Don't even bother driving through some parts of Texas.

[Ilsa]

Yesterday morning I was travelling over a hundred miles through multiple small towns to go take my turn at caring for Dad. I was hungry and stopped in a small town where a restaurant was open for breakfast (there are no fast food places open for breakfast there). The very pregnant waitress took my order for a taquito with potato and egg. I know, flour tortillas are made with lard, they are not vegetarian. She asked if I wanted it with bacon, and I replied, "No thanks, I don't care for bacon." I said nothing about being a vegetarian or even trying to be a half-veggie, or whwther I was Jewish or Muslim. She said, "okay a taquito with egg, potato and cheese." "Oh, no cheese, please," I told her, "just potato and egg."

Fifteen minutes later I left with my taquito in a white bag with hot sauce on the side. As I was driving down the road, opening it up getting ready to scarf it down, I noticed something brown. I pulled over, unwrapped it, and the egg was cooked onto about three strips of bacon. And that was what i got for a $2 taco with a $1 tip. Some people just don't understand that people may not eat pork, may not eat meat. I dug around in my bag for an old, cold granola bar and got back on the road.

[flvegan]

1. That sucks.

I think a lot of folks in places like that run on autopilot. It's like requesting a pizza without cheese, repeating the "no cheese" 10 times. 50% of the time, it's going to come with cheese.

Sorry about your experience. I have no plans in the future to visit Texas. I think they'd burn me thinking I was a witch.

[WillParkinson]

3. We used to order Pizza Hut with no cheese...

Every time we did they got it exactly right. And then they went and reformulated their crusts so that none of them are vegan anymore. That meant no more Pizza Hut.

After we stopped ordering from them we let them know the reasons why. Of course they replied to us and sent us coupons for free pizza! Um...thanks.

[LeftyMom]

2. I had a kind of similar experience in the Nevada desert on the way to my grandmother's grave

The only places to stop are either truck stops or dinky small town casinos. You can get the prime rib special, a burger, or some variant thereof. If you say you're a vegetarian they'll try to bring you chicken. Nobody knows what a vegan is.

Normally on trips out there I just plan on bringing enough snacks to get by between Reno and Crescent Valley, where my grandmother lived*. For some crazy reason I was especially hungry, so we stopped at the biggest, least decrepit looking place we could find in Winnemucca for breakfast. I was thinking maybe I could get some fried potatoes. Nope, the waitress had NO IDEA what they were fried in, and didn't even offer to go find out. Scanned the menu, scanned the menu... There had to be something. Eventually I wound up eating plain oatmeal. I did manage to impress upon her that I'm really, really allergic to dairy** and there couldn't be any butter on it. She brought me a pat on the side in case I changed my mind. :eyes: She couldn't scare up any brown sugar to put on it for me. I mixed in one of those jam tubs they have on the table for toast. It was ghastly, but it was food and it was marginally warmer than the surrounding air.

* Directions: Halfway between Elko and Winnemucca- which in turn is roughly halfway between Reno and Salt Lake City, if you don't know the area- you turn south off the 80, drive through a ghost town and if you get to the indian reservation you've gone too far. In other words it's the middle of f'n nowhere.

** This is true in my case.

[Chan790]

4. "If you say you're a vegetarian, they'll try to bring you chicken"

That reminds me of my graduation from my AmeriCorps program.

We were all down in Palacios, TX in the dead of winter and I was swimming in the bay all afternoon while the southerners looked at me like I'm an idiot because "the water is cold"...like 65'F. It gets to be like 7PM. Anyways, we go out to dinner and the waitress comes over and I order *the only vegetarian thing on the menu* which is the fettuccine Alfredo and I say that I don't want the shrimp that it comes with, I even explain that I'm a lacto-vegetarian and I'd prefer spaghetti because fettuccine usually is an egg-pasta. (They had no spaghetti so I ended up with shells but that's neither here nor there.) She asks if I'd like bacon instead. I decline. She comes back in about 2 minutes and says the chef says he has some andouille sausage. I reiterate that I'm a vegetarian and she looks at me quizzically like the concept is confusing. I again decline. She then goes to the other end of the table, there are like 15 of us around this table, and goes through the entire spiel all over again with my co-worker Sara. Shrimp? No. Bacon? No. Sausage? No. Egg-free pasta? Okay. Brain surgery is not this hard, all I want is a dinner that doesn't contain dead animal.

The food comes out and...they've brought me that infernal fat-sausage on the side because the chef really thinks I should try it, he makes it himself and he's proud of it. I hid it in my pocket and fed it to my AmeriCorps supervisor's dog later that night. The dog really liked it though.

[LeftyMom]

5. I was taking my mother in for day surgery a year or two ago

She called me on my way over at about 6:00 in the morning to ask if Miracle Whip is vegan, because she wanted to make me a sandwich. I explained that a. Miracle Whip contains eggs and b. I think even most omnis agree that Miracle Whip should be banned in a civilized society. It turns out that she and her mother in law were trying to figure out what to feed me, and they had decided on a tuna sandwich, which is why she needed to know.

Tuna.

They thought about Miracle Whip maybe not being vegan, but didn't think twice about the fish. I still laugh at that one.

[Critters2]

6. It was nice when my mom realized that the most vegan thing

she knew how to make was an old standby--peanut butter and her strawberry preserves. I even pointed out that jelly isn't vegan, but that I knew there were no animal products in her home-canned preserves. After that conversation, she always started me on my way home with a sack lunch of a peanut butter sandwich, a piece of fruit, and potato chips or pretzels. That was so much better than her asking over and over whether this food or that one were vegan or veg.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. Why isn't jelly vegan?

[Critters2]

8. It contains gelatin.

Gelatin is evil.

It's possible to make preserves and jams without gelatin, but it's gelatin that gives jelly that gel-like consistency.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

9. I didn't know that

Probably because I only get the organic stuff.

[Critters2]

10. Could still contain gelatin.

Depending on whose organic standards they use. The USDA allows products to be called organic with 5% non-organic ingredients. And it is possible to have organic gelatin, if it's made of by-products from organically-raised animals. Just a quick google came up with a powder for making homemade jelly that contains organic gelatin:

http://www.gobiofood.com/organic-cherry-jelly-p-1781.html?osCsid=9ab26a04adcbc488440845383e60548d

Fruit pectin can be used to make jelly, with a slightly less gel consistency to it, and is usually used in preserves and jams.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

11. I get the stuff with chunks of fruit

So I guess it'd really be preserves or jam. I call it all jelly though.

[Codeine]

17. Gelatin is very rarely in jelly.

It's usually made with pectin.

[Muttocracy]

18. LOL! nt

[Mari333]

19. LOL my mom did the same thing

she ordered chinese food for me one night, and it had shrimp in it. I said MOM Shrimp is meat...
she got very huffy and said OH NO ITS NOT!!

[Lisa0825]

12. I heard this total idiot on 740AM KTRH in Houston about a month ago,

being interviewed about vegetarian diets not being healthy (this was when that story about it being related to eating disorders came out). She kept referring to chicken and fish as sources of protein. She made a similar comment 2 or 3 times during a 4 minute interview. She also said she has "never known a single healthy vegetarian." :rofl: Even the normally idiotic hosts of the show had to correct her!

I'm not a real vegetarian myself, but I have been at about 90% for 2 months now, and even as new to this as I am, it was ridiculously stupid to me when I heard it. But I expected no less from a Clear Channel "news" station. :eyes:

[Ignis]

13. Hey, whatever you call yourself...

90% meat-free is laudable. :hi:

[Lisa0825]

14. Thanks!

I have actually had fun with it this time, trying lots of new recipes.... in the past, I tried to adapt favorite recipes, and they never came out as good. But now I find myself enjoying cooking even more because I am learning new things and being more adventurous. I don't know if I will ever go 100%, but I can see 90% being a change I'll keep.

P.S. FWIW, I grew up in a home in which a meal wasn't a meal without meat, potatoes, and gravy, and I have rarely strayed from that pattern, so this has been a huge change!LOL

[Ignis]

15. I sat at 90% for a long time, myself.

Once I decided to go vegetarian, I kept fish in my diet for a variety of reasons. It took a few years from that starting point before I went vegan. But I think 90% is an ideal goal for most people who are coming from the SAD (Standard American Diet), because it takes time for your body and mind to make the transition.

I'm sure you'll be eating Lentil Loaf in no time. You just need to get that crispy mashed-potato crust just right! ;)

[Lisa0825]

16. Basically, I haven't cooked meat at home at all since I started.

I have only had favorite restaurant meals and dinners at friends' homes that have meat. Even when I do go to restaurants, I often pick something veggie... it just depends on if I have something favorite there that I don't feel like passing up! LOL