Day Ten

I mentioned the other day about eating out. I was in Edinburgh all day for back to back meetings and had to grab something in the move. I chose to eat in the cafe where I was having my third meeting - a chain cafe in most university areas with a fairly good reputation. To be blunt, the veggie options were grim. The choices were a vegetable pizza, a baked potato with beans, or the ubiquitous mozzarella panini ( always too much bread, very little rather stringy and flavourless cheese). I opted for the potato, which was as exciting as it sounds. This was quite clearly a case of token options for the occasional person who doesn't eat meat. How awful that our food culture has become so predicated on the idea that we can't be satisfied without some kind of flesh in our sandwidges and salads.

Today I'm back in the big smoke and I picked a vegetarian and vegan takeaway place to get some portable lunch - I actually didn't make myself something deliberately in order to try it. The chap told me they had been there for 28 years and were rated 5star. Certainly it all looked much better - a cabinet of different salads, vegan flapjacks and cakes make with free-range egg, baked potatoes with exciting toppings. I opted for a medium salad tray which contained three types of salad, and a vegetarian haggis samosa (how could I not!) I was so excited to find somewhere that actually specialised in vegetable-based food.

The samosa was amazing - I actually stopped eating to check that it really was veggie because the flavour was so authentic. From what I could tell it had potato, swede, brown rice, oatmeal, nuts, possibly lentils, cayenne, black pepper, mace, nutmeg...

The salads, however, were a huge disappointment. I really couldn't taste the vegetables in any of them. The spinach and mushroom salad was coated in chilli and I couldn't eat it, the rice salad was sloppy and sweet with mango chutney and I wish I hadn't eaten it, and the Greek salad was simply uninspiring. I am so disappointed. I would still go there for a baked potato or samosa!

Why is it apparently so difficult to produce good vegetarian food? Surely in a country with such fantastic agriculture and weather we can do better than this?