The book, ‘The Vegetarian’ by Han Kang portrays a lady who decides to stop eating meat but ends up emaciated. She does not include any protein in her diet. It is a disturbing Kafkaesque tale.
Stories apart, I would like to tell you a bit about my vegetarian plight. Traditionally in our family, my grandparents would not even eat onion and garlic. They would scorn at the mention of eggs. Eat at home, it is cleaner and healthier! They would fear that the veg dishes and the non-veg dishes would be prepared with common ladles or vessels when we buy food from outside.
I am a lacto-ovo-vegetarian (diet consisting of eggs, milk, fruits, vegetables, pulses/grains/nuts, and seeds) and not a vegan.
A host of options
Back in India when we travel to any state, we get vegetarian food very easily. Not only do we get vegetarian food but there are mind-blowing varieties and options, from stuffed parathas to Bisibele to Aloo-Dum, or Dhokla. Even in UAE, there are many vegetarian restaurants and there are vegetarian alternatives available at many outlets. The trouble arises when we travel to other countries.
Many people do not understand what it means to be a vegetarian. When we tell them we are vegetarians they say, ‘OK then I will give you fish’ then they will say ‘OK then you can have salads,’ only to find that even the Caesar salad has chicken in it. Sometimes language is a problem, and it is difficult to explain when they don’t know English.
It’s such a delight to find at least a felafel outlet or even just a simple veg sandwich. Here in UAE, Burger King has a paneer burger and McDonald’s has a veggie burger. Most of the European countries and the US have none of these options.
Although there are a lot of Indians in the US, unless you know the place, one wouldn’t know where to go for quality Indian vegetarian food. The UK still has many veggie options. Relatively easily available anywhere, is veg pizza, so long as our GPS can track a pizza joint in our vicinity.
The trouble is although there are some hidden gems (restaurants I mean!) locked away in the corner of every country, by the time we track it down with the help of Google map, I am yelling with hunger.
I am ready to eat even packets of chips. Once we went looking for a restaurant using a map, only to find that the restaurant doesn’t exist anymore. When we go on conducted tours, they show us beautiful locales and for lunch, we go to an exotic restaurant serving exquisite dishes of the area, alas no vegetarian, so we slowly stroll around and find fries, ice-creams, etc. Sometimes the chef fixes a vegetarian version of the same dish.
Once, in a small town in the UK, after tracking down a vegetarian Indian restaurant with a lot of difficulty, we went to the joint. He took our order and served us stale food. His customers do not order vegetarian dishes rather the butter chicken and Rogan josh sell like hot cakes. We left the restaurant utterly disappointed having paid the bill fully.
At many hotels that we stayed in; we request some vegetarian options for breakfast. Although they have omelettes, they add some meat to them, and they refuse to make omelettes with veggies. So, the ‘breakfast included’ option goes down the drain. It also happens on flights. Sometimes even after having chosen a vegetarian food option, while booking the ticket, the flight attendant ends up saying, sorry we do not have any vegetarian meals left.
A few friends of mine have suggested that I should carry some food items in a suitcase so that in an extreme situation we can just have that. Call me choosy or fussy but nothing tastes better than fresh piping hot food exuding rich aromas.
I often wonder if it is so difficult for a lacto-ovo-vegetarian like me, how difficult would it be for a vegan!
Anuradha Sharma is a freelancer based in Abu Dhabi
