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World Vegetarian Cuisines and Travel

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Flying
When you reserve a long-distance flight, you should reserve a vegetarian meal at the same time. It is a good idea to call a few days before your flight departure and reconfirm your vegetarian meal. Also when you check in you should confirm that they have it recorded that you are to receive a vegetarian meal. Regrettably, even after reconfirming a vegetarian meal, sometimes the correct number of vegetarian meals do not get on the plane.

It is often possible to get a vegetarian meal even if you did not order one. If you do not receive your ordered vegetarian meal, it is a good idea to talk to the airline staff. Often a meal of side dishes from the extra first-class and coach meals can be quite a good vegetarian meal. One advantage of ordering a vegetarian meal is that you usually receive it before the other meals are served. If you would like more information, you can check out the Vegetarian in Paradise site (www.vegparadise.com), which lists many of the selections that various airlines offer vegetarians.

Some airlines have several vegetarian options. About 50% of the requested special meals are vegetarian meals.

Taking the Train
If you give 72-hour-advance notice for trips on Amtrak's overnight trains and long-distance passenger trains, you can often get decent vegetarian meals. A typical vegetarian meal is peas, corn on the cob and a choice of Sweet Potato Casserole or Garlic Mashed Potatoes. You can sometimes get Penne Pasta Primavera or veggie burgers at lunchtime.

There are two dining cars-first-class and coach-on overnight trains. On first-class there is a vegan dinner of Vegetarian Lo Mein and a Vegetable Spring Roll if requested. Stir-fried Vegetables over Rice and vegetarian Lasagna can be gotten in coach.

Call 800-USA-RAIL to request a special Amtrak meal. Call 877-SKIP I-95 to request a special meal for the Auto Train that goes from Lorton, Virginia (just south of Washington DC) to just north of Orlando.

Chinese
Egg roll wrappers are made of wheat flour and egg. Spring roll wrappers are usually made of wheat flour and water. Often Chinese soups contain a non-veg base; egg drop soup often contains chicken stock, and hot & sour soup often has a beef base. Ask whether the broth contains any meat products (be specific as possible).

Sometimes noodle and rice dishes, such as Chinese fried rice, contain a meat broth even if they are listed on the "vegetarian menu." Many Chinese dishes contain oyster sauce (real), a thick, dark brown sauce. Often Chinese consider oyster sauce to be vegetarian, so it could be possible to be told a dish is vegetarian, while it contains non-veg oyster sauce.
Often noodles can contain eggs and if you ask if it is vegetarian you will be told that it is vegetarian. This is even true in vegetarian restaurants. If you do not eat eggs, you should ask if the noodles contain eggs.

You should ask your question several times and should make sure your server understands what you are saying. Sometimes Chinese servers will agree with you to be polite and not really understand what you are saying. So you may want to have them repeat what you just said.

Often fortune cookies contain eggs, even in a vegan or vegetarian restaurant.

Greek and Middle Eastern
Whole grains and legumes are staples of the Greek and Middle Eastern diet. Vegetarian and salad dishes usually make up a good portion of the menu. Some common vegetarian dishes are falafel (deep-fried chickpea or fava bean balls spiced with garlic, cilantro and cumin), hummus (mashed, creamy chickpeas and tahini), vegetarian stuffed grape leaves and tabbouleh (salad of bulgur wheat, tomatoes, onions and parsley with lemon juice), and baba ghanoush (roasted eggplant dip). Pita sandwiches stuffed with falafel, salad, tahini or hummus are popular.

Dolmadakia, or dolma, is a salty stuffed grape leaf; the vegetarian version is traditionally served cold, while a meat dolma is usually served hot. A typical Greek entree is fava, yellow split peas with onions and garlic. The grains in couscous may be cooked in a chicken or lamb stock.

Greek rice is often cooked in a chicken stock; so you may want to ask about this. You may also want to ask about whether the falafels are cooked in oil that is also used in cooking any meat products.

Indian
Indian cuisine is often vegetarian-friendly. Over 50% of all Indians do not eat meat and eggs, but they do eat dairy products. Many dishes contain milk, cheese or ghee (clarified butter). Indian breads are often topped with butter. Indian dishes are often cooked in ghee, which is clarified butter, so if you are a vegan you may want to ask whether preparations are fried in ghee or vegetable oil.

A potential problem with Indian restaurants is that it can be difficult to get a straight answer about what dishes contain animal products. I often ask several times to confirm that a dish is vegetarian. Indian servers often just give you a token yes to everything you say, just to be polite. Unless you ask the manager or owner, it can be difficult to get a straight answer about whether a dish is vegetarian. Even then I may be doubtful. This is a major reason, if you are a serious vegetarian, to avoid Indian restaurants that serve meat.


Naan bread sometimes contains eggs or yogurt in the dough, so you may want to ask about this.

Mulligatawny, a spicy lentil soup, often contains pieces of chicken and a meat broth.

Italian
The main thing to look out for is eggs in the pastas and meat broth in the sauces. Traditional hard pastas, made with semolina wheat flour and water, are 100 percent vegan. Many hand- or house-made fresh pastas (Ravioli or Fettuccine) contain eggs.

Minestrone is vegetable pasta soup that often contains chicken or beef stock. Marinara sauce is typically vegetarian, but Bolognese sauce contains meat. Puttanesca sauce often contains anchovies. Risotto, an Italian rice dish, often contains a meat broth.

Japanese
Sushi bars often have a vegetarian sushi (made with avocado, pickled vegetables (oshinko) and vegetable nori maki) such as kappa maki (contains sticky rice and cucumber). Japanese dishes may contain dashi, a broth usually containing bonito (fish). Dashi is often in miso soup and hijiki (a mild black seaweed dish).

Vietnamese
Sometimes dishes that are listed as vegetarian contain fish. Often a fish sauce is mixed with different dishes. Fish sauce is called nuoc mam (anchoy-based). Vietnamese spring rolls often come with this sauce. Peanut sauce, used as a dressing on noodle dishes and salads, often contains fish. You should make clear that no fish sauce is used in any dishes. It is not good enough to ask if a dish is vegetarian; you should ask that it does not contain fish or fish sauce.

Thai
Many Thai dishes are vegetarian. They often cook with a fish sauce called nam pla, which can often be removed. Coconut milk is often used in preparations instead of dairy milk. Thai food can be cooked extremely hot, so you may want to request a more mild spicing.

Mexican
Rice may be cooked in chicken broth and beans are often cooked with lard. Cal-Mex cuisine is more likely to be vegetarian. A typical Cal-Mex meal often contains rice, salad or bean burritos. Flour tortillas sometimes contain lard, while corn tortillas normally don't, but corn tortillas may be deep-fried in lard. It is important to ask what cooking fat is used. Sauces often contain meat stocks.

Spanish
Spanish cuisine is frequently confused with Mexican or other Latin American cooking. Spanish dishes are usually mild and closer to the foods of Mediterranean France and Italy.

Spanish rice is often made with a chicken stock base, and may contain fish or meat. Spanish cuisine is usually low-fat.

French
Quiche Lorraine contains eggs and often bacon. French Onion soup often contains a beef stock. In French cooking there is often a meat glaze on vegetables. Breads often contain eggs.

Ethiopian
Ethiopian style cooking includes several well-cooked spicy stews called wots. They are served with injera, a flat pancake type bread. The teff (a native grain of Ethiopia) injera gets some high recommendations. They serve another injera made of teff, millet, corn and barley. Appetizers aren't part of the Ethiopian tradition. Nor is dessert traditional. Some dishes served are Pumpkin Wot (pumpkin stew), Tomato Fit-Fit (cold tomato stew), Yemisir Wot (spiced red pepper sauce and lentil stew), Yatakilt Alitcha (steam vegetables), Collard Greens and Yater Alitcha (yellow split pea stew with ginger and garlic). Yemiser Wot is a spiced lentil stew. Baklava is an Ethiopian dessert. Meals often end with a cup of spiced tea (cloves).

Most places have traditional Ethiopian low tables. Eating is done by using a piece of injera to scoop up the food. Food is spiced with red hot pepper, cardamom, curry, coriander, ginger, cumin, fresh herbs and shallots.

Gursha is an Ethiopian custom of putting portions of food in another person's mouth. There is an Ethiopian saying: "Those who eat from the same plate will not betray each other."

Veggie Burgers
Veggie burgers made by various companies and homemade ones made in restaurants sometimes contain eggs. Also in restaurants veggie burgers may be cooked on the same grill as meat burgers, so you may want to ask about this.

The original Garden Burger does not contain eggs, but most of the other varieties of the veggie burgers made by Garden Burger do contain eggs.
Most of the veggie meats including their veggie burger and veggie sausages made by Morning Star contain eggs.
Baco has a vegan burger that doesn't contain eggs. Some of their mock meat items do contain eggs such as their chicken nuggets and veggie sausage.
It seems that Vyes products in general don't contain eggs. Their veggie burger and hot dogs don't contain eggs.
Smart mock deli meats do not contain eggs.
The Sunshine Burger doesn't contain eggs.
The Light Life veggie burger and veggie hot dogs don't contain eggs.

Ordering out
Speaking Vegetarian by Bryan Geon (Pilot Books, 1999) is a foreign-phrase book written for vegetarians. It lists valauble phrases such as "I do not eat meat, chicken or fish" in several languages.
FRENCH Je ne mange pas de viande, de poulet ou de poisson.
ITALIAN Non mangio carne, pollo o pesce.
SPANISH No como carne, pollo o pescado.

If you know of a vegetarian restaurant that is not listed here, or if you would like to help update our listings, please e-mail us at: vrupdate@hotmail.com

 

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