ninemsn

Being vegan or vegetarian while travelling isn’t easy. Many countries have a slippery definition of vegetarian, while others find the entire concept bizarre. But there are ways to ensure you continue your vegetarian habits without resorting to stuffing your face with bread for an entire holiday. We talk to four jet-setting veg-os about their experiences, words of warning and helpful tips on travelling meat-free.

Elena Rossini

Travelled to: US, UK, Europe, Japan, Jordan and Israel

I’ve been a strict vegetarian — no cheating, ever — since I was 15. Now I’m a 31-year-old filmmaker who travels quite often for work, and in English-speaking countries like the US, UK and Canada I’ve always found ample vegetarian options. Southern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries also offer many vegetable-based dishes with a focus on health and simplicity. The toughest challenges for me have been France and Japan …

In French restaurants, dishes without fish or meat are extremely rare. The French also have an obsession with heavy, creamy sauces and put eggs and cheese into everything; vegans — life will be tough for you. What I find particularly challenging is the French attitude to different lifestyles: I’ve been openly mocked by waiters after stating I’m a veg-o. Opt for an apartment instead of a hotel so you can cook your own food.

In Japan, if you can’t read or speak the language, it’s hard to know what contains fish or meat; assume all soup-based dishes contain fish. I learned how to say “I’m a vegetarian — I don’t eat fish or meat” in Japanese, and you should, too. Armed with my phrase I lost at least three kilos in my first week; I was consistently turned away by restaurant managers, who said everything they served contained meat or fish. So I turned to grocery stores instead.

Sharmilla Bargon

Travelled to: Nepal, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Fiji, South America, Turkey and the Torres Strait

I spent quite a few months in Argentina, which has a big meat-based culture, and finding restaurants that would serve me a decent, nutritionally balanced vegetarian meal was hard. It was such an effort I ate only two meals a day and drank litres of yoghurt. In Brazil, lots of restaurants would serve bean and pork stew (feijoada); sometimes I got so desperate for a decent meal, I lowered my standards: if I couldn’t see chunks of pork, I would eat the beans.

On a number of occasions I bought vegetarian empanadas only to find them filled with beef or lamb. I must have appeared very rude when I’d bite into the pastry only to spit out and throw away good food. When travelling through countries where people often go to sleep hungry, I was mindful that at times, my vegetarianism was an incredibly indulgent first world lifestyle choice.

Living in the Torres Strait, lunch options were limited to chicken and chips or fish and chips. I’m a vegetarian for a number of reasons; the predominant one is a desire to eat more sustainably in order to reduce my environmental footprint. I found this concern less relevant in the Torres Strait, where the fish is line-caught by locals in relatively small quantities. And apart from fish, most food in the Torres Strait has to be shipped (resulting in a huge carbon footprint).

Travelling in Nepal and India I was able to enjoy a lot of the local food, and my diet probably helped me avoid food poisoning. However in Peru, I couldn’t try guinea pig (cuy); in Argentina, I missed out on pampas beef; in Turkey, I had to decline kofte and kebabs; in Vietnam, I said ‘no’ to pho cooked with beef stock. It’s a real loss, because I really connect to my own culture through food.

Try and learn how to say “I’m a vegetarian” in the local language and get used to eating French fries, which appears to be a universal staple. The Hari-Krishnas are also wide spread, and no matter where you are, you can often find a Chinese restaurant; in both cases you can find a decent veg-o feed.

Kamina Wust

Travelled to India

It’s very easy to find vegetarian food in India, as vegetarianism is widely accepted (even at Maccas!). One of my favourite food experiences was actually at a McDonald’s in Delhi; the counter has a red menu for meat-eaters and a green menu for vegetarians. Staff wear either red or green aprons, depending on which type of food they’re assigned to, and use corresponding coloured utensils to handle food so there’s no cross-contamination. My fries weren’t cooked in animal fat and my ‘Vegie Tikka Masala’ burger came with a non-vegan creamy dressing on spec, but I had mine made without. It looked and felt 100% like a conventional McDonald’s experience, but with an Indian flavour and a whole vegetarian menu.

Lonely Planet guidebooks are helpful tomes of vegetarian restaurant listings, but vegetarian food is so widely advertised you can just look for signs that says ‘vegetarian’. There are whole vegetarian towns in India, where meat and eggs are banned — check out Pushkar for one.

Being vegan isn’t easy; partly because Indians don’t understand your desire to avoid dairy, so the distinction on their menus isn’t made. Some vegetarian curries look fine on the menu, but come with paneer (cheese) in them. Steer clear of anything called ‘tofu’; it isn’t tofu as we know it, and is made with dairy.

Deborah Ehrlich

Travelled to: China, Thailand, Japan, Cambodia, US, UK and the Netherlands

I love good food so my holiday destinations are inevitably places where cuisine is important or interesting. To accommodate my pescatarian diet I research blogs, local food rating sites and follow friends’ recommendations. I’ll browse a good phrase book for essentials like ‘vegetarian’ and ‘seafood’. And I look for vegetarian and seafood specialities to infirm my ordering.

Living in Hong Kong I found the seafood and vegetarian options so delightful I dropped meat altogether, so the myth that vegetarian eating is difficult in Asia is exactly that — a myth.

That said, I lived in Beijing for a year or two, and fish or veggie stock are pretty much unheard of there. But the veggie-based hot pots and dumplings are amazing. But after telling someone you don’t eat meat, be prepared for them to ask ‘well, what about duck?’.

Handy resources:

• Happy Cow: Worldwide listings and reviews of vegetarian and vegan restaurants
• VegOut: iPhone app with GPS localization
• Google Translate to work out how to say “vegetarian” in the local language, as well as this list of vegan/vegetarian phrases, or this mini-phrasebook
• Vegetarian Vacations for tours and accommodation that caters for vegetarians
• Global vegan communities Vegan Around the World Network, Vegan Meetup Groups and CouchSurfing group for Vegans and Vegetarians

ninemsn, August 2011.

Image (cc) Amarand Agasi