I’ve been a naughty girl…

…as I started this blog and completely forgot about it. I blame taking up my spare time. But never fear, new entries are incoming very soon!

Not every environmentalist is a vegetarian…

…but every vegetarian is an environmentalist.

Review – The Longniddry Inn, Longniddry, East Lothian, Scotland

The Longniddry Inn is a well established, traditional restaurant in Longniddry, East Lothian. Its reputation is built on good solid food with generous portions, but from a veggie perspective I’m inclined to disagree.

First Impression

My husband, daughter and I decided to visit for lunch in early May. The restaurant wasn’t too busy that day so we got a table immediately, although the lady who seated us didn’t exactly provide us with a friendly welcome. The menu‘s vegetarian options aren’t very appetising, with good old macaroni cheese as the only permanent pasta option; it may be my bad luck, but the Longniddry Inn’s Pasta of the Day has never been meat free whenever I’ve visited. The quality of service seems to have dropped sharply, which is a shame. The waitresses who served us weren’t very polite and their service was slow and sloppy; there was more coffee in the saucer than there was in the cup and the waitress who brought my (terrible) coffee over almost spilled it into my lap. Luckily it wasn’t very warm, otherwise I would have put GBH on my list of complaints.

The Food

I ordered garlic bread to start with and the ubiquitous macaroni cheese (served with chips, of course) for my main course. The garlic bread was basically slices of baguette with a smear of garlic butter. When I turned one slice over and found it to be almost black, it reminded me of when I would make toast for my mum and hide the burnt bit by putting the offending side on the bottom. Smart thinking on the chef’s part there.

Once I’d chewed my way through the edible parts of the garlic bread, we waited an eternity for our mains to arrive. Unfortunately, the wait wasn’t worth it. Now, when I make macaroni cheese I make a nice creamy cheese sauce to go with the macaroni, then I mix the sauce and pasta together before serving. I wouldn’t dream of serving macaroni cheese as soggy pasta with some grated Cheddar on top; if there was a sauce, it must have been absorbed by the macaroni. The only plus side was the portion size, which was generous, but my macaroni cheese was not worth £8.25.

Suffice to say we declined dessert, paid up and left.

Conclusion

The first time I visited the Longniddry Inn (2007), I could not sing its praises highly enough. I understand that the restaurant has changed hands recently, which would explain the drop in standards to some extent. It’s very disappointing to visit a place that’s held in such high regard in the area only to have such an underwhelming experience. Bad service and expensive, unexciting food with a dire vegetarian selection do not make for a good experience.

The Great Fish Issue

Whilst watching some late night telly I chanced upon an episode of The Delicious Miss Dahl. The programme itself isn’t bad, maybe a bit twee for my liking, but this particular episode really annoyed me. A shame really, as the theme of that episode was romance.

Whilst Sophie Dahl is cooking up a shepherd’s pie, she declares that she doesn’t eat meat and makes herself a vegetarian version of the dish with puy lentils. So far, so good. However, earlier on in the programme she prepares a dish made with scallops and guess what – yep, you’ve guessed it – she proceeds to tuck in quite happily.

Maybe it’s just me, but last time I checked vegetarians don’t eat scallops. I really don’t get it; when did we start including seafood? Have I missed something important here? It’s hard enough trying to convince people as it is what the definition of vegetarianism is when you have these people on telly saying “oh it’s fine, I don’t eat meat but fish doesn’t count, tee hee!”.

What we need is a proper vegetarian cookery show on the BBC. I have the perfect pitch; I go around the country meeting these “vegetarians” and twat them round the head with a fish, Monty Python style.

Happy National Vegetarian Week!

National Vegetarian Week

I’ll be doing my bit by cooking lots of yummy veggie food for the family and spreading the word at work.

There’s more to eating out than macaroni cheese

Vegetarians gain more options in fine dining

The average veggie section of most restaurant menus is powerful enough to depress even the most optimistic of us, so when I spotted this article I was delighted to see that some chefs aren’t afraid to stick their necks (and possibly their reputations?) out. See? Veggie food isn’t all about salad, macaroni cheese and soggy reheated vegetable lasagne!

What it’s all about

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Whenever I tell someone I’m vegetarian, 99% of the time I find myself explaining to them that vegetarians do not eat fish and fielding the usual reply of “oh but my friend XXXX is a vegetarian and eats fish!  Does that make you a vegan then?”.  It constantly astounds me to come across so many intelligent people who just cannot understand that, quite simply, if it’s got an arsehole we don’t eat it.  The aim of this blog is to discuss all things vegetarian and to try and dispel some myths along the way.