20 of your tales of vegetarian woe

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7. Richard Ward, Keighley, UK: Try Newfoundland in Canada. I was on a road trip there for a week a couple of years ago, I basically had to live on onion rings and side salads. Everything had meat in it and the staff in restaurants and cafes openly mocked that I didn't eat meat. Only one place served a veggie option... and you guessed it, veggie lasagne - the bane of all vegetarians I know. It's just lazy catering. 8. Georgina Rowbotham, York, UK: The concept of vegetarianism absolutely does not exist in Tanzania. After trying to explain a couple of times that meat available in the UK often isn't farmed very pleasantly, I watched a schoolgirl chase my dinner (a decent-sized chicken) around the school courtyard until she caught it, I decided that since there wasn't an abundance of food and since it was the very definition of free-range, I had no problem tucking into it later that evening. 9. Christopher Smith, Pewsey, UK: I remember going out to eat in a restaurant in Bamberg in Germany. We ordered ravioli, having first established that the filling was vegetarian, There then followed a lengthy animated discussion between the management and my German- speaking friend on whether the pink meaty filling inside the ravioli was spinach or not. 10. Julieta, Buenos Aires, Argentina: I am also a non-meat eater in a country where vegetarianism is an exotic illness. Try telling people you don't eat red meat in Argentina. First question is always "Why?", followed by "Are you sick?" and, later, any of the following: "Are you sure? Come on, a bit won't hurt", or "Don't you ever feel like you're dying for steak?" Continue reading the main story “Start Quote You're in meat country now, love” 11. Kedaar Raman, Troy, New York: I have travelled far and wide. My family raised me as a traditional Hindu Brahmin vegetarian. I have found it hardest to find vegetarian food in Malaysia, China and Vermont when I lived with local farmers. I was always given the look of pity when I told locals I did not eat meat. I explained it was a personal choice and that I did not feel like I was missing out on anything since I have never eaten meat in my life. If a mother does not put a piece of meat in a baby's mouth and say it is food, the baby does not know it is food. 12. Martha P, Buxton, Derbyshire: In the deep south of New Zealand, we stopped at the one pub in the village for lunch. When I asked the bar-keep what vegetarian options there were, he sucked his teeth - "You're in meat country now, love" - and proceeded to make me a most delicious salad sandwich. 13. Marcus Oliver, London, UK: As a third-generation vegetarian (no meat, no fish), I made life even more difficult for myself by getting into practical farming in Ireland from school age. People I met and worked with couldn't understand how I could help raise livestock and yet never eat the end products. I later became an agricultural journalist for 30 years. I remember vividly a steak house in Maidenhead where the waiter brought out a leg of chicken as a substitute for the steaks my colleagues were enjoying. I sent this back complaining that it, too, was meat. I eventually got a huge lump of sweaty cheddar cheese plonked on my plate, enough for a family of four. On another occasion, at a beef production conference in Ireland, one of the delegates had to be forcefully restrained by his fellow farmers from punching me. He couldn't see how I could report fairly on the conference when I wouldn't eat the exquisite beef on offer.

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