I've been vegetarian for approximately twenty years (I remember "coming out" to my family when I was home for college during Thanksgiving break) and vegan for about 18 years (the evolution is gradual so exact dates aren't realistic). Until yesterday I have only eaten food with meat in it twice (that I am aware of), both unintentionally. The first was at Amalfi's, an Italian restaurant in N.E. Portland on Fremont, many, many years ago. I ordered spaghetti with tomato sauce, the restaurant was dark and suffice it say I had a few bites before I realized those little chunks were not tvp (fake meat). When I confronted the waitress (actually my mom did it because I was trying not to puke) the waitress blamed it on me because I didn't request no meat. So I asked her what the difference was between the tomato sauce and the meat sauce. Her reply was that the meat sauce had more meat than the tomato sauce. I never returned to that restaurant.
The second time was when my friend Teagen and I went to Hot Lips Pizza downtown by P.S.U. We had planned to have pizza and then go to a movie. The first pizza they made had come with cheese even though we requested it without (this happens a lot). So they made us another but by that time it was getting late and we had to go to a movie so we asked them to make it to go. We took the pizza, got in the car and as I was driving I reached down, picked up a piece and took a bite. I did this without looking at the pizza because well, one, it was dark and I couldn't see much anyway and two because I was driving after all and didn't want to get in an accident. Well, I noticed something funny so I looked down and saw a piece of pepperoni on the pizza. Turns out this one didn't have cheese but it did have meat! You can imagine how frustrated we were at that moment and were really late to see the movie so we didn't have time to go back and demand a vegan pizza. The problem then became what to do with the pizza that we didn't want. Somewhat on a whim we drove by the old Baloney Joe's homeless shelter on the Burnside Bridge and placed the still warm pizza on the curb and drove away. I can imagine several people scratched their heads over this as who leaves a hot, perfectly good pizza on the side of the road with only one bite taken out of it?
Well, it happened again yesterday. I was having a late lunch at The Iron Horse restaurant on Milwaukie Avenue in S.E. Portland. I frequent this restaurant as they are quite vegan friendly (which is a rare find for Mexican food), no doubt due to their proximity to Reed College which hosts a large vegan student base. Rather than the veggie burrito or veggie fajitas that I normally get I decided to branch out and ordered a tostada. On the vegan menu they point out exactly how you should order an item to ensure it being vegan. I did as instructed. The waitress confirmed that I wanted a tostada with no dairy and no meat. When the food came I dug in as normal (the top was all lettuce and salsa so you couldn't see anything else) and with the first bite noticed something different, something other than what I had ever tasted in their beans and rice. It only took one movement with my fork to uncover one of several pieces of meat nestled inside this bed of lettuce.
I was sick to my stomach almost instantaneously. When I've occasionally had a bit of cheese or sour cream on my meal there I will sometimes scrape it off and eat the remainder of the meal, but those are byproducts of animals (with the exception of rennet in cheese which isn't even vegetarian but I'll save you that lecture for now), but certainly not the flesh of animals!
I am vegetarian because I think it is morally wrong to eat animals. Period. No questions. It isn't difficult for me to be a vegetarian because I think it is wrong to do otherwise.
Needless to say I was quite furious when this happened yesterday. The waitress, of course, offered to get me another one but when you unexpectedly have meat on your dish and you unexpectedly eat part of that meat the last thing you want to do is eat another thing out of that kitchen. The waitress made a big deal out of deducting the cost of our sodas off the bill and acted like that should be sufficient even though she charged us for my mom's meal (she had already begun eating and I couldn't exactly expect her to leave until she was finished) and the guacamole side I had ordered. As the daughter of a second generation restaurant owner I knew that the proper way for them to handle the situation was to make me a vegan tostado to go and then give that to me along with my mom's entire meal for free. This lack of customer service made me mad but I was too upset to challenge her (I will be sending a letter to the owner however as well as a request for a full refund). The waitress then offered to get me some dessert to which I had to remind her that none of their desserts are vegan. I don't entirely blame the waitress as she obviously doesn't get the whole "vegan" thing but I don't think it is too much to ask that a restaurant which has a vegan menu, and is obviously trying to gain vegetarian business, should brief their staff on what the word vegan means. When we left she said "Hope to see you again soon!" to which I mumbled, "Yeah, right" under my breath.
Lately I have been reducing the restaurants that I eat at, preferring to stick with all vegetarian ones or ones that have vegan on the menu which at least causes you to think that they know what the word is. Now I am questioning that philosophy. If restaurants that even go so far as to have separate vegan menus are still mistakenly putting meat in the food perhaps I should only be visiting all vegetarian establishments?
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2 comments:
I'm sure we've had this conversation before, but that happened to me at Amalfi's too, the only time I ever went there (I won a gift certificate). Once at a veg friendly chinese plaace in SD I bit into a meaty potsticker they had served by mistake. That thing poped right out, automatic reflex. I was with a new non veg friend so I stayed and finished the meal. They replaced my potstickers with veg ones, mildly apologetic, actually I think my friend made more of a point of getting mad at them then I did.
You're right on how they should've handled it. I've worked in restaurants and would've done what you reccomended. My Grandpa chipped a tooth once on a dry bean that was in his buritto, the waitress sent out the manager and chef who listened respectfuly and gave all four of us our meal for free and offered to pay any dental bills. Classy, not only professional but kind. I think we just need to keep being assertive about what is and isn't exceptable to educate buissnesses.
I was at an indie music fest yesterday where college aged kids were giving free sample of this new 'mojo' cliff bar that is mostly organic (and yummy, lots of flavors) We asked if they were vegan (they usually are) they all were wishy washy but mostly said no, 'cause some have chocolate') I kept it hummorous but I read out loud all of the ingredients (there werent many) they were all plant derived. I told them I was an expert veganologist and they could tell people the bars are free of animal products but may be produced on the same machinery as dairy (alergy warning) we just have to stay patient and keep explaining things. So write your letter, I may write cliff bar to tell them that vegan is a word thier sales people should know.
this reminds me of something that happened to me a few weeks ago. i bought a sandwich at one of my favorite bars in seattle. i requested that they make it vegan, which means that they use field roast instead of meat.
so, i was halfway through the sandwich and started having a panic attack because i couldn't tell if the sandwich had meat. i'd only had field roast a couple of times, and wasn't exactly sure what the texture is supposed to be like. but more importantly, i haven't had meat in .... ummm .... 15 years, so i certainly can't remember what it tastes like.
i also have no memory of what cheese tastes like.
oh well. i can't say that i feel like i'm missing anything.
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