No More Meat.

[paulfromcamden]

NO surprises for me with so many munching meat, some menus overloaded with it.

Back in a previous life when suppliers would take me out to posh restaurants in The City I could almost guarantee there would only be a single veggie option. And 98% of the time is was mushroom risotto. I'm not kidding.

These days glancing at the occasional menu as I stroll past a swanky eatery it seems to still be a common view that posh nosh must have meat.

Luckily I have lowbrow tastes and a modest budget so generally find I have more choice.

 

[Mogreg]

I have one piece of dark chocolate every day
For medicinal purposes only

Yes, I’m switching over to that habit, good and good for you

 

[Mogreg]

Back in a previous life when suppliers would take me out to posh restaurants in The City I could almost guarantee there would only be a single veggie option. And 98% of the time is was mushroom risotto. I'm not kidding.

These days glancing at the occasional menu as I stroll past a swanky eatery it seems to still be a common view that posh nosh must have meat.

Luckily I have lowbrow tastes and a modest budget so generally find I have more choice.

It’s not easy in the countryside as most pubs have meagre veggie/vegan options, though our local always offers one vegan main & desert. Indian, Chinese & Middle Eastern eateries are a godsend though

 

[richardg]

Mid-80s for me, so more than half a lifetime ago. I still eat fish occasionally and I can’t quite explain why. I still eat dairy products. As such it is just meat/poultry I don’t eat, and much of it comes from sheer revulsion. A butchers shop looks like a road accident to me. No way in hell could I prepare or cook meat, and I never have done. Even when I ate it I never went further than heating up a pie or whatever at home, I just ate it at cafes or wherever, or a kebab when blind drunk.

There has always been a animal rights aspect to it too. I know I couldn’t kill an animal and I’m just not cynical or hypocritical enough to pay someone else too. That said it still doesn’t explain fish, though that is limited to fish ‘n’ chips or a can of tuna, nothing else. I should really give fish up too, but every now and again I just feel I need it. I have little if any interest in cooking so I basically live on simple pasta dishes, beans on toast, musli, fruit, nuts etc. I don’t think it is especially healthy for me, but it is what it is. It just isn’t an interest area.

simple pasta dishes, beans on toast, musli, fruit, nuts etc......thats healthy.....i'm sinking a bottle of red with a salami pizza right now.

 

[twotone]

Back in a previous life when suppliers would take me out to posh restaurants in The City I could almost guarantee there would only be a single veggie option. And 98% of the time is was mushroom risotto. I'm not kidding.

These days glancing at the occasional menu as I stroll past a swanky eatery it seems to still be a common view that posh nosh must have meat.

Luckily I have lowbrow tastes and a modest budget so generally find I have more choice.

We went to Greece and the Greeks islands from about 1984-1990 and the Greeks thought we were absolutely off our chumps cause we didn’t eat meat or horis kreas as we tried to explain that we were vegetarian or emai hortogfagoume but they just looked at us and rolled their eyes, there’s or was very few vegetarian meals in Greek restaurants even getting fish was challenging, obviously there’s tzatziki and Gigates (beans) and a horyatiki salad, dolmades etc but you can’t really live on those for a fortnight, pizzas were decent though and some pasta dishes too.

Probably changed now though we’ve not been to Greece since.

Personally I’ve always thought Greek food was terrible along with their wine ie retsina fine in Greece under a hot sun with a Greek salad absolutely shite in Glasgow in the rain.

 

[Joe P]

Paul,

Back in a previous life when suppliers would take me out to posh restaurants in The City I could almost guarantee there would only be a single veggie option. And 98% of the time is was mushroom risotto. I'm not kidding.

Back in the '80s, when I went veggie, my fine dining experience was limited to a veggie burger at Burger King. But it turns out that the veggie Wooper then was just a regular Wooper without the beef patty. Granted, it had a wilted leaf of iceberg lettuce, a pickle, and something that may have been a tomato slice, but I felt cheated because the veggie Wooper was the same price as the regular Wooper.

To be honest, I'm still angry and may write a sternly worded letter to the King himself.

Joe

 

[paulfromcamden]

i'm sinking a bottle of red with a salami pizza right now.

I think that counts as a Mediterranean Diet.

 

[twotone]

I love venison btw and I’m Scottish

I also support a reindeer farm up in the cairngorms if anyone is interested in sticking a few bob (£45) in the pot just google or I’ll pm the details and no they don’t kill the reindeer for food production they’re looked after up, there pretty cool to be honest.

We were on Barra years ago and basically couldn’t buy a fish supper, well you could but you had to order one days in advance from a local mobile fish and chip van, or shellfish despite the island having one of the largest shellfish processing plants in the UK most of the shellfish caught around Barra is shipped to France and Spain daily.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Paul,



Back in the '80s, when I went veggie, my fine dining experience was limited to a veggie burger at Burger King. But it turns out that the veggie Wooper then was just a regular Wooper without the beef patty. Granted, it had a wilted leaf of iceberg lettuce, a pickle, and something that may have been a tomato slice, but I felt cheated because the veggie Wooper was the same price as the regular Wooper.

To be honest, I'm still angry and may write a sternly worded letter to the King himself.

Joe

Haha! That's fantastic. One one occasion in the early 90s I got flown somewhere for work in BA business class. The menu included salmon on a bed of salad. The only veg option was... salad. When it arrived I could swear it smelt distinctly fishy. But I expect it was just the altitude.

 

[Joe P]

Paul,

Perhaps it was a flying fish.

Don't get up. I'll show myself to the door.

Joe

 

[blossomchris]

Back in a previous life when suppliers would take me out to posh restaurants in The City I could almost guarantee there would only be a single veggie option. And 98% of the time is was mushroom risotto. I'm not kidding.

I first attempted a vegetarian diet in the early 70's and the usual veggie option was a f...king omelette, hated them ever since.
I did try Cranks, and iirc Krishna restaurant adjacent Soho Sq. Indian establishments were frequently visited and I still enjoy this cooking but generally home made now.

PS: capitals on previous reply was an error.

 

[Lee T]

I eat fish, meat has been off the menu for many years.

 

[awkwardbydesign]

Anyway... who would have thought that a vegetarian diet would be so controversial in 2023.

Welcome to our world. 1971 all over again.

 

[MartinC]

Thanks Joe. If I had been paying attention his apparel would have been the giveaway.

Because I don't know anything about prog I Googled "Steve Howe health" - all I could find was stories about John Anderson and Rick Wakeman having health scares. Turns out Steve Howe looks like because he's old.

Was at a Steve Hackett concert and while waiting for a beer at the intermission overheard a couple of blokes ahead of me one who had just been to a Yes concert describing Steve Howe as a walking skeleton, a bit mean but hey, I think he and Hackett are about the same age and certainly don't look it!

 

[MartinC]

I wonder what the health of Icelandic folks is like, when we visited seemed like fish and lamb was pretty much the only menu choices and veggies were few and far between.

 

[Barrymagrec]

I wonder what the health of Icelandic folks is like, when we visited seemed like fish and lamb was pretty much the only menu choices and veggies were few and far between.

The Puffin packs a punch though.

 

[PaulMB]

I wonder what Henry Kissinger's diet was.

 

[paulfromcamden]

I wonder what Henry Kissinger's diet was.

I'll have whatever Marshall Allen is having. Still leading the Sun Ra Arkestra at 99 and a half years old.

 

[kanwar]

I agree completely; if a real hamburger is considered immoral and physically repulsive, why eat an imitation? Maybe it is like having sex with "A" while pretending it is "B."

I don't get the fake product approach to vegi/vegan food, I have said so here before. I can't see the point, because if I want to eat chickpeas I will, and I do. They make great housous, falafel, and if I want to get creative I'll mash them up with some other interesting stuff, make a pattie and fry it. Will I call it a no-beef burger? No, I'll call it a chickpea burger.
Maybe I am wrong to take this approach, as a food manufacturer there's a great living to be made in the fake food market. However if one such manufacturer were to hire me, I'd be an enthuiastic convert.

I'm not keen on stuff that is really similar to meat. Fake 'blood'? Ew! A lot of veggies and stuff made into a patty and served in a bun with chips? Yum : )

I guess a similar reason why I sometimes drink an alcohol free beer; it’s not the same as a proper beer but it tastes good. Therefore veggy heads might occasionally miss a juicy-junky hamburger, so to scratch the ich they go for something that looks like one and tastes good. If Elvis now and again binged on veggy burgers, he might still be with us….

 

[martin clark]

It's not quite that simplistic, 'better being the enemy of the Good' and all that.

As I posted early in this thread - I've gone veggie with no regrets. Yet equally - as some others above have commented.. well... even-yet one can feel otherwise.

About a month ago, I bought & cooked a small piece of Beef. yes; really. I took care how I sourced it, paid over the odds as a result; and in a slightly-grubby way, deeply enjoyed / felt it did me good. It's not something I look forward to repeating; but cannot say that will not happen.

The bigger picture: for me, meat in two meals out of over > 700 days; not the ideal - but I can live with myself as such.