f_w_letter

Vegetarian Food in Ireland

(winner, letter of the month, May 2003, 'Food and Wine' Magazine, Ireland)

Dear Food and Wine,

What do George Bernard Shaw, Spike Milligan and Sinead O’Connor have in common? They’re all Irish vegetarians. An estimated 5-10% of the Irish population is now vegetarian, so why do restaurants treat vegetarians like second class citizens? I’ve been vegetarian for 12 years. I love eating out and want to be able to dine with my steak-loving friends, but recently even they are indignant at the treatment I have received.

I have been offered chicken, fish, or offal as vegetarian dishes by well-intentioned but mis-informed waiters. When I notifed a Cesar and Bridgestone winning restaurant that I’m vegetarian and received confirmation of it, I was disappointed when the best they could do (having lost my reservation) was a sauce-less uninspired vegetable stirfry with a hefty pricetag. I’ve learnt to bring food with me on all airplane flights, especially long-haul, as 50% of dietary requests are apparently filed in the wastebin.

There was a four-star award-winning hotel which grudgingly provided a vegetarian meal of a meat dish with the meat removed (i.e. a bowl of lettuce) only after a complaint to the manager despite a reservation-time request. I booked a hotel because its restaurant is famed for organic and vegetarian food but it had the same vegetarian option every night for the duration of our stay. There is a limit to how many nights in a row that I can eat the same dish!

I often meet people who have idea what I eat. Some mention Neil of ‘The Young Ones’ and his lentils yet when I cook roast garlic and wine vegetable fusilli, chestnut topped mediterrean crumble, goats cheese and aubergine towers, pizza primavera, frittata, blue cheese omlettes, crepes, or winter bean stew they all want second helpings. There is more to vegetarianism than limp lasagne and ‘rabbit food’.

Recently a friend asked a class of trainee chefs what they would cook as a vegetarian dish and only one student came up with something other than grumbles about awkward veggies and the seriously boring vegetable curry option. I dread to think what the response to diabetics and coeliacs would have been.

Come on chefs, don’t limit your veggie dishes to pale imitations of meat dishes. Innovate with good quality vegetables! Why not use something more unusual like shittake mushrooms, sweet potatoes, aubergine, celeriac, artichoke, or asparagus? Think about adding dairy products, nuts, pulses, or eggs for protein content and let’s eradicate the ‘Irish Mammy meat and two veg syndrome’ which limits too many cooks in this country. You may find the challenge of new sauces, unusual herbs, and fantastic vegetables will tempt all your diners, and experimentation with these reasonably priced ingredients will not cost the earth. In fact your magazine could lead the way by providing a 60 minute vegetarian dinner to highlight the options out there.

Luckily some news is good, the following restaurants are blazing a tasty trail for veggies and meaties alike; Yamamori Noodles, Gallagher’s Boxty House, Salamanca, Monty’s of Kathmandu, Il Baccaro, Talbot 101, and Castle Leslie.

Regards,

Grace Tierney

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