As we all know, it is pretty tough to be a vegetarian in most Asian countries (and quite a few European ones too) because of a mix of culture and habits.  Sometimes, being a vegetarian gets you labelled as a freak or just strange because there is a lack of understanding about vegetarian diets and how one can actually survive quite well on it.

Just recently, my partner and I took our friends to a restaurant in Bangsar called Woods Macrobiotic.  The restaurant/shop is pure vegan and organic which is great.  The food is tasty and satisfying (although a bit expensive) and even though the atmosphere is a little bit stark and the staff can be a little bit fidgety about service, it is a great concept and should be supported.  For any of you who want to visit, it’s on Jalan Telawi 2 next to Devi’s Corner (across the road and closer to Bangsar Village II from La Bodega).  I recommend the pesto spaghetti, fried rice, the 5 noodle set and the millet curry set.  Even the desserts are egg/milk free!

My friends are meat eaters and aren’t all that big on vegetarian food.  I guess for some, it’s a ‘novel’ idea to have a dish or a whole meal that is just purely meat/fish free.  I know that I have been a bit off and on being a vegetarian, but i absolutely hate it (ok, hate may be too strong a word – dislike) it when the people around me make it a big deal about the vegetarian thing and complain when there’s a vegetarian at their dinner table.  Look, we vegetarians are quite adaptive creatures and we’ll tell you when the restaurant choice is not on (for example, if there no vegetarian option at all, or if the restaurant is solely focused on meat).

On the other hand, I tend to get a bit preachy about it (especially when prodded and asked about why on earth would I choose NOT to eat meat).  Whenever I give my reasons, it seems to get a bit drawn out.  I really need to create some sort of summary for myself and rehearse it so that I can automatically give a short answer whenever asked.  That’s what I need to work on.

Restaurants

Restaurants also need to start upping their game for vegetarians.  Recently, a vegetarian friend of mine went to Alexis for lunch.  Alexis is an expensive cafe/restaurant/bistro that has a couple of outlets around KL.  The food is mostly western with some selection of local favourites.  One would think that a restaurant of this calibre would have meat-free salads on the menu (and robust ones at that), but no, sadly, my friend had to specifically order a salad without the chicken or the turkey bacon bits.  What came back was a pitiful plate of cos lettuce and cheese.

When he spoke to the waiter about adding a few more items (ie. olives, tomatos… ANYTHING!), the waiter went off to the kitchen and came back only to tell him that it would cost RM8 extra to add those things, even though they took away the meat from the dish.  When doing a cost comparison, why would it cost more to add vegetables to a dish that was already worth less than the menu price?  You would figure if that was the case, there should have been a discount on the dish because the meat had been taken away.  But that’s the mentality here and there is no flexibility for vegetarians or anybody with a ‘different’ dietry need.

I’m sure there are some restaurants that do have flexibility and options, so perhaps you readers can comment back as to where vegetarians can go (with their meat eater friends) and still have a good meal.

Sometimes, the best answer would be for restaurants to cater to all their clientele and a simple “V” next to the vegetarian options would suffice.