Doug Lawrence and Nataly Kelly enjoying a ‘big’ veggie meal in Las Vegas
Context
Country: The United States. A particularly large country a great deal of which is south of Canada
Language(s): English (US) and Spanish
Length of stay(s): many over a 20 year period, mainly to California
Main issues
Understanding of concept: Quite good (in cities especially). The “Vegetarianism in America” study (in April 2008 I think), published by Vegetarian Times, claimed that 3.2 percent of U.S. adults, or 7.3 million people, follow a vegetarian-based diet. Approximately 0.5 percent, or 1 million, of those are vegans. In addition, 10 percent of U.S., adults, or 22.8 million people, say they largely follow a vegetarian-inclined diet.
Availability: Good. In the picture above Nataly and I had a salad with the bacon removed – other words we didn’t choose a vegetarian option we just had the ‘meat’ removed
Choice of menu: Depends where you are, it’s a big country (or as the excellent CIA World Factbook should, but doesn’t, say it’s ‘roughly the size of the United States’). As I was saying it’s a big country so unless you’re in a city you might need a car to find, for example, veggie restaurants and good whole-food stores. I usually head straight for a good whole-food or similar supermarket when I arrive in the States to stock up on ready-to-drink (RTD) protein bottles. Having 1 or 2 RTD’s a day means I can just eat salad or similar the rest of the day. I even remember being about to buy a fruit and protein smoothie at at ice-cream concession in Vegas recently.
Quality: Good where available
Value for money: ‘Come on’ this is the US, of course it’s excellent value for money! But take care portion sizes are enormous – it is very easy to put on weight in the US, try to avoid the carb onslaught as well
Traditional vegetarian cuisine: hhmm, good question, I’m undecided
Ease of asking for vegetarian options: Easy
Useful information
North American Vegetarian Society
Moby’s Teany Cafe which I dream of visiting one day!
Useful phrases
Below is a list of UK English Terms and their corresponding US English terms:
(btw you UK English speakers who think US English is in some way inferior to UK English <begin rant> get over yourself it’s a variant of English with more speakers and, IMHO, more systematic and well thought spelling than ‘my/our’ British English /<end rant>)
UK US
aubergine eggplant
bicarbonate of soda baking soda
broad beans fava beans
celeriac celery root
chicory endive
coriander cilantro
cornflour cornstarch
courgette zucchini
double cream whipping cream
french/green beans string beans
groundnut oil peanut oil
haricot beans navy beans
icing sugar confectioner’s sugar
pepper (capsicum) bell pepper
polenta cornmeal
rapeseed oil canola oil
rocket arugula
soya soy
spring onion scallion
swede rutabaga
treacle molasses
Source: Vegetarian Living magazine page 32 July 2011
You might also want to look some Americanisms – many of which I think are OK!
Overall score
For me 10 out of 10, but if you’re not into supermarket shopping, then you might mark it down to 7 out of 10
Report notes
Rather than me, perhaps you should hear from a good US vegetarian friend of mine:
“America is great for vegetarians in most major cities — there, it’s off the charts! In cities like New York there are so many great veggie places! However, go outside of major cities in some parts of the country (Midwest and South especially) and there are not many options in restaurants. You might have to resort to getting a “steakburger without the steak”. However, if you cook, every grocery store has plenty of options! The best thing about America in my opinion is that there is plenty of ethnic cuisine everywhere you go in most major cities. Within a block of our office in Boston, we have a great sushi place (excellent veggie sushi), a Thai place, an Iraqi place, an Italian place, a Brazilian bakery, a Tapas place, and a great vegetarian restaurant. And, even in my town in New Hampshire, I have an awesome Vietnamese restaurant that has fake chicken, fake beef, fake everything (soy-based). So, I think we are spoiled here in that sense, but the “coasts” tend to have better options. So, I think 10/10 is fair, because I would give it 11/10 for the coasts and 8/10 for non-coasts. Certainly, having lived in other countries, where vegetarians are less common, the US is awesome for vegetarians.”
Doug’s Vegetarian score card assumptions
1) I (and you?) would rather eat something local and traditional than international and from a chain (e.g., McDonald’s or Starbucks)
2) Lacto-ovo is preferred (note, I’m a vegetarian that likes to ensure I have at least 40g of protein a day)
3) I don’t eat fish or seafood (so my score card ignores ‘fish’ options)
4) I’m not a huge ‘foodie’ I start by looking at the nutritional value of food
5) This is all my personal opinion / experience – ‘your mileage may vary‘ as my US friends might say
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