gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
vipper said:I think I will strip naked and dance round my broad bean plants to encourage that fertilisation.
Makes note not to eat any of vippers pervy broad beans...
The British idea of vegetarian food
- Thread starter northernhord
- Start date
Makes note not to eat any of vippers pervy broad beans...
vipper said:I think I will strip naked and dance round my broad bean plants to encourage that fertilisation.
maybe, I'll avoid your allotment.
vipper said:You leave my pervy beans out of it.
you brought them into the discussion....
vipper said:All I said was I was planning on engaging in an ancient agricultural fertitlity rite. Gaijingirl then lowered the tone completely.
but you admitted they were pervy. is it going to be some kind of agricultural orgy? with other allotment holders growing beans?
hm...
Although admittedly there is a lot of copulation going on down there.
with the allotment holders, as well?
[takes flak jacket and run for cover]
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
Have to agree there. Outside of maybe California, the UK's vegetarian selection is some of the best you'll find. Sad though that is.wrysmile said:
And stop complaining about places serving dreadful veggie food when all their other food sucks too (ie: most pubs). What did you expect?
That's the slightly hypocritical thing - most pub food is crap stuff, bought in frozen and dinged or grilled for readiness. What makes vegetarians think that the cook's suddenly going to develop an interest in cooking something from fresh just because they've stepped in?
It doesn't surprise me that people are disappointed when they've got those unrealistic expectations. As an omnivore I'll have to make do with a relatively crappy burger or micro snack as well, generally the same couple of styles of pasta.
And bear in mind that, in the country at least, it's a bit of a 'meat and two veg' culture, particularly in pubs. That's not the greatest start for vegetarians - if it's any compensation most meat eaters only get a couple of options outside of the poor quality/badly cooked burgers & grills as well, microwaved just as incompetently.
It doesn't surprise me that people are disappointed when they've got those unrealistic expectations. As an omnivore I'll have to make do with a relatively crappy burger or micro snack as well, generally the same couple of styles of pasta.
And bear in mind that, in the country at least, it's a bit of a 'meat and two veg' culture, particularly in pubs. That's not the greatest start for vegetarians - if it's any compensation most meat eaters only get a couple of options outside of the poor quality/badly cooked burgers & grills as well, microwaved just as incompetently.
ringo
Macaroni cheese controller
Agreed, but lately I've been with workmates who order large steaks, can decide exactly how they want them cooked, then wolf them down greedily with great enjoyment while I push flacid, tasteless microwaved lasagne round the plate and neck Speckled Hen furiously between vituperous swearing.
pembrokestephen
New Member
All true.tarannau said:
But with - as of several years ago - 7% of the population being vegetarians, that means that a party of 6 has a 50% chance of containing one veggie.
And, if my experience is anything to go by, if a party of 6 can't go somewhere because one of them is a veggie and the venue under consideration doesn't offer a reasonable choice of veggie food, that's a lot of business walking back out of the door...
The issue is that there's rarely a really good choice of meals in places like pubs. How much variation do you honestly believe the meat eaters get - a bit of extra bacon on the burgers perhaps, a microwave cannneloni rather than lasagne and so on. It may look like a choice, but there's not much to it too. I suspect I could predict most of 80% of pub menus without really looking as well.
Ringo - have you eaten many of those steaks in the pub? You ain't missing much generally - bum standard meat often cooked by the work experience student.
You can't really blame low budget places for cooking such things - there are deskilled folks in the kitchen and steaks are comparatively quick and easy to cook. Short of offering some kind of gawdawful easycook quorn cutlet or something, there's little they could offer at a comparable price point.
Ringo - have you eaten many of those steaks in the pub? You ain't missing much generally - bum standard meat often cooked by the work experience student.
You can't really blame low budget places for cooking such things - there are deskilled folks in the kitchen and steaks are comparatively quick and easy to cook. Short of offering some kind of gawdawful easycook quorn cutlet or something, there's little they could offer at a comparable price point.
pembrokestephen
New Member
The thing is, though, that if you're a meatie, you can at least go 3 or 4 times in a row and eat something different - maybe a burger one time, fish and ships another, perhaps go for the steak and ale pie after that, or perhaps that shoeleather steak and chips option (yeah, you're right about them being predictable!tarannau said:
).If you're a veggie, you're stuck with the beanburger and a rather glutinous (how DO they do that to lasagne?) veggie lasagne or pasta bake thing.
I agree, it's no great shakes either way, but...well, as a veggie, eating in a pub is in the "desperation" zone on my list of eating-out places. And I really don't think it has to be like that.
I suppose so. Though I think, with some imagination, there's more they could do. But you're right - there's little point grumbling about it: we're far better off voting with our feet. Which will probably result in ALL the veggie options disappearing from menus because the pub chains will be saying "Well, there can't be any vegetarians, because we don't get hardly any demand for vegetarian food in our pubs"tarannau said:
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
So, any recommendations for restaurants that serve veggie gourmet food?
Sod off, Ramsay, ya sweary-arsed cunt! 
Sod off, Ramsay, ya sweary-arsed cunt!
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
Morgan M
or
The Admiralty
both have gourmet (and pricey) vegetarian menus - and are lush (especially Morgan M!)
or
The Admiralty
both have gourmet (and pricey) vegetarian menus - and are lush (especially Morgan M!)
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
gaijingirl said:
Whereabouts are they?
If you think logically, vegetarian options are perhaps overrepresented on gastropub menus. Of 4-5 main dishes on offer in some places, 1-2 will be vegetarian, which in a proportionate sense is decent enough
The downside - as someone who used to run pubs - is that, without trying to generalise, a fair few vegetarians tend to be fussy eaters. I've had someone scream at me for using fresh mushrooms in one option, another bemoaning the fact the food had onions in it. It's not exactly easy to win is it?
The downside - as someone who used to run pubs - is that, without trying to generalise, a fair few vegetarians tend to be fussy eaters. I've had someone scream at me for using fresh mushrooms in one option, another bemoaning the fact the food had onions in it. It's not exactly easy to win is it?
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
nino_savatte said:
Don't you have google?
The Admiralty is in Somerset House at Aldwych.
Morgan M is in Islington.
They both have websites with menus.
pembrokestephen
New Member
Well, if that's what it takes to ensure reasonable custom, that's what it takes. When you're dealing with sample sizes as low as 4-5, though, it's probably a little irrelevant to start measuring veggie:meat eater ratios and saying that "hey, veggies have 20% of the choice of the meaties". For a start, if that means there's only one veggie choice, then you're going to alienate vegetarians like me who will quickly get bored of having the same thing every time. Secondly, meat eaters will often happily eat vegetarian food, though not vice versa. Thirdly, many dishes are adaptable so that meat can be "bolted on" to the basic dish.tarannau said:
That may well be true, to some extent: I tend not to favour mushrooms if I have a choice (they're rather too "meaty" for my liking), which is unfortunate, as many places see mushrooms as the default alternative to meat.tarannau said:
As I'm probably becoming boring by saying, it comes down to whether they want to appeal to the vegetarian market. And I think any venue that is serious about keeping its customers needs to be, because vegetarians are going to feature, if not as core business or "business enabler", then as "business disabler" if they're part of a group and the venue doesn't offer a decent vegetarian option.
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
rich! said:Or they could do what my local does: they don't do food any more, but they do provide plates if you bring your own in. And they have a stock of menus from every take-away for miles around
That's brilliant!!!
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
gaijingirl said:Don't you have google?
The Admiralty is in Somerset House at Aldwych.
Morgan M is in Islington.
They both have websites with menus.
Google? What's that?
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
ringo said:
You were not at my cousin's wedding.
Mushroom risotto from a packet. And there was no excuse, there was only three of us having the veggie option and there was a supermarket across from the recption venue.
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
Risotto. It's everywhere. I reckon a good 50% of veggie options are a risotto - usually a mushroom one. Risotto is my fall back option at home - the one thing I'll always have the ingredients for that can be made quickly and easily. Definitely not a "special" dish I'd pay someone else to make for me. 
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
vipper said:
But risotto is the mainstay of loads of restaurants too - not even your average pub!!
ETA: It used to be goats cheese, roasted peppers and maybe some else - "tower" - or variation of.
Sometimes I would mind a good old vegetarian lasagne - if it were a nice one - just to make a change from risotto!
gaijingirl said:But risotto is the mainstay of loads of restaurants too - not even your average pub!!
ETA: It used to be goats cheese, roasted peppers and maybe some else - "tower" - or variation of.
Sometimes I would mind a good old vegetarian lasagne - if it were a nice one - just to make a change from risotto!
That's kind of what I mean. Why would you want to go to a restaurant and pay £8 for a rissoto that you can make better at home?
I like veggie lasagne and chips.
e2a - towers are still in in Farnham. Farnham is 90s town.
