[thread=415088]This thread[/thread] led me to ask about this vegetarian quirk.
I hosted a small party last night for a friend’s birthday. One woman invited is a vegan, and while she’s not a big a bitch as the other OP had to deal with, she’s pretty vocal about her choice.
I bought her a separate 5 cheese pizza and made sure my appetizers were meat free. She was happy enough. When she came back with a second slice, another friend said to her, “uh, you may want to put that back - I used the knife to cut it after cutting a slice of the meat pizzas.” She got a horrifed look on her face and dashed into the kitchen to cut off the offending section.
Is this normal? Do most vegans keep an eye out for multi-tasking kitchen utensils?
Err, vegans don’t eat cheese.
I don’t care at all since I avoid animal products because of health, but some of my family cares a great deal. That’s why we keep our kitchen “kosher” as far as animal products go. Whatever touches meat or dairy is not used to touch anything else until it’s washed.
I assume your guest was actually a vegetarian, though, since she ate cheese pizzas.
OK, I guess that was my mistake. I mix up the two terms sometimes. She also eats milk and ice cream. Wiki says she’s a lacto-vegetarian.
Some people who do not eat meat find that eating even small portions of meat products can upset their digestive system. Therefore, it is neccessary/advisible to be cautious about doing such things as eating a veggie burger which has been cooked on a grill next to a hamburger.
For other people, the biggest problem with meat products, especially in the quantities your description suggest, is all psychological.
And for a third group, there would have been no problem whatsoever, and they might even be willing to eat a meat pizza, after they picked the meat products off.
So your friend is not alone in her reaction, but it isn’t guarenteed that another vegetarian would have reacted the same way.
My fellow vegetarian overreacted, unless she is so deathly allergic to meat that the barest molecule of it will cause her immediate demise. To wig out over a piece of pizza (which, with five different cheeses on it, probably had a load of animal rennet in it) because it was touched by a knife that had previously touched a pizza with meat on it is ludicrous. She’s the sort of vegetarian who gives us non-stupidly insane vegetarians a bad name.
I’ve known a few people who don’t want to eat something touched by utensils that have touched animal products, simply because the idea grosses them out. Fair enough. Reacting like that and still eating cheese, though, is just crazy.