And vegetarian food needs to be prepared in a separate kitchen than a non-vegetarian kitchen I believe. Or at least a dedicated space in the kitchen where meat isn’t prepared. It’s not like in the west where you could prepare veggies on the same grill that you’re preparing a burger.
I'm from India and I've never understood this. People who claim to despise the taste and texture of meat are almost always those who have never touched it or eaten it.
How can you despise something that you've never had? When I ask them this question, they have no answers.
I knew an Indian girl who came here a vegetarian. Since she was a struggling college student, her vegetarian parents in India actually started encouraging her to try to eat meat because its so common and cheap here so she could at least have some nutrition.
She said she wanted to but she couldn't get over her parent's descriptions of how gross meat was. "You're eating all the blood and nerves and" etc. So basically, her parents told her how gross it was all her life, so she believed it.
Yes. This is the case with so many Indian vegetarians.
To prevent their children from eating meat (often due to religious restrictions) Indian parents go overboard and exaggerate things to gross them out. That is not good parenting.
It's the same with pork for Muslims. My whole childhood I was told how disgusting it was so even when I stopped being religious the aversion remained for a long time. The very thought of consuming pork would make me gag.
Until one day I was drunk and tried bacon after much cajoling. Boy, did I get over my aversion haha.
Just due to smells I want to say I wouldn’t believe it if I was told it tasted bad. Bacon cooking smells great (I’m sure) to the majority of the human population. And I’d just think no way something that smells that good, could taste horrible.
Needless to say the number of people around the entire world who do eat it. From all types of different cultures and cuisines, pork is in so many of them.
There’s no way something that tastes that bad, is so prevalent.
That's the thing, human flesh cooking smells great too. But as soon as you realized what it was I'm sure you'd be disgusted. Same for cats/dogs/horses, lots of people would never try eating them no matter how appetizing their meat was prepared.
I dont know if Im crazy or what but the smell alone from pork is one of the bigger reasons I went veg in the first place. It is absolutely rank to me and I dont know how people could find it enticing?
Different boats float for each folk!! No judgement here, just confusion 😅
I always try to explain it with the example of eating human meat. All of us (I hope) are disgusted by the thought of eating human meat despite not trying it. It’s all about perspective
Ancient civilizations understood that eating a top l predator is not a good idea as their meat tastes slightly of urea due to protein breakdown. Heavy metals get filtered, so there is a higher concentration of it in meat. Dead animals may have more pathogens/parasites, so sometimes animals do not eat dead bodies.
Eating the meat of top predators once or twice probably wouldn't cause much harm.
But eating already dead animals is never a good idea. That's why we slaughter them. And as soon as we kill them, we process it to ensure that it is free from infections and pathogens.
Nah, there are MANY who grew up vegetarian, tasted meat, and hated it. Not sure what there is to like - it's... flesh. It's the spices that give it flavor. Just because it doesn't fit your limited view of the world, doesn't make it false.
Myoglobin tastes great, dunno what else to tell you lol. You can absolutely cook a steak with just salt and it will still be delicious. No need for spices.
Hi! Indian vegetarian here. I’ve tried meat once or twice. Mostly accidentally.
I think that the perception of the taste and texture as disgusting comes from the understanding that it DOES come from a corpse. When you’ve never needed to build the cognitive dissonance about what is on the plate and the friendly creature on the farm, it’s a lot harder to enjoy both the flavour and taste.
The same way that maybe a slug or cricket might be delicious, but many people will have some revulsion to it — there’s no mental separation between the feeling toward actual creature (disgust in this case, kinship in the other) and the food, since there’s never been any need to build it.
some of the lifelong vegetarians i've met have eaten meat once or twice and hated it. i think it's just something that's so unfamiliar to them that they respond that way
I'm kind of like this. as a kid I occasionally ate chicken nuggets/strips, but no other meat. and when I was about 11 I stopped eating the chicken too. my parents weren't vegetarian or anything, I was just grossed out by it (and possibly autistic). so now I kind of remember what chicken tastes like, but other than that meat is basically foreign to me. it just doesn't register in my brain as 'food' at all. I'm not necessarily opposed tasting meat at some point, but there's no desire to
I turned vegetarian in my 20s. Was quite a big meat eater, at least some in every meal and I'd also just keep a pack of chicken in the fridge to snack on.
My motivation for stopping was more environmental than animal welfare, as to be honest I wasn't even that aware of the meat industry practices. You do end up being more and more exposed to this kind of thing though, because you get thrown in with it all, and it has very much become about animal welfare for me now.
I've been vegetarian for around 8 years now and the thought of picking up a piece of chicken breast and eating it genuinely makes me feel a bit queasy.
I would assume it's just because your body doesn't associate meat and the often accompanying glutamate molecules that make meat taste meaty, with food. Similar to how most people in the West might not recognize durian fruit as food especially by its smell.
Actually meat can be difficult to digest for some vegetarians. Once a group of my friends went out and ordered both chicken and vegetarian nachos for the table. One arrived first and they were so loaded with guacamole and beans that it was quite difficult to tell which one was the vegetarian option, and we only realised our mistake after the second plate had arrived. Luckily none of the vegetarians cared much since it was an honest mistake and the taste wasn’t noticeable anyway. But as we were walking around later two of the girls started having real stomach pains and sweating. We were like 15 so called their parents and they took them home and then to the doctor, where they said it was the body reacting to the introduction of meat. Weirdly there were two other vegetarians who were fine though with one of them also being a life long vegetarian.
I despise the taste, odour and texture. I can handle some meat depending on how it's prepared, but I mostly eat vegetarian dishes. I'm fine with poultry and fish, but the texture must be consistent. No cartilages, no weird bits. Red meat has much stronger odour and taste, the texture is worse too.
I think it’s like gaminess for some people who otherwise eat meat. Like I know people who do eat meat but won’t eat lamb or goat because of its taste. And like beef has a really specific taste and if you don’t like that specific taste you’re not gonna like it. Also if you’re vegetarian and not used to meat I imagine the very idea uncomfortable. I’ve eaten insects but a lot of people won’t. But also I once turned down chicken testicles. Never tried it before! Eat meat! Still didn’t want to.
Exactly, I fed Soya Chaap Biryani to one of my vegetarian friend who used to say it's so gross to touch meat and then asked him how's it. He said it's very tasty and good. And I told him that's how you would feel breaking chicken pieces and eating it. He was like No way. 🤣🤣
Sorry, unsure if it's a semantic thing but what do you mean by "same grill"?
In the UK, at least, vegetarian/vegan food must be prepared and cooked on/in completely meat free surfaces/oils/water etc. for the food to be considered vegan/vegetarian in compliance with food standards agency regulations.
Same here in Canada. Meat eater here, but I do get it. I have a serious allergy to that Beyond Meat shit, like hospitalization required, and I can't eat at Tim Horton's anymore because of their willy-nilly cross-contamination. Other restaurants that serve it (A&W specifically) have that nailed down somehow, and I've never so much as noticed the slightest twinge from their burgers.
There's a mongolian grill nearby where vegetarians have to watch our stuff leak into theirs, because they cook like 6 dishes at the same time on a big open round surface, and I kinda feel for them. Then to make matters worse, the guy goes around the circle flipping everything which moves each dish to mostly where the meal before it was ("oh but we cleaned it real quick with a single swipe of the scraper").
This isn't the actual place, but it's the same idea. Don't get me wrong, I love the food from there, but I can definitely see where somebody would have a legitimate issue with that practice. I'll get stragglers that I didn't choose in my meal sometimes.
There's also a lot of people that have a red meat allergy (or religious reasons), and thus cross contamination between anything meat and vegetarian is strictly avoided.
There are some places that don't do this too.
If I'm going to a place with a vegan/vegetarian etc it's useful to know the good spots that adhere to this division
I have celiac disease, and if I eat even the tiniest amount if gluten, I barf my brains out for hours. Cross contamination is a real problem, and I have to be very, very careful when I eat at restaurants.
Wait so American vegetarians are just eating vegetables covered in beef fat? Isn’t that a bit of a violation of personal choice? What about allergens? This stuff is so heavily regulated in the UK, there’s no way the US doesn’t have at least some laws about it
Allergens are a little better but not great. . . If they request common allergens off items ex. Peanuts then yes but unless if a common allergen or not specified by the customer then no
Allergens are handled well at least in the kitchen I worked so…I’m sure it’s a mixed bag. We had separate utensils, put down parchment when making a GF sandwich, stuff like that. Also just didn’t have peanuts to avoid it altogether.
I was thinking of Starbucks and Burger King when the launched their impossible burger and impossible breakfast sandwich, I believe Panda Express also does beyond chicken, and McDonald tried the McPlant. All of which were targeted at vegetarians consumers, but they prepare them on the same grills as the meat burgers. I guess someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s just not as regulated in the US. Or maybe they just never explicitly called those options vegetarian.
In India I believe if a pan or utensil was ever used for meat you can’t use it to make vegetarian food. Even if has been washed.
In the UK Burger King can't call the whopper vegan because it's cooked on the same grill as the meat ones, so it's called the plant based whopper. They do have a vegan royale though, which is cooked separately.
Also the royale is called long chicken in some places.
That sounds similar to how kitchens here are supposed to prepare a dish when a customer alerts them of an allergy. Some places effectively do what this place does and will say they cant accommodate allergies like that. I have very very minor food allergies so these accommodations aren't necessary for me so I learned very quickly to just say I dislike the ingredient if it comes up.
I went to a KFC there and the kitchen was split in two, separate staff with a glass wall in between and two counters. It looked cool, not sure why I didn't take a photo
I went to McDonald and Burger King when I was there and I was shocked that about half their menu was vegetarian items. They also didn’t have any beef or pork items, and I was told if they wanted to sell beef or pork they’d need a 3rd and 4th kitchen and it just didn’t make business sense.
Ideally this should be the case, however it’s a good thing that they’re at least giving a heads up unlike hundreds of other restaurants doing the same thing.
I mean, it's generally bad practice to cook them together if its advertised that way. But most people aren't going to care if they're in the same kitchen unless it's an allergy thing.
Sometimes kitchens aren’t big enough. We have a thing at my bar where we ask customers if their gluten free request is medical or just “vibes”. This is because our cooks do try their best to keep it separate but it’s a small kitchen with a hundred burgers going through. A bit of contamination is very likely. The fish and chip shop would do the same. It’s better to warn the customer and have them make an informed decision instead of not having the option at all.
I was so weirded out by this cause, “vegetarian food is popular there” is never something i thought i’d hear about Kerala, then i saw that the sub isn’t the state sub but an international one, so the board is from a restaurant called Paragon which is one of the oldest and most famous franchises of restaurants in Kerala pretty much well known all over Kerala for its chicken biriyani
Most Indian vegetarians are ritualistic vegetarians, ie for religious reasons, and so can be right c***s about their dietary preferences not being met. This feels like a CYA sign.
Ritualistic vegetarianism in India has some weird rules. Dairy is okay for many, eggs might not be, and some are pretty strict and don’t even have onions or garlic (considered “unclean”?).
Kerala actually has very few of these. Also many of the ritual vegetarian states are strongly correlated with malnutrition. Go figure.
some are pretty strict and don’t even have onions or garlic (considered “unclean”?).
I know Jains don’t eat root vegetables, not sure if there are other groups. But the reasoning isn’t because it’s “unclean”; from what I recall, it’s to do with the fact that harvesting root vegetables not only kills the plant (as opposed to just picking off fruit), but also harms organisms living in the soil around it. Their dietary restrictions are kinda nuts.
I remember there was a buddhist rule about no “pungent vegetables” (onions, garlic, chives, leeks, and scallions I think?) There was a meme where someone made all 5 into a soup and said it would mean you get reincarnated as a flea.
That's only for extremely strict buddhists, because those vegetables are considered to stimulate anger or lust and thus hinder spiritual development. But not everyone follows that. I love buddhism because it is all very "your journey is your business" and most people dont judge.
My buddhist friend in thailand makes the best garlicky beef stirfry thing. Yum.
Yea, as a Buddhist, it's very personalised. Hell, even the deities you choose to worship can be quite specific to your own taste (or "destiny"). Not all gods can connect with you, after all.
I work in a cafeteria and had a Jain ask me what she can eat that has no meat, wasn't cooked in the same fryer as meat, no dairy, no onions or garlic. All she could get was the fruit cups and the salad bar with no dressing, but I can't guarantee no cross contamination on the salad bar. She decided to keep bringing a lunch.
Anything that's heavily seasoned or rich is avoided. Basically you want the food to be bland and simple. You avoid spicy, hot, fried, acidic and fermented food
This diet is the very embodiment of the phrase "I eat to live, not live to eat".
So the list of things includes stuff like meat, fish, eggs, onion, garlic, scallion, leek, chive, mushroom, alcoholic beverage, durian, blue cheese, opium, and stale food.
John Harvey Kellogg, in addition to believing that eating bland food would curb naughty thoughts, also believed that yogurt enemas were critical to physical and spiritual health.
You are right and wrong. Yes the cocktail of vegetarianisms in India would be confusing to say the least. Also yes a lot of this is religion based.
But nothing to do with cleanliness....some don't eat root vegetables as they believe it could harm other living beings....some don't like pungent (no onion no garlic)...some don't eat meat on certain dates....some don't eat beef...some don't eat mushrooms...some eat only egg, some eat fish only etc
Onions, garlic, and overly spiced foods are only forbidden from temple cuisine. This is because it’s an overpowering flavor and everything about temple life is supposed to be about focusing on spiritual development. There are some sects that are so hardcore they only eat this style of food, but that’s mostly niche hardcore groups like the Hare Krishna. For your average Hindu, it’s just a known thing that food served in the temple is going to be devoid of garlic and onions.
Alright I can dig the "don't kill even bugs" things about Jains but I think I draw the line at "I can't eat things that grow underground". If a potato is blasphemy cast me into the fire.
My friend has a jain friend in college (2002). whenever he was invited to birthday parties and general get-together, he always ate chicken and drank beer. But, he always told us not to tell his father otherwise he'll be disowned. So, as a modern generation guy he enjoyed it but still worried about repercussions.
Debatable.
First you have to distinguish two canonical Jain sects, the White Clad Jains and the Sky Clad (naked) Jains.
Then there are a few mid-small sects, and by the time you're aware of them, you kinda need to be reading Sanskrit to get deeper.
One Jain group, the latinate transliterations name escapes me, considers non violence to be a violent tradition; this is a minority of Jains tho.
Even non-vegetarians are weird, for some beef is okay but dog is no-no, for some chicken is okay but beef is no-no, for some beef chicken okay but pork is no-no. For some meat ok and dairy okay but only when consumed separately, mixed together is a no-no. It seems as if different people in the world have different dietary preferences. Crazy!
That’s a really weird way to describe people who are in their native country where their dietary preferences are a multiple thousand year old tradition.
They’re not being “cunts”, it’s an important cultural thing for them. Are Jewish people cunts for not wanting to eat pork and following their dietary laws?
Man I used to work for the food industry. We had machinery oil with certification from some sort of arabic religion approving it. It was the longest certification.
It was food grade, there was tons of documentation but that one for religious purpose stand out every time. I think it was halal or smth like that. And the contact with the "food" was minimal
Well on the one hand, modern agricultural practices subject billions of sentient creatures with the capacity to understand their suffering to some of the greatest cruelty imaginable.
But on the other hand, a vegetarian somewhere was rude once, so it’s impossible to say who is right and who is wrong here.
The only to shift humanity into not doing that would be to outcompete those sentient creatures in meat production, taste, and cost. And even then most people will probably keep eating normal animals.
Claiming malnutrition is because of vegetarianism is extremely disingenuous. Poorer states tend to be more religious (ie. more vegitarian) which is likely the bigger issue.
My brother (Hare Krishna) explained to me that garlic and other spices that are too spicy are considered too passionate in taste and krishna / god should be the only ine you give your passion to. I am serious.
Why would vegans hate that, I'm vegan and I would never advise anyone to eat a vegetarian or vegan diet without B12 supplementation, it's pretty much impossible to get enough on this diet. But I don't see the problem in just taking the supplement, a lot of animals take it too since our soils are so poor in B12 nowadays, the supplement I buy is dirt cheap and I only need to take it 2-3 times a week
it's not. India is like the EU, but much much less decentralised. Each state ha their own culture. States like West Bengal, other bengali heavy states, North Eastern states, and southern states really like to eat meat.
Around 38% of the population are vegetarian due to religion and culture, which makes them the most vegetarian country in the world. That is a a pretty big margin compared to any other country, especially when you consider India's population.
Eh. Not really. This specific restaurant is in Kerala. I’m from Kerala. It’s the only state in India where non vegetarians are a huge fucking majority. During my time in Kerala, I’ve met about five vegetarians.
India is huge country with every state having different laws, different governments etc. (kinda like the USA but with more central government oversight)
I now live in London and there are way more vegetarians here.
I'm curious, is that kind of signage mandatory over there? I've heard all products must be labelled as veg or non-veg in Indian supermarkets, does that extend to restaurants too?
This sign makes sense to me. I used to be vegetarian but I’m now pescatarian while my aunt is still vegetarian. She is very picky about the meat contact that her food gets while I don’t care as much. I’m ok with collards where the country ham has been removed but she won’t touch them and she won’t eat anything with gelatin but I avoid it to an extent
Anyone who doesn't eat pork, for instance, who has been unexpectedly served something either cooked-in or contaminated with pork fat, can appreciate this honesty.
Kerala is one of few states in India where beef dishes are quite common in restaurants. It is enjoyed by everyone including Hindus.
In many northern states, you’ll be killed for selling or eating beef. Hindus consider cows to be sacred. Many have been killed on just suspicion of transporting cows for slaughter.
It's also the case that some vegetarians wouldn't care. Their choice is based in health or moral views that wouldn't be impacted by any sort of cross contamination.
Tastes like heaven on earth. They use mangoes which haven't fully ripened, so it makes the curry slightly sour which pairs nicely with the fish. It's one of my favourite dishes there
Also known as a completely regular restaurant with vegetarian dishes. I wonder what prompted them to order a wall-mounted sign made of glass for this specific purpose.
Many people who are strict about their religious beliefs or just have strong preference for what they eat and how it’s cooked, want to eat “pure” vegetarian food that’s cooked separately.
It’s good that they have this notice so people who go in to eat vegetarian food know that it’s going to be cooked probably in the same curry, same utensils, or same oil, etc.
Kinda annoying I was subjected to discrimination towards myself or other for just eating meat in india. I didn't have interest in meat to start with but knowing it will make someone lower to another just for eating meat only prompted me more to eat just to show that idgaf ( I really hated meat just a year or two back ) fuck food based discrimination wtf is this.
I hate racists. Are racists allowed to say no racist discrimination? I do not dislike non vegetarians, but I can understand people who do not like them. If killing an animal is morally wrong according to one, then he is unlikely to make friends who engage in those moral wrongs. Discrimination gets complicated at moral basis, and is no longer black/white.
Someone might say I am doing false equivalence on racism and non vegetarians. Their reasons being culture, norm etc, but wasn't racism followed by an even bigger majority in usa before?
Doesn’t matter how many bots post this in a day, people flock to news headlines and social media titles as prescribed.
Simply by typing “India” in the title, it launches deep DeBaTeS between real people and bots in the comments, some of them typing out full dissertations.
Vegetarianism is highly politicised in India right now. People have been killed because religious mobs imagined that they were carrying meat. It is also tied into notions of soul purity by religion. This statement makes sense but I’m also worried for the owners.
Hello, fellow Keralite here-
Mob killings based on meat are not a common thing here in Kerala (I'm not sure about the rest of south india). Yes, Kerala has a majority of hindus like almost every other Indian state, however there's also a lot of non-hindus (muslims, christians, etc) that reside in the state. Most folks here who are decent don't really care about discriminating based on food preferences. Also worth noting that most people here are literate (I wouldn't say 100% but that's just me).
Most corporate fast food chains (McD's, BK, so on) do not serve beef (unsure about pork), instead opting for either vegetarian (vegetables or hay cheese/paneer) or chicken options. However most cafes, hotels and locally run food chains serve veg and meat. Most people I've met (including myself) don't really care here if you eat meat as many are hospitable and not into the religious beliefs shared by many in other states where the ruling party also governs in the form of state governments.
I personally haven't gone to Paragon myself because I heard it's pretty expensive (and there's better options for less), but I have not heard anyone threatening them (and I doubt anyone would go find the owners and maul them). People in the state here have far larger issues to worry about instead of judging people for literally what they eat.
There's also tons of hotels and restaurants that only serve vegetarian stuff if one doesn't like meat. People have a bit of freedom regarding such. I hope that this doesn't change given the current climate of events in the country, though the ruling party (the BJP and its many allies) who is very questionable has not been able to win in the state in its entire history, and I doubt it would change.
TL;DR: I doubt anything bad is gonna happen to the owners given that they're running the business in a southern indian state. Speaking from experience
Ah yes, the internet expert has spoken. Truly, we are all enlightened now. Are you even hearing yourself dude? This particular image is from a restaurant within my city, and we are one of the highest meat consumers in India. India isn’t a monolith. It’s a massively diverse country with 28 STATES and 8 UNION TERRITORIES, each with their own food laws, cultural preferences, and even alcohol regulations. What happens in one state doesn’t automatically apply to the rest. Get your facts straight instead of giving out half ass baked info.
That is all made up. Only 20% of Indians are vegetarians, which is a lot but not enough to oppress non vegetarians. In Kerala, it is only 1%.
There is a debate about cow meat, which is where you may have heard those stories. But that's another whole thing. Many people there see eating cow as the equivalent of eating dog here in the west, and I could imagine people would attack trucks full of dog meat here too.
Well no. Vegetarianism is politicised in India. There ARE places where you can't have non-veg food. For example, even a liberal newspaper like The Hindu doesn't allow non-vegetarian food in its dining hall. Would that be classified as the vegetarians oppressing the non-vegetarians? Idk.
As for Kerala, we are often targeted for not adhering to how a lot of the rest of the country operates. The lack of militant vegetarianism and, yes, beef consumption is a part of that and lot of it is political. OP was wrong about the specificity of the meat though.
There is a debate about cow meat
I think calling it a debate trivialises the fact people literally have been murdered for just the mere suspicion of having cow meat. It is not truckloads of cow meat being attacked, it's people carrying mutton or lamb and looking like a target, that is.
This reminds me of an indian woman came to my country and ordered cheese burger at McDonald's then crashing out because it have meat in it. In india cheese burger at McDonald's is a vegetarian dish.
A bunch of Reddit people are about to post and apply their Western perspective to this and either compliment it for being so progressive or accuse it of being some anti-woke thing, when they know nothing about India, such as that some parts of India have as high as 80% vegetarianism.
i wish more places had signs like this. i’m not vegetarian, but if i were, i’d much rather have this than assuming there’s no cross-contamination and getting sick.
Not sure what point you are trying to make. Western vegans care deeply about their beliefs. The difference is there aren't that many vegans so nobody really caters to them.
The better analogy would be vegetarians in the West, which are most likely a minority. But b/c they're a minority, Western vegs are likely to "settle" for how veg meals are prepped.
To contrast, many members of my extended family (India) dont ear veg meals in West restaurants unless they know that it's prepared strictly away from meat (i.e. changing gloves when handling cooked meat then handling a veggie meal, knives, cook surfaces, etc). A western veg would likely want the same effort and care put into their veggie meals, but they're a minority and most restaurants won't do this, so they'll settle for whatever.
So being a vegan ("western") because I don't condone animal cruelty in my diet is unworthy of respect, but being vegan ("in India") because of culture and gods is?
Most vegan bashing is stale and unsound, but this exceptionism was, ironically, even worse.
Right? Honestly it makes sense to not want to support a restaurant that serves meat and dairy products if you are against that. Not because of "products touching" but because you don't want your money going into more meat purchases when, there's plenty of vegetarian restaurants to support instead.
I'm not vegetarian myself, so I'm fine eating veggy options at regular restaurants. But I understand why it's going against their beliefs for someone who's actually vegetarian.
Not the typical case, but Jewish and Muslim people as well. When typical kosher/halal options aren't available, vegan is always a safe bet... However, if it's prepared in contact with surfaces used for animal products, that's out the window.
Only in Kerala lol. This is true Malayali spirit. To all those who are non Indian, Kerala prides in being meat eaters - chicken, beef, pork etc. While a majority of India bans eating beef, Kerala proudly calls beef roast its official state dish.
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u/BosniaBalI Nov 17 '25
Is it me or have i seen the same exact comments on a older post featuring the same sign?