Dietary "nuisance" - Pleasant surprise

[jeral Profile]

I stayed at a very moderately priced travel lodge style establishment at the weekend which is next door to their "partner"(?) carvery which served the bed-and-continental breakfasts (included) as well as full English (charged extra). Carvery lunch-thru-evening meal, with bar.

I was amazed that all of their veggies (7+ plus halved roasted garlic and baked onion) and sauces (several) were cooked veggie plus veggie gravy.

As I can't eat butter, I also need vegan, so they served me "undressed" things on request without any fuss or bother. I was worried about the Yorks Puds and asked to see the ingredients and they showed me the packet label to judge for myself.

Although I had by phone asked if they catered for "nuisance people", lol, all this happened with no fuss at all when we just turned up to be seated and in a most friendly way even during busy service.

Top marks to http://www.laterooms.com/en/hotel-reser ... -hull.aspx which is the Hull side of the Humber Bridge. It's not city centre so their accommodating veggies wasn't a result of any competition from adjacent town restaurants. They don't do dedicated veggie meals as such, but hey, it is a carvery, plus they ensure that all the self-select veggie items in the full English are veggie.

I didn't book our stay so thought I'd probably starve, lol, you'll know what I mean if you're veggie, so I thought worthy of mention of a good experience

[Breadandwine Profile Website]

Very nice to hear, jeral!

Makes a nice change.

[jeral Profile]

Indeed it does. I could write a page about how taken aback I was that there was a genuine desire to be helpful and not just a "Yes Madam" "Tsk" attitude.

[efcliz Profile Website]

It's a pretty sorry situation when we are praising an establishment for being able to provide vegetables and sauce plus packet Yorkshire puddings!

[Mrs Vee Profile]

It's a pretty sorry situation when we are praising an establishment for being able to provide vegetables and sauce plus packet Yorkshire puddings!

I agree; serving plain vegetables, sauces and gravy is the absolute least they could do since they don't provide "dedicated veggie meals as such".

It seems a shame that veggies are so grateful for so little.

[efcliz Profile Website]

Also, Jeral, can I just clarify something in your post? You said that you need vegan, but I think from previous posts you eat some fish and also eggs? And wouldn't the Yorkshire have had egg in it?

[karadekoolaid Profile]

It seems a shame that veggies are so grateful for so little.

I agree, having suffered endless Cheese and onion Baps during the 70s.

However, veggies (whether they eat cheese or are totally vegan), unfortunately, account for a very small percentage ( I had heard, 7%) of the population, so the very fact that an establishment has a Veg/Vegan option is nothing short of a miracle, and should be applauded, some way or another.
I know it's a shame, but at least we're making SOME progress, rather than none . we Brits love our veggies , so there's a good chance that veggie food may well make progressive inroads.
Thank you for small mercies comes to mind!

[Global_Worming Profile]

Also, Jeral, can I just clarify something in your post? You said that you need vegan, but I think from previous posts you eat some fish and also eggs? And wouldn't the Yorkshire have had egg in it?

Why the inquisition, I read jerals post and it appears he is a veggie who does not like butter.
For me the ethos of jerals post was his pleasure in finding a restaurant that was not geared up to provide veg food but the staff went out of their way to help.

[Global_Worming Profile]

It seems a shame that veggies are so grateful for so little.

I agree, having suffered endless Cheese and onion Baps during the 70s.

However, veggies (whether they eat cheese or are totally vegan), unfortunately, account for a very small percentage ( I had heard, 7%) of the population, so the very fact that an establishment has a Veg/Vegan option is nothing short of a miracle, and should be applauded, some way or another.
I know it's a shame, but at least we're making SOME progress, rather than none . we Brits love our veggies , so there's a good chance that veggie food may well make progressive inroads.
Thank you for small mercies comes to mind!

KK I learned about Veg food in the 70s.I lived for 6 month with a beautiful cook from http://mannav.com/index.php/about-us.html
It amazes me that 40 yrs later a certain well known TV cook includes parmigiano reggiano in her internet recipes.

[efcliz Profile Website]

Also, Jeral, can I just clarify something in your post? You said that you need vegan, but I think from previous posts you eat some fish and also eggs? And wouldn't the Yorkshire have had egg in it?

Why the inquisition, I read jerals post and it appears he is a veggie who does not like butter.
For me the ethos of jerals post was his pleasure in finding a restaurant that was not geared up to provide veg food but the staff went out of their way to help.

It wasn't an inquisition, just a clarification, I don't think she is vegetarian anyway, but I was just wondering about saying she needed vegan when in fact she eats eggs - or did the Yorkies not have egg, which would be unusual.

And Clive - I don't class simply taking the meat away as being a veggie option, really.

[jeral Profile]

Evenin'

Yes efcliz, I do eat fish so I'm pescetarian but I eat no meat or meat derivatives whatsoever (I'm very strict on that) and I would certainly never call myself veggie and then order fish, a hanging crime IMO. The vegan element is that I can't eat butter and some milk products, so I needed veg without butter, which they confirmed they naturally were served in so had to be a special order, and the Yorks Puds could have had milk proteins in, which is also a no-no for my tummy. Incidentally, did you ever try the YP recipe I posted using apple instead of egg and using soya milk by the way?

@Global_Worming: Quite so. To me it's like all the goodies of a Christmas dinner without the turkey, as the stuffing was also veggie, so fine by me - and I knew full well that the two menfolk would devour a carvery meal eagerly and they both declared it excellent so a vicarious pleasure to watch. As said, often with meals minus meat, the roast spuds etc will have been cooked in beef fat or breakfast eggs in bacon fat, so yes, there is a level of veggie attention to be applauded I think; the unquestioning individual service definitely to be applauded.

@efcliz: I wasn't really surprised that the YP's were from a packet mix. I'm glad they were as I got to see the exact content label rather than an interpretation of them.

I do agree with you that it would be good if they offered at least one dedicated meal for veggies. What would you suggest and maybe I'll suggest it to them. Lasagne is the obvious choice as it can be frozen and I guess won't often be ordered by people choosing to eat at a carvery. They do a so called "pie of the day", so could be a veggie/vegan variation on that perhaps?

That place aside, I had a good veggie Chinese meal elsewhere. In nutritional terms, it didn't have any protein in it either but you kinda get used to that when eating out. Again fine by me. I just want nice food that I can eat and without any tut-tutting

[karadekoolaid Profile]

And Clive - I don't class simply taking the meat away as being a veggie option, really.

I agree, efcliz - when I studied in London, the University Dorm had two "vegetarians" - me and a strapping 6'3" Rugby player called Jules. Our Vegetarian dinners included Irish Stew without the meat, chicken and leek pie without the chicken and eggs slathered in marmite.
Never did understand that one.
Thank goodness for the Indian Grocery on the corner which gave me a passion for the best veggie food in the world - Indian, of course!