Warnings for New Vegetarians in America

When vegetarian Indians come to the US, at first, most of them do not venture out to try the non-Indian food which is available in abundant variety here. The predominance of meat and meat-based items in menus everywhere does not encourage us to get adventurous. In fact, even many non-vegetarian Indians live in the US for a long time (years in some cases!) without sampling most of the non-Indian cuisines.

The first two times I came to the US were for 3-month visits during which, I lived with Indian roommates and we cooked at home. The few times I ate outside during these visits, I had vegetarian food from only Indian restaurants. Except may be, "burger with no meat" from McD's on a couple of occasions.

My third visit to the US was long term (I've still not returned almost 6 years later!). This time, I started to live alone. The combination of lethargy and lack of enthusiasm to cook alone, just for myself, caused me to eat out a lot more often. For the first 6 - 7 months of my third visit, I tried almost exclusively non-Indian food whenever I ate outside, which was pretty much everyday for lunch! This, despite my being a pure vegetarian - during those days, I even avoided stuff like pastries and cookies, which have eggs in them!

The point of this long-winded introduction is that, yes, it is definitely possible for vegetarians in the US to find a variety of eating choices, outside the home. Certainly not as many choices as non-vegetarians (especially those who don't mind eating pigs and cows) have, but the choices are still there. You just need to know what to look for, where and how to order. Nevertheless, during my 6 years of vegetarian life in the US, despite being very careful, there have been occasions when I have discovered that there were animal pieces/products in the food I was eating or had already eaten. It is hard to describe the awful feeling of personal violation I felt during those times.

The following is not only a rant about those occasions when I learnt that the 'vegetarian' food I ate contained animal products, I hope this will also serve as a warning for other vegetarians to know what to avoid or be careful about.

• Contradictory Disclaimer: If you want to strictly avoid accidental ingestion of animal products while living in the US, the only solution is to make all your food at home, preferably from scratch and read very, very carefully, all the ingredients which go into making the few packaged food stuff you might buy. Or, if you cannot avoid eating outside, eat only raw fruits and vegetables, preferably cut with your own knife, without any type of dressing. Or, you might get lucky and find a vegan restaurant with highly enlightened and principled people running it. This might sound like a contradiction of what I wrote above about having vegetarian choices to eat outside in the US, but this is also the reality.



• Non-vegetarian by accident: If you go to any restaurant which serves meat or meat-based food, accidental introduction of meat particles into your order might happen at some time or the other. This is true of Indian restaurants also. I have come across pieces of meat in what was supposed to be "vegetarian biriyani" at an Indian restaurant. On another occasion, I found a small piece of meat in the refried beans that filled my Taco Bell "chalupa with no meat".



• Non-vegetarian by association: Even if the actual piece of meat does not end up in your order, the cutlery, utensils and hands would have handled meat before handling your vegetarian food. For example, in Subway, they use the same knife to cut every sandwich that needs to be cut. I mentioned Subway as just a random example. This point applies to most other restaurants.



• Vegetarian by customizing: There are restaurants where you can take a meat-based dish from their menu, and order it customized for you, "with no meat". In Taco Bell, for example, you can order almost any dish on their menu and ask them to leave out the meat. Recently, I visited a Thai restaurant which had a note at the bottom of the menu saying that they could make any dish on their menu vegetarian. When you customize this way, be sure to order clearly and assertively, ensuring the person taking your order understands your requirement. And, when your order is delivered, be sure to double-check yourself that there is no meat before you start eating. Mistakes on customized orders are too easy to make. I once ordered a combo-meal of chalupas and tacos at Taco Bell, repeating at least two times that I want 'no meat' in my order. When my order arrived, I found that my chalupas indeed had no meat, but the tacos were filled with beef. Fortunately, I noticed this just as the Taco was about to enter my mouth. Incidentally, for some reason, most people taking orders in the US seem to hear and understand "with NO meat" more readily and easily than "without meat". I still don't know why!



• Vegetarian / non-vegetarian by definition: In India, especially in South India, the word vegetarian has only one interpretation - no meat or eggs. Unfortunately, this is not so in the US. Different people interpret the words "vegetarian" and "with no meat" differently. The person taking your order or answering your questions at a restaurant is no different. Rather than assume that the other person's interpretation of the word vegetarian is the same as your own, you are better off clarifying exactly what you are looking for. Eg: "Would you be able to make this dish for me without meat and eggs? What do you recommend on your menu that has no animal products at all in it?"



• "Vegetarian" (or not!) by subtraction: The other thing to remember is that some people are truly naive or unaware about why you are ordering something "with no meat". They might think that simply removing pieces of meat from a dish which was originally cooked with meat, or the vegetable soup made with beef broth without actually adding pieces of meat into it, will both satisfy your 'with no meat' criteria. I heard about the removing pieces of meat from a non-vegetarian dish incident from someone. The vegetable soup with beef broth thing actually happened to me!



• Non-vegetarian by deception: This is by far the thing you need to be most careful about. When I say deception, I mean that vegetarians get deceived into eating meat products because it is so inconspicuous and not easily noticeable. I certainly don't mean that somebody is deliberately trying to deceive vegetarians into eating meat products. There is no way for me to list everything which appears to be a vegetarian dish, but is actually not. So, I will just list the stuff I come across most often, and will keep this list updated if I come across anything else later. If my readers would like for me to add/correct something in this list, please leave a comment.
  • Cheese - most of the cheeses are made with animal-based rennet enzymes.
  • Tortilla chips - in some (not all) Mexican restaurants, these are be fried in beef lard. Best to check before you eat.
  • Spanish rice & refried beans - another common item in Mexican restaurants. They are almost always cooked in chicken/beef broth. There may be exceptions. I have heard that black beans are not usually cooked in any animal broth. In any case, it's best to check before eating.
  • Fish oil in Thai restaurants - I have heard that Thais use fish oil in most of their dishes, just like Indians put hoggarenne or thadka in many of their dishes. Yes, they could use fish oil in even vegetarian dishes such as vegetable Pad Thai or fried rice, as well as vegetarian soups and curries. Best to clarify.
  • Grilled / Fried vegetarian stuff like veggie burgers or fries - if you are ordering these in a restaurant that also serves meat, you can pretty much take it for granted that your order will get grilled / fried on the same hot plate, skillet or utensil, and probably in the same oil, in which some other meat-based dish was cooked. Your order will come smeared with animal fat and particles.
  • Meat with strange names - the English language has too many strange and unfamiliar names for different types of meats, and one might get deceived by that. It is almost as if they don't want people to know or remember exactly which animal they are eating. I have heard of Indian vegetarians eating pepperoni pizza without knowing that pepperoni is a type of pig meat. It has the word pepper in it, for god's sake!
  • Sauces and salad dressings - there are too many sauces and salad dressings which might contain animal-products in them. A lot of salad dressings have eggs in them. Original Caesar salad dressing is supposed to have anchovies (a type of fish). Worcestershire sauce, which I allowed someone to add to my food once, has anchovies too. You can be pretty sure that tomato, soy and most chilli sauces don't contain any animal products. Most Italian salad dressings and vinegar-based dressings are also probably safe. Everything else should be questioned and consumed only if you are absolutely sure.
  
  
• Egg on your face: Eggs! These compete neck-and-neck with the stuff in the list above, for things you have to be most careful about... that is, if you are a vegetarian who does not eat eggs. It is amazing the number of food items in which the egg turn up. This is one thing which has defeated me in America! When I was new in the US, I avoided eating cakes and cookies, and thought I was safe from eggs. Turns out that eggs were present in so many other things which I was already eating - pastas, ice-creams, certain types of breads, pancakes, waffles, even salad dressing, for god's sake. There I was, stuffing my face with salads, trying different types of salad dressings and thinking I was safe, unaware that many salad dressings were leaving egg on my face. Yes, a lot of salad dressings have egg in them. If you want salad dressings with no egg - Italian dressing and many of the vinegar-based dressings are safe in most places. Also, when you order vegetarian fried rice or vegetarian Pad Thai or most other vegetarian dishes in Chinese and Thai restaurants, be sure to say 'no eggs'. A large number of people consider eggs to be vegetarian! Once I saw something called "egg substitute" in a breakfast restaurant's menu. Great! It looked like something that would be used in place of eggs. I asked the waitress what it was made of - she could not answer me properly. She was already too hassled at that busy hour and I did not want to take up too much of her time. I thought egg substitutes may be made with soy, considering that soy is used as a substitute for so many animal-based food products. Only days later, after I had relished my order made with "egg substitute", did I learn that the main ingredient in most egg substitutes is... ta-da... EGG! Yes, yesss - egg substitutes are made with eggs. Egg substitute is this powder which (mixed with water) is used in place of real eggs to lower the fat and cholesterol levels. But most egg substitutes have egg-whites in them! I have managed to avoid meat in the US, but it is really tough to avoid egg, simply because it is used in making so many things. After having consumed eggs without being aware in so many different items, I accepted defeat. Now, I eat things like cakes, cookies, etc. which might contain eggs in them in disguised, invisible form. But I still don't eat eggs in direct, visible form - boiled, scrambled or in any other way.

Whew! That post turned out longer than I expected. I will stop here. I hope this list is of use to new vegetarians in the US. But before I close, I do want to reiterate that all hope is not lost - there are still lots of safe choices for vegetarians in the US. Just browse through the posts labelled "Food" on this blog, and you will see a small sampling of a variety of vegetarian choices, in my "Vegetarian Lunch in America" series.