Advanced Planning
Guides on whole food, plant-based eating often address the special challenges of eating at restaurants or while traveling. We are planning to do both this summer, and we expect to make compromises. When traveling, we still don’t eat animal products, but we might eat food with a little more oil, sugar, or salt than we would use at home. We might eat pasta or bread made with white refined flour, which we would not eat at home. Making these exceptions on very rare occasions doesn’t hurt us much, and it smooths out awkward social situations.
The guides often suggest contacting the chef of a restaurant in advance of one’s visit, letting them know what you will and won’t eat, and seeing if they will rise to the challenge. I don’t generally do this. My feeling is that any restaurant worthy of my patronage should have something I can eat. I admit to being disappointed a few times. There was the fancy restaurant in a hotel near LAX that had nothing but an undressed spring salad. There was the microbrewery that had good beer, but no vegan options other than french fries. Most places do have at least a salad and a baked potato, or brown rice and beans, or some kind of noodles with vegetables and sauce without meat, butter, cream, or oil. It’s really not that difficult, since I am easy to please. I don’t want to be “that guy” who puts an extra burden on the staff of a restaurant by making requests that may be troublesome to honor. It feels like going to a wine bar and asking for an imperial stout. Why not just go to a more suitable establishment?
My wife has different tastes than I. She thinks amaranth flour, mushrooms and beets all taste like dirt. She eats processed vegan snacks that I avoid. She has been known to consume vegan “ice cream” made with coconut oil that I find much too high in fat. Even so, we like cooking together and eating the results.
It is Memorial Day 2024. With consternation I confront the diplomatic challenge of an invitation to dine at a Michelin starred restaurant as part of a couples getaway with friends later this summer. It calls for casual dress and has patio seating, but in order to provide a vegan meal, it insists that we make our needs known at the time we make reservations. Nothing on the lunch menu, which changes daily, is free of animal products, except the small salad and side of fries. Every other item has caviar, mussels, sardines, snails, poitrine de porc (pork belly), steak, eggs, tuna, cheese, or butter, or some combination of these. This restaurant is a favorite of the our friend planning the trip, so I agree to go, despite the sinking feeling that the rest of the group might enjoy it more without us, for the one meal.
Here is my best response. I hope we can keep our friends and not ruin anyone’s meal.
Dear P. Thank you so much for the great consideration you show by contacting the chef at B. It really looks like a fabulous restaurant. I understand you not wanting to miss it. I hate to put you and the chef to this inconvenience. If the chef is willing to undertake the challenge, we are certainly willing to be a bit more flexible than usual for this special occasion. Any vegan entree would suit me, but please no fake meat or cheese. Please minimize use of oil, salt, and sugar. For Kathryn, no mushrooms or beets. We don’t need fancy food. Your company is our reason for being there.
