I’d eat whatever looks/sounds most delicious, regardless of meat content.
If I’m having people over, I’d definitely ask if there were any restrictions I needed to be aware of because I really don’t mind cooking vegetarian, vegan or accommodating allergies or even just preferences. I frequently cook such meals not because I feel like I have to or have some ethical obligation to do so or even think, “I’m cooking vegan tonight,” but because food is freaking awesome and sometimes you just want some buffalo cauliflower bites and other nights you want a chunk of salmon.
That’s the simplest answer IMO. Better to have that dispute out, if it exists, in picking the restaurant. Same would go for some religious dietary requirement strict enough to concern itself with what people with you are eating, which is also not common but doesn’t seem inconceivable, nor would it make the very selective person a jerk. But agreeing to go to a restaurant which serves things you don’t eat, then having a problem that someone else orders them, kind of would. And the one sided assumption vegetarian/vegans have any more right to concern themselves with what other people eat than non-v’s is kind of puzzling also, but anyway suggest at the stage of picking the place.
Therefore by the same token I don’t feel obliged to consider other people’s dietary preferences in what I pick off the menu of a place they agreed to go to.
I often have meatless meals at lunch, salad bar or a grilled cheese (OP question said ‘vegetarian’ not ‘vegan’), or breakfast. But it would be a once in a very great while thing for me to agree to go to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner. Fortunately, nobody I commonly go to restaurants with asks.
My only issue with vegetarians comes when I am having a cookout and I’m doing burgers and brats or something, and they are vegetarian and dont tell me.
I can do vegetarian. I make a good mushroom burger or I can get some veggieburgers or veggie hot dogs. I just need to know ahead of time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smithsb View Post
If I’m eating with a vegetarian I’ll order the biggest steak the restaurant has - cooked blue. Then I’ll grab it with my bare hands and wring all the juices out on my plate. Holding plate to my mouth, I’ll noisily slurp up the juices along with a few burps. I’ll soak any remaining film up with the bread and devour it making dinosaur chomping sounds.
No point then, my vegetarian dining partner is passed out under the table.
It’s absolutely not going to be a problem. I’ve never met a vegetarian who is as obsessed with what other people are eating as some of the meat eaters in this thread.
I haven’t had to deal with any vegetarians, but I have a friend who is on a bizarre self-invented anti-flour/anti-sugar diet, and who also can’t stand the sight/smell of fish. I will totally eat bread in front of the dude and he doesn’t care, but I refrain from getting fishsticks because I don’t want to test his promise that it’d make him hurl.
So with vegetarians it would come down to how the vegetarian reacted to the idea of me eating steak. If they had a real problem with it I would go without the steak - or go without the vegetarian.
Oh but there are some vegetarians who are evangelical in their behavior; not as bad as the militant vegans but still a bit away from live-and-let-live.
Whoa there MM. This is <checks board> In My Humble Opinion. The OP asked/posed a reasonable question and was interested in our well considered opinions. Some folks are more sensitive to others and their viewpoints regarding food choices. Some of us have a humorous bent.
You seem angry (my opinion) and I respect your right to be angry. Also, IMHO, you should lighten up a bit.
Sony Walkman? - Dueling spitballs at twenty paces, sir or madam.
Actually, while opening the champagne bottle with my sabre, I might accidently overswing and remove the Walkman along withsinging, “Off with their heads.” :eek:
I’m going to order what I want. If I know they’re squeamish, though, I would probably refrain from beef because I like it bloody. I’d go with chicken or seafood or pasta marinara.
My daughter went through a vegetarian stage in her late teens/early 20’s, at least partially due to having heard a pig being slaughtered for our supper while in a 3rd world country. She never tried to “convert” us nor her husband but she did initially raise my grandson without meat. He was well fed, happy and growing, but no meat. She said she didn’t intend to force him to always be vegetarian, but would let him make his own choice. The look on her face was priceless when, at a restaurant when he was at about 1 year old, my grandson out of the blue snatched a piece of bacon from his dad’s plate, ate the whole thing and asked for more!
Seriously, though, the result is a 3 year old who eats meat but also loves all manner of fruits and veggies. Not a bad outcome.
I’d order what I would anyway, but I probably would be more aware of what I said about what I was eating…like I wouldn’t go on about how crispy the bacon was if I thought the person I was dining with would be disgusted by the thought.
the only time ive had anything like this discussion is I invited a new kid from school over and they stayed late enough for dinner …well my mom decided to get fancy (for her ) and cooked rather large pork chops in mushroom sauce amoung other things as a surprise … my new friend was recently arrived middle eastern …hed never eaten pork or even seen it cooked … he did eat one and said " your mom makes a nice steak " so it was more like don’t ask or tell what it really was …
I’m a vegetarian. I wouldn’t care if someone eats meat in front of me (and in fact this happens a lot since I am married to a meat eater). Most of us vegetarians are used to being around meat eaters and don’t think anything of it.
