It's time to vent! Pet peeve, whine, grouse, kvetch, anyone?Here's my #1: When there's a vegetable soup on a restaurant menu (be it black bean, minestrone, lentil, or just plain old vegetable) and it's made with a chicken or beef stock. WHY? Make it suitable for everyone! What, will the meat eaters refuse it because it's made with a rich, roasted vegetable stock instead of canned chicken broth? Can you imagine?
Patron: "Hi, I'll have the lentil soup."
Server: "Ok, but you're aware it's made with a veggie stock?"
Patron: "Oh NO! Well in that case I'll have the beef chili."
This morning I came across another common complaint: GVP. The Grilled Vegetable Platter. The standard veggie entree in restaurants and catered events across the world. This blogger wants to start an anti-gvp movement:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/down_with_the_gvp.html
Actually I don't mind a (very flavorful and perfectly cooked) plate of grilled vegetables. It's better than a plate of steamed vegetables, don't you think?
Here are a few more veggie things I've wanted to vent about for a while:
- "Ah, you're vegetarian! We have a lovely lemon sole this evening..."
- All fresh pasta seems to be made with eggs. If they can do it for the boxed version, why not fresh?
- Order a salad "without the cheese" because the menu says it comes with goat cheese... and the salad arrives without the goat cheese but with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top (this happens with pasta too)
- When you order something at a restaurant "without dairy" or "without cheese" and the server says, "oh it's just a little bit -- you can eat it."
- Shopping for a loaf of bread or something similar, and the last ingredient is whey.
- Soy milk made with artificial sweetener (8th continent, to be exact. I've emailed them but they just don't get it.)
- Otherwise vegan cereals fortified with vitamin D3 (which is animal-derived)
- Dark chocolate with butterfat added (but then again, this is a good way to weed out the poor quality brands)
- Foods with "less than 2% of the following" and there is an animal ingredient or two... well if it's less than 2%, do you really need it?
- Restaurants listing 10,000 entrees, none of which are vegetarian
- (Many thanks to my DH Dan for this one): when you order an expensive entree, like linguini with shrimp, hold the shrimp, and you ask them to add sun-dried tomatoes... they don't reduce the price for excluding shrimp, but they charge EXTRA for the tomatoes!
6 comments:
How about this one. I went to a nice restaurant in NYC & wanted the otherwise vegan ravioli without the cream sauce. The waiter came out and said the chef refused to make it without sauce. So I was stuck eating a salad with steamed pumpkin on top.t
One more. Otherwise vegan or vegetarian candy made with animal-derived confectioner's glaze (of course made beetles). Like dark chocolate covered almonds. Gross!
Great list Dina! How about finding out one day that the menu item "vegetarian tom yum soup" you've been ordering for years with your at Brown Sugar Cafe is and has always been made with chicken broth. Really?
Or soy cheese or rice cheese that has "casein" As the first ingredient! Defeats the whole purpose!
Chinese restaurants that have a vegetarian section in their menu but include items like "Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce"! Oh yeah, and then there was this one time I went to a Pilipino restaurant and I asked if there was anything that had no meat in it. I was told to order this one noodle dish because it only had 5% meat. "It's just 5%, you can eat it." Oh, and what about company lunches and there's nothing you can eat but salad, but then the salad even has bacon or chicken in it -- argh!
These are great! It's amazing how sometimes the server isn't really listening to what we are saying when we order. One time my son and I ordered a pasta with garlic/olive oil and fresh tomatoes instead of a cream sauce and it came with shredded parmesan on it. Hello!!!! We said we didn't eat dairy that's why we ordered a different sauce. ughhhhh it's so annoying!
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