If I were in Inky’s shoes, I would have offered to cook her a Vegan dish, as I think a host has a duty to their guests.
Similarly a guest has a duty to their host. If she had insisted on complaining about the smell, or being activist about her anti-meat regimun, I would have asked her to desist. If she continued, I’d show her the door.
The poster did say that they had had the gastric distress later, so it’s obviously not a condition that manifests itself on contact. Probably they would have had the gastric distress later and not known to what to attribute it.
gobeaaar, 100% anecdotal info here, but I am pretty sure that if you have not been eating animal products for several years that you get less good at dealing with them. My personal case in point was one Thanksgiving (several years after I had gone veg.) I ate a bunch of stuffing that (unbeknownst to me) had been cooked inside the bird. Several hours later I spent quite a while “sitting on the throne” in distress. I did not find out until later that I had consumed turkey product.
This is not to say that there is not a psychological element, but I am pretty sure that a physical component is a part of the mix.
Me and shrimp. I don’t know if it’s an alergy or not (I suspect not, since shellfish alergies tend to be of the “hospital NOW!” variety while my response to shrimp is, basically, a lieu post), but it doesn’t kick in for a couple of hours.
When it does, it’s a very bad and ugly thing.
I miss shrimp. I liked shrimp. I used to eat an entire shrimp ring by myself and then wonder if there were more shrimp around. Now I get an accidental piece on a pizza and when I bite into it I enjoy the taste as much as I can despite knowing how I’m going to be spending several hours later on in the evening.
I miss shrimp.
Points noted, Matt and binarydrone, and I certainly don’t discount the real existence of food allerigies. I don’t wish to point any fingerst at Ferret Herder,; it’s just that his/her post made me wonder exactly how much of the current food allergy explosion is psychological and how much is physiological.
Food allergies are fairly recent; 20 years ago one never heard of food allergies and now they seem to be increasingly on the rise in the general population.
I’ve been a vegetarian for 15 years, and 10 more while figgering it out, but I hear ya, Inky. Your guest was just plain rude. If she didn’t let you know her dietary particulars in advance, she shouldn’t expect any special treatment. Sounds like she’s new to that choice, and hasn’t had much experience in the Real world. My experience has taught me that most people are not familiar with veg, much less vegan fare, so you don’t expect it. If you tell someone in advance, they usually are quite accomodating. That’s the world we live in, and you work your way around it. If someone invites me to dinner, I view it as a gracious act, and appreciate their effort.
Since this hasn’t been mentioned; the main impetus of my vegetarian diet is kindness. For me, that means not taking a life when I have the choice. In my view, I have the luxury of that choice these days; pretty easy to be veg with a bit of education. But, kindness at the forefront, I would never harangue someone who was kind enough to invite me to dinner. I’d let them know my needs way in advance, but if they couldn’t meet those needs, I would never yammer about how insufficient they were in meeting those needs. It’s just rude. Your guest obviously upset you, Inky, and that’s a form of cruelty, really. Vegans especially want to avoid cruelty to all creatures, an admirable goal. With soapbox veg and vegans, though, I’d like to impress that a little tact goes a long way with getting people to be openminded toward a fine cause. A gentle attitude toward all creatures includes treating your fellow human beings in the same light.
And lest ya think I’m way too shiny and happy; this is for Avabeth, Joyfulgirl, and 'specially Yosemitebabe; The ol’ “then why are Animals made of meat” canard… after many years of letting it all slide by, I find what works is, after the “Well, why don’t you eat meat?” push and push and push… Look 'em right in the eye and say, " If I can’t rip out the jugular directly with my own teeth, it’s not worth a damn." Granted, that ain’t kind and gentle, but, when wayyyy pushed, it’s on par with the tired old “made of meat” comment. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, sometimes.
A few theories:
- There were just as many before, but they weren’t recognized as such. Recall stories where somebody was just always “sickly” for no apparent reason?
- As our western culture becomes more sanitary, our underworked immune systems start to go after other stuff, using up the energy that in an earlier age would have fought off parasites and the like.
- We expose ourselves to a wider variety of foods now. Time was, you only ate shellfish, for example, if you lived near where they did.
What in the name of all that is right and holy is vegan butter?
Okay, I just looked in my fridge. It’s pressed canola oil and several soy ingredients after that (one was soy lethicin). It’s actually pretty decent - it tastes nearly identical to butter to me. And I hate margarine and things like that - butter is the one thing that I have a hard time doing without.
Ava
Sorry, but that ain’t butter, by definition.
“A solid emulsion of fat globules, air, and water made by churnng milk or cream and used as food.”
That has been the definition of butter since the 12th Century, for heaven’s sake, quit making shit up. (not you Ava, but vegans in general).
Sorry, but that ain’t butter, by definition.
“A solid emulsion of fat globules, air, and water made by churnng milk or cream and used as food.”
That has been the definition of butter since the 12th Century, for heaven’s sake, quit making shit up. (not you Ava, but vegans in general).
I remember a thread started by Ferret Herder a while ago, about her quirky (to put it kindly) family and their agenda to sneak meat in her food. I believe that even when she is not told she was fed some smidgen of meat, she still got sick. I believe she’s been tried and tested and tried and tested and tried and tested a multitude of times (thanks to said “quirky” family) with their clueless attempts to sneak meat into her stomach, and each time, aware or not, she gets sick.
I am left with the belief that her condition is real, and not too much psychological. But she’ll be around soon enough to clear that up, I am sure.
Psychological. I wish it was psychological.
I really, really miss shrimp.
IANAV or P (sheesh! vegetarian or psychologist) but I’m sure this really matters. Okay, I don’t like it when people use food to play a victimhood card or use it as a weapon against others, but what earthly use is there in forcing people to footnote, defend or explain what they eat, even to themselves? People can have all kinds of quirks about food, ranging from religious/moral observances to personal oddities. I once got food poisoning from bad restaurant “chopped steak” (i.e. hamburger) with the standard fixin’s. There’s nothing like spending 3 magical days retching up spoiled hamburger and canned green beans and then your entire empty gastrointestinal tract to trigger acute, real, visceral distaste for a few years afterwards.
Psychological? Real? Piffle. I didn’t know or care–or remotely want to dwell on it long enough to construct detailed explanations. As long as people aren’t making a song and dance about it, why not just shut up and let other people mind their own food intake?
Veb
I can eat tomato sauce, tomato soup, or ketchup. But I can’t eat raw tomatos. Why? Because biting into a raw tomato is exactly what I imagine biting into an eyeball must be like. Yeah, I know it’s stupid, but that doesn’t stop the gag reflex.
milroyj, I think it’s implied that it’s butter substitute. no need to get in a tizzy.
Guin: Exactly why are you being such a bitch lately? Take whatever that is you have up your ass (perhaps your head) and pound some fucking sense into it.
The next posting I made showed that I realized I misunderstood the OP.
So, shut the fuck up with the bitching-at-me-because-you-feel-like-being-a-dumbass-bitch-all-the-fucking-time lately. “Mkay?”
Okay: To clear it up. I misread the OP. I misunderstood the comment about the atmospheric condition resulting from one of the items being prepared to indicate that one of the veggie items had some meat sauce and/or meat included (don’t ask why, as I said, I misread & misunderstood the comment).
And Guin: Take your own advice and chill out some. My response to you above is from my shock at some of your latest comments. FTR: I don’t think you are a bitch–of any sort, and certainly not a dumbass one. But, seriously you’ve been making some comments that are nicking away at that appraisal.
Thanks for clearing that up, Monty.
My only suggestion is that next time, when someone suggests that you’re not on the same page as the rest of us, you don’t act quite so defensively.
I am suddenly reminded of the first time I (almost) cooked for a vegan. First you need to know I grew up in a Mid-Western every-meal-MUST-include-a-large-chunk-of-meat type family, and married a similar guy. Plus, while I do a fair bit of my cooking from scratch, I’m not at all adventurous. Mostly I do the same things I grew up eating. It’ll probably kill hubby and me eventually, but we’re happy in the meantime.
Anyhooo. Hubby wanted to invite new coworker and wife to dinner, fine, then mentions that she was a vegan. Since I only had the vaguest of ideas what that entailed, I asked her what she couldn’t eat when I called her. Oh, my. What seemed like fifteen minutes later she’d finished reeling off what sounded like every single edible I had in my house. 
So. Then I asked her if there was some meal she liked that she thought might be a good intro to vegan eating for carnivores like myself. She was happy about being asked, and said she’d fax a great recipe for a simple nut loaf over to my husbands office. Good enough.
Until I saw the recipe. No kidding, it called for 16 ingredients! And out of that lot, I had only ever bought two (salt & canned tomatoes, as I recall.) And it involved many, many steps: three types of grains to soak and cook seperately, beans to ditto, mushrooms to soak… To someone whose idea of cooking is tossing a steak under the broiler and boiling some potatoes, it was flat out scary to read.
After panicking I called around, and found a nearby restaurant that had vegan entrees, and we just took them out to dinner instead.