Eating Out Part III

Okay, the dining out this week is getting a little out of hand, but S and I really wanted to get out for a while. Her favorite place recently is the Canal Cafe, which has Palm beer on tap and a nice view of the water (okay, the water is in the canal, but it's still pretty). They make some awesome PEI mussels and clam fritters as well.

This one was even more of a challenge than the Mexican place. Every single thing on the menu was meat-based. There were some vegetable spring rolls on the menu which I suspected would not turn out to actually be vegetarian, let alone vegan, but that was about it. And I was super hungry.

S and I both enjoy the spinach and goat cheese salad, so we decided to split one with all of the goat cheese going to S. She went ahead and got the fritters, which looked very, very tasty. I ended up with a tostada that was supposed to come with a striped bass fillet. I was going to just have the hold the fish, but then when I thought about how I was going to end up paying for it anyway, I asked for the fish on the side, thinking that S could add that to her dinner.

This was a good example of how sticking to the vegan plan even when it's difficult can really expand your food horizons. I would have skipped this dish usually as I am not a fan of refried beans, but I gave it a chance because it was really all that was available to me. It was amazing. The beans were hearty and delicious, and I ate every scrap.

The salad greens on top tasted like the fish had initially been served on top of the tostada and then removed, though, so I was a little disappointed by that as well. Restaurants really are not set up to accommodate vegetarian and vegan requests, I think, and are not interested in the fact that "cross contamination" is a bigger issue than someone getting huffy that their food isn't exactly how they want it. I know that people who do not eat animal products for a long time can actually become ill when exposed to those again. So scraping off "most" of the cheese or "quick, get that fish fillet off of there before she sees it!" or, worst of all, failing to disclose on the menu or when asked that an item was cooked with meat may be superficially helpful, but does not address my actual needs.