Permission to rant, captain?

[billyskank]

The "vegetarian option" at work today was pizza. Mmmmm, I thought, so at lunch time I went and bought some.

It turned out to be covered in parmesan cheese. Parmesan is almost never suitable for vegetarians! They use rennet to make it hard, which is an enzyme that comes from cows. I know some of the vegetarians here don't even approve of taking cheese, and I ask them to please excuse me. But parmesan isn't suitable for any kind of vegetarian!!! And this is supposed to be the fucking vegetarian option! They might as well have put a piece of fucking steak on the pizza!

:grr:

:rant:

[LaurenG]

1. Poor billyskank,

I think you should write the dietitian a note. Perhaps whoever cooked it wasn't aware. That happens to me a lot. I ended up eating only veggies (carrots and brussel sprouts) twice last week because they kept putting weird things in the rice, (bacon and chicken pieces). :shrug: :hug:

[billyskank]

4. I don't think they care

I've written stuff in the comments book before, but nothing has actually changed. I asked them to stop doing so many veggie options with egg in, although I can just about understand that (many veggies still eat egg), but still at least once a week I have to have a baked potato & beans because of an eggy veggie option.

But non-veggie cheese is beyond the pale. That just shows that they don't give a shit. Some meat-eaters are very thoughtful, but these ones running our staff canteen seem totally insensitive to the needs of vegetarians and vegans. I think I am going to have to start cooking my own food again.

Sorry for the rant, OB. :hug:

:rant:

[Call Me Wesley]

2. Don't even think about

what they use to grease up the pizza pan ... :scared:

I do think that the only vegetarian food in most places is some sort of a joke. Especially in normal restaurants which just have a 'vegetarian option'.

[billyskank]

7. Good call

If they don't care enough to check whether the cheese is suitable for vegetarians (and the head chef is supposed to be trained - he must know about rennet) then who is to say whether they care enough not to grease the pans with lard?

Coming to think about it, how likely is it that they cook veggie & meaty things with sufficient care to keep them properly separated? The more I think about this, the less I like it.

:(

[Call Me Wesley]

11. I just think that,

unless I'm in a real vegan place, run by vegan cooks, the only real vegetarian dish you can have if you cook it for yourself.

[billyskank]

14. You are probably right

I shouldn't trust anybody to cook for me if I don't know them.

[wildhorses]

3. I am not Captain but,

as Queen of the unposted threads I grant you permission to rant at will Sir billyskank



sorry to hear about your lunch debacle

[billyskank]

5. Thankyou Ma'am

:bows:

[tjwmason]

6. Oh dear - sounds like somebody's left their brains at home.

I realise that most folk don't even think about such things, and if you were to ask the man on the Clapham omnibus, he probably wouldn't know what rennet is....but surely, folk who choose and prepare food for a living damn well ought to know.

:hug: from a sympathetic omnivore.

[billyskank]

9. Yes he should know

The head chef should be trained to NVQ level 2 - or, better, City & Guilds - I would have thought, and definitely should know about this stuff. Even the supermarkets know to indicate whether their cheese is suitable for vegetarians or not.

(Actually the supermarkets are generally very good about labelling their food properly).

[tjwmason]

13. Load of numpties.

I know how difficult it can be to eat as a vegetarian (even more as a vegan), having incompetants making things worse is not on.

Do you want me to come over and kick-arse?

That said, making your own food might be a better idea - I certainly do.

[eyesroll]

8. I bet 90% of people here have no idea.

Let alone people in a workplace.

(And BTW, plenty of vegetarians I know turn a blind eye to rennet. Then again, plenty of "vegans" I know make an exception for Ben & Jerry's, so maybe I know the wrong vegetarians.)

[billyskank]

10. True, I noticed for example

that on the continent they generally don't know that many cheeses are no good for lacto-vegetarians. But in Britain the picture is somewhat better - even if the general populace doesn't know, the supermarkets know enough to clearly label whether their cheeses are suitable for vegetarians, and the head chef of a kitchen definitely should know.

[eyesroll]

12. Oh, duh, you're in Britian.

(It's early here and my coffee is still too hot to drink. :dunce:)

Honestly, I think a lot of vegetarians here either don't know, or don't care.

As for me (an omnivore), when I cook for vegetarians, I usually ask if they have any further restrictions, and they tell me. If rennet was an issue, it would come up (and I almost never cook with cheese when cooking vegetarian in any case).

[billyskank]

16. No problem

There was no reason why you should know that. :)

I am glad for thoughtful people like yourself who do care and don't want to serve somebody something they don't want to eat.

[Deja Q]

15. Milk, a prime component from cheese, comes from cows too.

Also, if it really is about avoiding anything to do with animals, and has been argued but it's still funny to mention, is that animal doodoo used as fertilizer should be a no-no...

Soy milk for cheese? THAT would be astonishing.

[billyskank]

17. That's the vegan position

no animal products at all. For people like me the issue is animal killing. You don't have to harm a cow to obtain milk (modern farming practices are another issue) but you DO have to kill a cow to obtain rennet.

Similarly you don't need to kill a cow to get bullshit. :)

[WillParkinson]

19. True, but...

What happens to the cow when it can no longer give milk?

[billyskank]

21. When it's too old, you mean?

A 'mean' farmer will kill it, I expect. But that's the business of the farmer and has nothing to do with me.

[tjwmason]

20. As a serious question.

If the issue is killing, how does that lead to avoiding eggs?

[ikri]

18. Well there's this

Vegan friendly cheese

And it isn't too bad. Finding something that resembles cheese can be tough in the UK if you're a vegan or, like me, lactose intolerant.

[billyskank]

22. Thanks

I have no problem finding friendly cheese for myself (I am not a vegan, but a lacto-vegetarian instead). It is the things they prepare in the staff canteen that is the problem.

[Patiod]

23. Playing devil's advocate

Most of the vegetarians I know who eat milk & eggs also eat regular cheese (I'm not saying most vegetarians eat cheese, just that most of them that I know here in Eastern PA in the US eat cheese). Not arguing with your case against rennet, but if most of your vegetarian customers are okay with cheese, then offering cheese pizza doesn't seem so insane.

Having said that, what the HELL are they doing putting bacon in a veggie option?

[billyskank]

24. Cheese pizza is fine

so long as you make it with cheese suitable for vegetarians. After all this was offered as the specific "vegetarian option."

If I were in charge I would make sure that the vegetarian option would be suitable for vegans, thus making it acceptable to the widest possible range of people. Okay, so fruitarians would have to make other arrangements.

[tjdee]

25. I was a vegetarian for over a year and had parmesan all the time!

:cry:

So did most of the vegetarians I knew, including a few who had been so since childhood. I thought parm just used lots of chemicals, not anything that harmed the cows (that was the issue for me too, the animal killing). So I don't think it's a stretch that the folks at work didn't know, but I do see how that'd be irritating if you were all ready to have some pizza and then couldn't.

And why do they put parmesan on the pizza for you? Shouldn't parmesan be optional and self applied? That's weird, usually caf. pizza comes plain.

[billyskank]

28. Yes that would have been much more sensible

allowing us to add parmesan as required.

:pals:

[MissMillie]

26. Where can I get the steak pizza?

:shrug:

I'm sorry they ruined your lunch for you.

[Redstone]

27. Why would you "have to ask the vegetarians to please excuse you?"

Eat whatever you want to eat. Don't eat what you don't want to eat. You don't need anyone's permission or approval.

Redstone

[billyskank]

29. I don't

I guess I just mean that I respect greatly the positions of our vegans here on DU.

[RebelOne]

30. It's vegans that do not eat dairy products.

I'm a vegetarian and eat cheese.

[billyskank]

32. Cheese is okay by me

cheese with rennet is not. You have to kill an animal to get rennet, unless it's vegetarian cheese (in which case they obtain the rennet by genetically modifying a bacterium to produce it).

[LynneSin]

31. Steak Pizza - sounds yummy

:D

[billyskank]

33. I'm sure somebody will do it for you

:hi:

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

34. .

heres some love form one veg to another :hug:

and fuck stupid people :argh::nuke:

[billyskank]

35. Back atcha!

:hug:

I prefer to fuck nice people. ;)

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

36. ha!

Id rather fuck with agressive people ;)

[tjwmason]

39. Good morning MAHNY.

:hi:

Did you call me?

:hug: :loveya:

But yes - fuck stupid people - metaphorically.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

40. damn, you've got some good hearing

:hi:

yea, they all suck...and not in that good way :evilgrin:

:loveya:

[tjwmason]

41. When it's your voice calling

then I come running....

Speaking as a sort of omnivore, I don't get why folk make such a fuss about it. I know from experience it's pretty easy to prepare vegetarian food (admittedly vegan requires more imagination - but still not too bad at all), it just takes a little bit of thought, so why they don't take their heads out of their arses I really don't understand.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

42. awww

thanks for the giving me the feel goods this monday morning :hug:

Most people don't get the concept of veggies not wanting to hurt animals for food. I mean, a chicken lays eggs, you don't kill the chicken to get all the eggs. Same with a cow producing milk. but to have to kill a cow to produce chesses is counter-intuitive to me, and just plain sucks for the cows. Its easy to find a list of cheeses that have rennet in them :eyes: and I'm sure there is enough technology at this point to synthesize a rennet style enzyme

[Ravenseye]

37. Vegetarian != Vegan

I understand totally where you're coming from, but when I read Vegetarian I take that to only mean literally know cooked flesh. In most places all dairy, included rennet laced cheese, and eggs are still fine. Heck I've been places where the vegetarian option was fish and I had to just shake my head.

I'm an omnivore, but my wife and daughter are non-strict vegetarians, so it's fine and we make do, but I have a good friend who is a Hari Krishna and when we have him and his wife over we have to be very concious about certain ingredients, particularly to make sure it's non-rennet cheese.

Another one many vegetarians forget about, including cooks, is worchesterchire sauce. It has anchovies in it.

Anyway to me if I read vegetarian, I normally just assume literally no meat flesh, but there will probably be stuff in sauces, or cheeses that isn't vegan. Sucks, but there ya go.

[billyskank]

38. I am veggie for the same reason as your friend

:)