[Sca-cooks] Handling special diet needs at feasts

[AF Murphy]

The problem isn't what they, or you, say when they are skipping the
feast. I can understand not wanting to go into detail then, and it
doesn't matter. Lots of things I don't go into detail about, if it isn't
likely to come up as an immediate issue.

  The problem is the people who are looking to be accommodated, and then
use the phrase incorrectly. I've carefully gone to coffee shops with
friends so they could order salad or an omelet, only to have them get
fish, which we could have had anywhere! Then, I've had other people, who
knew those people, assume they could serve tuna salad to the real
vegetarians... OTOH, a few vegans just call themselves vegetarian, and
further complicate life. (I don't call myself anything, I just very
rarely eat meat... but since I am willing to eat it, I never bring it up
as an issue. But I do often look for meatless choices.)

There is a standard definition for the word. Those of us who are trying
to be helpful would appreciate it if we were always on the same page!

Anne

Tara Sersen Boroson wrote:
>
> > The problem is that a number of people (and I know some of them...) do,
> > incorrectly, call themselves vegetarians while eating fish. I have
>
> I don't think it's used "incorrectly" so much as people get sick of
> having to explain in detail what they do and don't eat over and over
> again.  If you're trying to explain that you're unlikely to find
> anything you'll eat on a menu, and therefore will skip the feast, does
> the full explaination really make a difference?  "Vegetarian" is close
> enough, and if it misleads a few people to believe that you don't eat
> fish or poultry as well as red meat, well, no harm done.  Such people
> will explain it more fully to the people who influence their diets more
> often.  I have often described my diet as "vegetarian" to strangers
> rather than the more complicated description, though anybody who knows
> me even vaguely well understands what I do and don't in fact eat.
>
> -Magdalena
>
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