I might have accidentally eaten meat

[Pinny Nickels]

I really feel like I need to know for sure but I will probably never know.

My husband and I went to a Vietnamese resturaunt. I ordered stuffed tofu... the description on the menu was "tofu stuffed with vegetables and sweet and sour dipping sauce".

First two bites I was very pleased with how good it was... it reminded me of stuffed turkey only so much better. A few more bites and I grew worried... I saw pink food particles... I felt like I had just ran over a cat or something. gonk But I wasn't sure. I kept picking the tiny pieces out and trying to get a closer look.

It looked like tuna or some other kind of fish... tuna used to be my favorite food (the only meat I ever actually liked) but I hadn't eaten it in nearly a decade. So I asked my husband and he thought I was being paranoid. I continued freaking out so we asked the waitress.
She said she saw no pink and it was just vegetables.
I have had this problem various times in Asian resturaunts. I ask if there is meat or fish in something, they tell me there isn't, then I get my food and there's some kind of fish or something in plain sight.

I felt kind of silly (I believed her... I still don't know for sure though) so I kept eating it for the time being. Then I became convinced it was tuna... as good as it was, I felt nauseous. :/
I bothered my husband about it more. I had him eat more and he eventually admitted that it tasted meaty.


I can't go there again. :/ And now I'm increasingly afraid of eating at resturaunts.
I just wish I could know for sure...  

[Sakakikala]

D:
*hugs*
You can only try your best, but whenever you do go out to eat, ask questions like you wouldn't believe. smile
Ask as much as you feel you need to know before ordering(and afterwards, tip generously).
If you find a reasturaunt you like/trust, stick with it. The local coffeeshop owner knows I'm a vegan, and when I didn't realize that the banana smoothie had milk in it, he noted he'd switch it for soymilk. If you go to a place fairly often, the owner/employees will remember you, and treat you super amazingly because you bring in so muc money. sweatdrop
(i go twice a week cuz i need dinner before classes after work, lol)

But yeah, if you use happycow, note to the waiter/waitress that you found them via happy cow and other veg*ns seemed to like the place, (still ask questions).

*hugs* This kind of thing happens to everybody. Back when i was a vegetarian(before veganism) I ordered an innocent sounding mushroom soup, which stated nothing but veggies.
The broth looked like beef broth, and I worriedly ate it because I didn't want to upset my "great-aunt".
Things like that happen, and even if you are too cowardly to raisse your voice, the best you can do is simply not go there again. smile  

[LorienLlewellyn]

I used to love vegetable lo mein, but I looked it up online and read that sometimes it is made with blood.... And most of the people working at the Chinese places around here don't speak much English, so it's often difficult to ask them exactly what is in stuff.

You can try looking online though. Sometimes you can find a list of their ingredients for each dish, a list of the vegetarian meals, restaurants near you that have a lot of vegetarian options, etc.

But as for this incident, don't beat yourself up over it. You're trying, and that is what matters. Accidents happen.  

[Pinny Nickels]

Thanks guys. =) I really needed comfort after that horrific experience... lol.

It's very difficult when the waiter/waitress can't speak English that well. sad I'll get the hang of it eventually... right now I don't exercise my veganism in resturaunts yet, lol. I'm vegan at home but when I go out to eat I simply avoid animal ingredients without being too cautious.

What's sad is that the most vegan-friendly waiter I've met worked at a Greek resturaunt. crying I love Greek food but there's hardly anything without milk or eggs.  

[Nadira]

I hear you. Even as a vegetarian, when I order what someone tells me is "vegetarian", I always wonder about it. I ordered something that was considered a veggie item, but when I got it, I started noticing pink textured pieces on my plate. When I began to investigate, segregating the pink from the plate, my family started asking questions. "Hey, it's vegetarian, what are you doing?" I told them that I didn't think the order was right. They thought I was being "silly" about it, and that I should eat it. I offered it to my family, who eat meat, and decide if it was the suspected chicken that I thought it was. They refused. I was just being "avoiding" or something.

I asked the waitress. She said that it was chicken. !!!

"Oh, doesn't vegetarians just not eat Beef?" That's what they thought a vegetarian was.


...Wonderful, just wonderful. Now, I order vegan food mostly when I go out.  

[Pinny Nickels]

Nadira

I hear you. Even as a vegetarian, when I order what someone tells me is "vegetarian", I always wonder about it. I ordered something that was considered a veggie item, but when I got it, I started noticing pink textured pieces on my plate. When I began to investigate, segregating the pink from the plate, my family started asking questions. "Hey, it's vegetarian, what are you doing?" I told them that I didn't think the order was right. They thought I was being "silly" about it, and that I should eat it. I offered it to my family, who eat meat, and decide if it was the suspected chicken that I thought it was. They refused. I was just being "avoiding" or something.

I asked the waitress. She said that it was chicken. !!!

"Oh, doesn't vegetarians just not eat Beef?" That's what they thought a vegetarian was.


...Wonderful, just wonderful. Now, I order vegan food mostly when I go out.

Ugh... that sucks. I hate how people think you're just being silly when that happens. It feels like they don't respect our morals (or whatever reasons for not eating meat we may have). sad
At Asian resturaunts they usually don't consider fish to be meat, so I always asked them if it has fish or meat... but even then a lot of times they don't understand. I wish they would just tell me they can't understand, especially if it's a Chinese resturaunt because I can actually speak Chinese.  

[A Touch of Evil]

I hate it when people think vegetarians only eat chicken and meat that isn't beef. I mean, come on. Is chicken a vegetable? Is fish not in the animal kingdom? What about pigs, lamb, or duck? Do they not have flesh and blood? It's just really annoying that people would actually think a vegetarian would eat chicken or fish.

Anyways, I'm really sorry about that horrible experience of yours. There is one restaurant I know of that is 100% organic and vegan friendly. They don't have any dairy or animal products. It's a restaurant called Mary's Secret Garden and it's amazing. Also, my boyfriend works at a pizza place that used vegan dough. So i love ordering the veggie sandwich 'cause it's just vegetables and bread with a side salad.  

[Sakakikala]

very true. Most pizza parlors use a vegan crust/sauce so you can load up with a ton of veggies! :3

Aslo, heppycow is a great site to see if a place is already deemed vegan friendly. If its not on there, then call ahead if you feel you must.

then if you like the place and feel its trustworthy with yours and other veg*n's stomachs than post a happy cow entry. (ask for a take home menu ;3)  

[nautilus96]

I HATE THAT FEELING! you have my sympathy, this has happened to me often  

[a-little-piggy]

That has happened to me before. I'll ask the waitress what a sauce is and she'll say "soy" but when I get home I'll look it up and find out there's beef broth in it. stare

I was upset with myself but I wasn't upset with her because she couldn't speak english very well.  

[Pinny Nickels]

a-little-piggy

That has happened to me before. I'll ask the waitress what a sauce is and she'll say "soy" but when I get home I'll look it up and find out there's beef broth in it. stare

I was upset with myself but I wasn't upset with her because she couldn't speak english very well.

In general, I'm upset with employers hiring people who are incompetent for answering questions for whatever reason. There are plenty of intelligent, bilingual of people in need of jobs... why do they hire morons (not that anyone is a moron for not speaking English.. but I mean in other circumstances where you're trying to deal with a rude or otherwise idiotic employee)?
But I mean for Asian/Greek/whatever resturaunts they should hire people who are fluent in both English and whatever other language. rolleyes I applied to a couple of Chinese resturaunts (I speak Chinese) and they wouldn't even give me an interview based on my appearance and last name.. now what conclusion does that bring you to?  

[jacketcat]

This happens to me and my vegetarian friends really often. I get so paranoid at restaurants when I see anything or taste anything that resembles meat. It drives everyone else at the table crazy -_-" I feel for you, though. Thinking you ate meat accidentally and having no one believe you is the worst feeling because then you never actually know if you did eat meat or not, and there's usually no way to find out. It just ruins your meal in general.

Sometimes if I'm sitting at a table with an omnivore, I'll ask them to taste the part of my food that's bothering me, and they'll usually tell me it doesn't taste like meat. Also, I once accidentally ate meat when my father baked me a frozen pizza, and I'll tell you this... When you stop eating meat, and then you eat it again, you can usually tell it's meat because it tastes horrrribllleeeee. It was midnight, and I thought it was a pizza just with veggies on it, and I didn't really look down at what I was eating. The whole time I was eating it I kept asking my dad if he thought this tasted sorry, or if he thought it might have went bad. My dad later figured out that it was a chicken pizza, and he hid the box on top of the fridge so that I wouldn't find it in the trashcan or something -_-" Well, a week later I found it. I cried for awhile, and I was really upset, but there was nothing I could really do. The thing I learned from that little experience is that meat, when you're vegetarian or vegan, tastes sour because your taste buds aren't used to it.

Anyways, sorry about my little rant >.< I just know how it is to be suspicious about your food.  

[Peppermint Cherry]

I'm so sorry =/ That happened to me at home the other day.
The day before I had bought what I believed to be vegetarian ramen. I read the ingredients like a million times, both the english and the French(sometimes, and it's kinda rare, there will be ingredients left out in certain languages). Well, I made the ramen and they was this stuff floating in it that looked a lot like chicken. NO WHERE on the ingredients list did it mention anything at all about chicken =/ I felt so gross after eating the few bites I did before I noticed the chicken.