To Vegan or Not to Vegan?

I have a close friend who thinks the word “vegan” is “ugly” and sounds like “some weird religion” or suggests “extremism”.

While I enthusiastically protest these interpretations are in themselves bizarre, it got me to thinking: do people really know what I’m asking for when perusing a menu, and ordering bits of ingredients from various dishes to make one that passes the vegan test?

Living out of a suitcase, as I’ve travelled New Zealand’s south island this past week, has meant eating out at restaurants and explaining my dietary needs to a befuddled, and often dazed wait staff. “It has egg, but you can eat that right?” asked one. “No dairy, but meat’s okay?” queried another.

Getting frustrated with my “everyone in the world should know what vegan means” attitude, I turned to my close friend’s preferred method: order with a specific request for no animal products. Full stop. End of story. And of course, it worked like a charm. No confusion, no odd looks, just straight to the point.

So rather than toss the word “vegan” out the window when ordering, I simply combined the two. Example? “Hi, I’m vegan, which means I don’t eat any animal products. Can you suggest anything on your menu?”

While the explanation stopped confusion, what it didn’t do was manifest vegan options which were, more often than not, non-existent, by name or by ingredients. Of course this meant (besides going hungry) I’d leave written feedback suggesting vegan options — that is, no animal products whatsoever — be added to otherwise meat-packed menus.

Come on NZ, time to get your vegan on!