might say: “Pasta marinara, saute’d mushrooms, garlic rolls, raddiccio salad.” He will then arrive with a meat appetizer! (usually chicken wings, mussels, meatballs or something like that). What the hell? Like I don’t provide enough food? A bottle of wine I can understand, but bringing meat? I think he would panic if he went an entire day without meat and/or cheese. Go figure.
There’s something I’d like to add - I fail to understand why anyone feels that they have any right to comment on ANYONE’S eating habits. Vegetarian, vegan, or I eat meat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a bedtime snack - it’s freakin’ RUDE.
My husband and I have had fight after fight about this - my eating habits are NONE of his business and when he makes any type of comment, I shut him down, immediately.
Thanks - had to get that off of my chest - and if I invite you over and you tell me you don’t eat meat, then I’ll ask you for a few suggestions of things you WOULD enjoy so that you will have just as good a time as everyone else. But I ain’t gonna question your choice.
I pretty much use Chicken Broth as substitute for water for every recipe that is not chocolate cake (which doesn’t call for water, anyways). If I have to cater to a vegetarian, I use Veggie Broth or water but by defult, my cuisine is very non-vegetarian.
you only say that because you haven’t seen my brother eat.
Most people that I know are polite enough to be respectful of my religious beliefs (if I thought someone weren’t, I’d try to keep the subject of conversation away from that if possible). Most of them also know that Jews don’t expect non-Jews to keep kosher. I have, however, gotten quite a few questions about the details of kashrut. I’m generally happy to answer those, as long as they don’t lead into an attack on my religious practices.
I haven’t always been Jewish or kept kosher, and if someone started in on me about a ham sandwich like that, I could gross them out with descriptions of the ham with cherry glaze that my grandmother used to make. Jewish groups that are serious about encouraging people to keep kosher ought to ask her for the recipe- if you eat it, you desperately want an excuse to never eat anything like that again
