[Sca-cooks] Handling special diet needs at feasts

[AF Murphy]

The problem is that a number of people (and I know some of them...) do,
incorrectly, call themselves vegetarians while eating fish. I have
encountered one before who who also ate poultry, most don't do that.
They don't seem to realize that they are just confusing the issue for
everyone else! Meat eaters end up thinking they can serve fish, real
vegetarians are served fish... no one is happy and they get annoyed,
through no fault of their own...

Now, meatless is a perfectly correct term. We certainly know that, from
medieval cooking - that's what can be served on a fish day (not Lenten
or fasting, just the run of the mill Friday... in fact, it's what I ate
on Friday when I was a child. Still do, on some occasions.) I also know
people who keep more-or-less Kosher who eat meatless out, while keeping
a fully Kosher home. But neither a Catholic nor a Jew following this for
religious reasons would call it vegetarian, just meatless.

There really is no term for this gentle's diet, if he eats poultry. I
would think it would normally come under the heading of "Read the
ingredients and skip what you can't eat..."  which, in fact, my father
continued to do every Friday of his life.

Gets confusing...

Anne

> If someone eats fish and poultry he isn't a vegetarian, he just
> doesn't eat red meat or pork, whatever color we decide that is :-)
>
> I am in no way criticizing this person's choice of foods, but it is a
> misnomer to call his diet "vegetarianism". He just appears to
> eschewing the flesh of four-legged animals while eating the meat of
> creatures with fewer legs...
>
> Anahita,
> former non-fanatic vegetarian
>
>