My friend wants to go vegan/vegetarian, but...

[illinoisemakerr]

So, I have a friend who is thinking about going vegetarian.(she's lactose intolerant, so she'll be an accidental vegan.) I'm happy for her, but the thing is that she thinks that there are certain types of vegetarians that eat fish and/or seafood. I spent a good amount of time in class today explaining to her that vegetarians eat no meat, and a fish

Comments

[vgnwtch]

I am one half of a transatlantic marriage. We've been wed for over a decade - since before either of us realised just how environmentally damaging air travel is. But we've flown once every two years across the Atlantic and back since 1994. In that time, we have only once had two vegan meals provided for us, even though we always made it clear on booking, 3 weeks before flying, 2 weeks before flying, 1 week before flying, 2 days before flying, and at the check-in desk. At best, we get one vegan meal to share between us. Usually, we get a vegetarian meal offered to us, in which almost everything contains dairy products. And, often, we get offered tuna or chicken sandwiches, because the cabin crew have vegetarian friends who eat fish and chicken, so it makes sense to them to offer them to us as alternatives. We now pack snacks so that we don't starve in the 6 hours on the plane plus the 2-3 hours at the airport ahead of time, and the hour or so on arrival, or the journey to/from the airport.

It's also confusing when you attend a function where you're one of the few (or the only) vegan, and - even though you booked a vegan option - you have to explain to the caterer on the day that the vegan option has dairy and fish in it, and that no, vegetarians don't eat seafood, so please, would it be possible to have a baked potato and steamed vegetables?

When people think that eating seafood and chicken is vegetarian, it does make it so much harder to explain to people what veg*nism is. And that can make life very difficult.

[pearlmaster8]

What airline are you flying? I have gone on British Airways and Lufthansa on longer flights and they always have vegan options.

I suppose that is one aspect of people mistakingly calling themselves vegetarian that could cause problems. But it seems that more people are just concerned for some reason that they don't "deserve" that title. Like they are frustrated because they are "REAL" vegetarians and don't want someone else calling themselves that if they are not exactly the same way.

[vgnwtch]

I've flown BA, Lufthansa, AA, and others - and they've all screwed up. Yes, they've all had vegan options, but they haven't delivered.

[vegetus]

I was going to say something similar about labels... but you said it way better than I could.

Have you flown Cathay Pacific? I find they have the best vegan food options and heaps of vegan snacks. I also would write a letter of complaint to your airline if they can't manage to give you appropriate food, given how much money you give them being a regular customer.

As a side note, how do you manage the long-distance marriage?

[vgnwtch]

Oh, we complain every time. We email and write, and we phone. We get no apology, and we get no reply.

Cathay Pacific doesn't fly Newark, NJ, to Manchester, UK, as far as I know, and I haven't seen them as an option to London, either.

I lived in the US for 12 years, we moved over here last year. Whoever gets to be away from their family gets to miss them like hell (actually, we both love each other's families, so it doesn't make it any easier). I'm afraid it's that simple. We both have wonderful friends in the US, and we miss them terribly, too. On the other hand, I was appallingly homesick, and he says he really likes living here (we can walk everywhere, and we're very close to the countryside - you can see the hills from the high street), so there is less stress than living in suburban NJ, right by a major highway. It is, as we say over here, swings and roundabouts - you take the rough with the smooth. Frankly, I wouldn't my experience as an ex-pat for all the tea in China; it made me grow up. And I would never swap my marriage for the world. It's all worth it.