On Travel

I really like to travel, even just short weekend trips around the UK. I always email B&Bs in advance to say that I’m a vegetarian and that M can’t eat dairy or soya and to make sure that that’s not a problem.

Many places are accommodating, asking what they can have on hand instead and so on. But some places behave really oddly, saying they can’t help or telling us to bring our own items. I’m not sure how hard it really is for B&B-owners to go buy a carton of rice milk, but the attitude of not being willing to even try really puts me off. One B&B emailed me, in response to my inquiry, “It’s £85 per night. Bring your own drinks/spreads.” For £85 a night, I think you can buy some oat milk, no?

One place said it would be fine to accommodate the vegetarian diet but when we got there, all they had was an English breakfast for me, minus the bacon and sausage. In other words, they hadn’t even attempted to get vegetarian sausages or a potato croquette or anything. There was just a lack of thought (then again, this place also didn’t seem to see the point in putting toilet paper in the bathroom, so their carelessness was endemic).

Vegetarianism is so common today, as is having food allergies/intolerances, so I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people in the hotel trade who act as though I’m putting them out. I always give them advance notice and, frankly, for the cost of a room at a nice B&B, I think they should try to please the customer.

San Francisco

Over the summer, I was in San Francisco for work and I was thrilled to be in such a veggie-friendly and queer-friendly place. I was really spoiled for choice – at least on the food front I was; I certainly wasn’t looking for any other women when I’ve got the best at home.

Every restaurant I went into had a few vegetarian options on the menu, and not just the usual Portobello mushroom burger or stuffed red pepper (I must point out that I didn’t go to any steakhouses or anything like that, so I have no idea if they offer vegetarian options or not). There were also quite a few restaurants that were only vegetarian or even vegan. One I wanted to get to but didn’t have a chance to was called Greens. A woman on the plane was raving about it and I was sad that I never got there.

Golden Era was a vegetarian Chinese restaurant and my friend and I loved it. I often have trouble in Chinese restaurants because they seem to use pork products in a lot of dishes (don’t get me started on my trip to China, where I mostly ate white rice and cabbage), so this was a real treat. I loved not having to ask if any meat was used in the dishes.

We also went to Herbivore and it was so good that we want back another day. I especially loved the carrot cake. The atmosphere was relaxed and casual, which was nice too.

The gourmet treat of the trip was dinner at Millennium, an upscale vegan restaurant. I was with a friend who claims to hate lentils but he gobbled up the delicious lentil spread served with the bread. He also loved the cornmeal cake he had for dessert, though he claimed not to like polenta (which is made from the same thing). I found the food to be thoughtful and flavourful and it was wonderful to sit in a fancy restaurant and enjoy all the things that come with classy eating and to know that all the dishes were cruelty-free.

But while the eating was generally good (don’t remind me of the meal I had at the garlic restaurant, which made me feel sick and stinky for days), other aspects of the trip were less pleasing. The gay neighbourhood, the Castro, had loads of gay men, but I saw few women. The gay bookshops were out of business (though other bookstores have gay shelves). The work event I went to was dreadful. Food makes up for a lot, though, so I definitely recommend San Francisco as a vegetarian destination.