Hosting a Vegetarian Guest

Hi folks,

Now, I believe every one of us would like to be a good host. It doesn't matter if we like to play host in the first place. Haha…like it or not…(some people love playing host!!), we do play host from time to time in some part of our life, whether is during our wedding, our kids' birthday, etc, etc.

Now, being a vegetarian, I have experienced some very considerate and thoughtful host which makes my visit memorable and of course makes a very good impression on the host as well.

Important points to take note of:

1.       Ask before hand or provide an option.

Some organizers are so considerate and global thinker that they include "vegetarian" option in their meal/special diet checklist in their registration form.

2.       Aware there are different types of vegetarian. Here are some main ones:

Lacto vegetarian - Individuals in this group abstain from all animal products except for dairy products in their diet. Means they do take cheese ( without "animal rennet", i.e. stomach of a young goat/cow)

Lacto-ovo vegetarians - This type of vegetarian diet excludes all meat except for dairy and eggs. Not too different from the previous type except this group do take eggs and the earlier don't.

Vegans - These are the 'hard-core" vegetarians who avoid all animal products in their diet, such as meats, dairy products, and eggs. The vegan diet relies on lentils, beans, soy products etc.

3.       Important points to take note:

a.       Fish and white meat is NOT considered vegetarian for most Asians.

b.      Some vegetarian abstained from garlic, leek, and onion for both religious and health beliefs.

c.       Serve your guest using clean utensils and cooking utensils if possible

The cooking utensils can be nicely-scrubbed and cleaned before using. And for some of my friends, out of respect and logical sense, they would cook the vegetarian dishes before cooking the meat dishes). And some even have special cutleries put away for serving only vegetarian meal as it is common for some Chinese to observe vegetarian during the 1^st and 15^th of every month in the lunar calendar ;)

Now, I hope it does not sounded too difficult to host a vegetarian guest, in fact, if you master this special skillset (ahem), you would have no problem hosting Muslims friends as well.

In my coming blog entries, I shall share some of the easy- to-make vegetarian party-worthy recipes. Stay tuned…or if you got yours to share, please do! Deeply appreciate it!

Btw, I like to start a simple tag here if there are bloggers who are interested to share…how about sharing Tips to host a Muslim/Vegan/Diabetic/Disabled guest….it'll be such a great learning and sharing articles with everyone! If you do post up, pls. do link amongst us so that readers get to learn to be a good host from all different perspective!

And please, do drop a comment here if you do posted the related articles as I would be your first reader who are interested to read and add on your comment box ;) hehe..

Cheers and thanks folks!

 

 Note: Picture courtesy of MS ClipArt Image