Maintaining A Vegetarian Diet in Restaurants

People on a vegetarian diet or who just plain do not like meat have to be careful when eating in a restaurant. Sometimes, the menu does not always offer full disclosure for the meals offered.

Clam chowder, for example, can sometimes contain bacon – not on a meatless diet. Even salads can contain bacon, chicken and beef. Therefore, it is best to ask about a menu item that you are thinking about ordering.

When you cannot find a meal to your liking, it doesn’t hurt to ask for a special order. Many restaurants are all too happy to please their customer with a special order.

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When restaurants create menus, full disclosure is important. Serving clam chowder to a Pescatarian might seem appropriate, except most clam chowders are made with bacon which is not appropriate for any type of vegetarian. Describing a meal as lacto-ovo or vegan will ensure the diner is aware of the meals’ contents and using vegetarian verbiage on menus announces to the consumer that the chef understands their dietary needs. Foodies and vegetarians love this knowledge.

Although only 3 percent of Americans report never eating meat, many choose daily to avoid meat while eating in restaurants. In a poll conducted by The Vegetarian Resource Group, customers eating out were asked if they order a dish without meat, fish or fowl. More than 50 percent of customers report they sometimes, often or always order meatless meals while dining out.

Understanding a vegetarian diet requires understanding food. A beautifully grilled Portobello mushroom is a meatless option for a vegetarian diet but for those who do not like the taste or thought of beef, mushrooms fail to please. Food contains five different tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami – which delight the palate when balanced proportionately. Most understand sweet, sour, bitter and salty while few have heard of umami.

Umami is a naturally occurring flavor often described as savory. Steak, ham, shrimp, scallops, MSG, cheese and mushrooms are included in this group. A vegetarian who chooses not to eat meat, seldom searches for substitutes that taste like meat. Therefore, a grilled mushroom tastes very close to a grilled steak and is avoided by most vegetarians. Conversely, one who is trying to avoid meat but still enjoys the meat flavor will embrace the umami flavor of the grilled fungi.

People choose vegetarianism for different reasons. Some need to lower their cholesterol, lose weight, have political or social beliefs for avoiding meat or claim to be vegetarian as a faddishly cool thing to do while sneaking fried chicken and double whoppers. Others, such as my wife, simply do not like the taste and prefer eating vegetables, grains and legumes.

Meatless meals – Coeur d’Alene Press: Bill Rutherford