Sometimes we vegans really have to eat with omnivores in a restaurant of their choosing. Be it a party, work dinner or just chilling with non-vegan friends, ending up in a place that serves meat is usually inevitable. Over the years, I've honed some skills that might be useful to other vegans when faced with a social situation that involves a menu full of MEAT!Eat nothing (best option, but can be the most awkward):
- "I'm busy, sorry, I can't make the dinner" - Try and avoid the event if possible. Sitting around a table full of meat gets more and more difficult the longer one is a vegan. Especially in places that glorify meat as a dish like steakhouses and burger joints!
- "I just ate something" - Kind of obvious: if you've already eaten, why would you order food?! People probably think you're a little weird, though, showing up for a dinner having eaten beforehand!
- "I feel ill" - Don't overplay it, but this one usually works well for me. You get a bit of sympathy, and can always "perk up" after the food is over and have a good time.
Modify the menu so you can eat:
I've yet to find an omnivorous restaurant that can't easily make a filling, if not nutritious, dish really easily. Here are a few low-hanging fruit options (no pun intended!), and things to 100% avoid:
- Grab a salad! Most restaurants have a "green salad", "garden salad" or whatever on the menu. You can ask for one as a main dish, but check that there's no cheese or croutons (rarely vegan, let alone vegetarian) included. Most dressings are not vegan, so I usually ask for some olive oil and/or vinegar so I can make my own "Italian-style" dressing.
- Steamed Vegetables FTW! Pretty much every restaurant has vegetables on the menu, and you can usually score a bumper harvest of them if you ask. Make sure you don't get the sprayed with butter, though, as adding huge amounts of butter to steamed vegetables is a very common thing for restaurants to do.
- Scan the menu strategy: More complicated, but can result in a tasty meal. Check for things like pasta, tomato sauce, marinara, pizza, soups and bean dishes. You then need to see what might be vegan - example is pasta with tomato sauce. I usually consider three possibilities, and ask the server to check with the kitchen, with my favorite option first.
- The allergy strategy: Difficult to use when you're with friends, but you can always say something "I have an allergy to milk and eggs. Are you SURE the pizza dough has neither?" before you order your no-cheese vegetable pizza.
Things to watch out for:
While some dishes might appear vegan, they can contain hidden ingredients that are not, as well as being prepared in an environment with meat that can easily lead to contamination in the kitchen. Here's a few things to be careful of:
- Pasta: Sometimes contains eggs
- Bread: Can contain egg and/or milk. Rarely are the ingredients available in a restaurant, so avoid if unsure.
- Soups: Often made with non-vegetarian stock bases (mostly chicken, beef and fish)
- "Vegan": Most people don't know what a vegan is - they assume we're vegetarian at best. Don't ask if something is "vegan", unless you're in a place where they really should know, and only then if the word "vegan" appears on some menu items
- Butter: As mentioned above, butter is used liberally in restaurants to "improve" the taste of many things. Ensure you ask for bread, vegetables etc. with no butter. Many people ask for that now for health reasons, so it's a reasonable request
- Fried food: In many restaurants deep fryers are separated for meat and non-meat use. If they are, options like french fries/chips etc. are usually vegan. It's easy to check - just ask if what you want is fried separately from meat.
When all else fails: summon the chef!
Every restaurant has somebody in charge of the kitchen. Usually, they are the definitive source of what goes into food, and how it is prepared. If they're competent, they will know most of the ingredients off the top of their heads (because they make so much of it!) of know exactly where to look on packaging. They also know how things are prepared so can answer questions about how pure your vegan food could be.
Perhaps the best reason to summon the chef is that he/she might well have stuff in the kitchen that can easily be adapted into something vegan.
