Besides saving me from the horror of slicing into a piece of my food and seeing a blood vessel or chunk of gristle in an inappropriate place (such as: piece of edible food), being a vegetarian has also caused me a fair share of stress, particularly when I was first applying to study abroad. I didn’t know what it would be like for me in the UK, food-wise, and I worried that not being able to find something to eat would hinder my social integration. Hint: what social integration???
I started trying to eat fish over the summer: each time I tried some I suffered from varying degrees of pain and strange symptoms like feeling very warm and light-headed in addition to the regular pains of not being able to digest something. I worried for a while that it’d hurt every time I ate it, but canned tuna didn’t bother me, so I kept eating that until I departed for London in mid-september.
It was surprisingly easy to find vegetarian food once I’d gotten here--easier than at home with regards to pre-packaged sandwiches, salads, and pastas. Everything here that contains no animal product is labeled with a “V” that is sometimes accompanied by the phrase “suitable for vegetarians.” It’s on everything: crisps, soups, candies. It was completely opposite to my expectations, but that’s probably because I was expecting traditional British food to be the predominant locatable food.
That’s not always the case. Restaurants are good, here, about having and labeling vegetarian options on all of their menus. I thought I’d take a moment to describe some good meals that I had, mostly for fun, but the side-benefit of it is that if you’re a veg thinking of coming to the UK, you’ll know a few places around the country that’ll have good food (;
(Before you look at the prices and make some understandable judgements: people don’t tip in the UK for meals like they do in America because the tip (VAT) is already included in the price of the meal when you order it eat-in. If you order takeaway this price doesn’t apply to your meal and it’s cheaper.)
Herby Mushrooms on Toast (£6.30), Number 33 Café, Norwich
This is a thick piece of home-made rosemary and sea-salt bread, covered with mushrooms in what must be rosemary and other spices, a thick layer of wilted “rocket” (arugula to Americans), and topped with a poached egg. It’s served with two plum-sized roasted tomatoes, but I didn’t eat those. This is probably the best breakfast that I’ve had in the UK, and I’m pretty sure it’s a traditional British breakfast.
Courgette + Pepper Quiche (£6.45), Jarrold’s Café Benjamin, Norwich
In Britain, zucchini masquerades under its French name. Then Café Benjamin puts it into little individual quiches and adds red peppers to it and serves it with a side-salad and seasoned chips. The chips are half of there reason that I order this meal, besides the fact that Café Benjamin is located in an up-scale department store and the environment is very pleasant.
Spinach and Potato Curry with basmati steamed rice and roti (£5), Indian food stall at The Stables in Camden Town by “We Love Pizza” and Bubble tea stalls, London
This was possibly the best meal I have had the whole time I’ve been here with the exception of the Herby Mushrooms for breakfast. I love Indian food, and this is comparatively cheap for other Indian food I’ve had here, and I absolutely 100% think that roti are on my top 5 list of breads in the whole world and I am a bread person. I ordered a regular-size order which included a small aluminum tray of steamed basmati rice and a lot of spinach and potatoes and cost £4, and bought the roti for £1. This meal’s leftovers became my dinner that night. If you’re ever in The Stables and like Indian food, you need to eat here! I’m sorry I can’t remember what it’s called, but you’ll see the pizza place next to it.
Spicy Veggie Sandwich Meal (£4.45), MacDonald’s
You can find MacDonald’s (Macker’s) pretty much anywhere in the UK, especially in malls. There are two within five-minutes walking distance in the Norwich city centre, but I’ve only been to the one in the mall before. Anyway, the concept of MacDonald’s having a sandwich for me to eat was completely foreign (SEE WHAT I DID THERE) to me because we don't’ have any main vegetarian dishes at really any fast food restaurants where I live in California, and where I live in California is full of veggies like me. The Spicy Veggie Sandwich is basically a long bread-roll filled with puck-like veggie patties (that to me tasted like greek-style falafel and were delicious), cucumber slices, iceberg lettuce, and a sweet chili sauce. It’s very good, and was especially so the first time I had it after walking toward the Golden Arches expecting to have fries and a coke for lunch.
Tofu Panini (£6) and Sweet Potato Chips with chili mayonnaise (£2.20) at Pulse Café & Bar, Norwich
You can order this sandwich as a wrap or as a bruschetta, but I prefer the panini style, which is different than what an American would expect when ordering a panini: in the UK panini refers to a heated open-faced sandwich (and the term “toastie” refers to a pressed, hot sandwich that we’d call a panini in America). This one is full of smoked tofu, tomato slices, iceberg lettuce, cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce and is very difficult to eat knife-and-fork as is the British way, so I picked it up and ate it with my hands, American-style. I ordered it with my favorite snack/side-order to be found in the city (by...me, anyway), thick-cut sweet potato chips (re: fries, if you’re American) that they serve with a chili or garlic mayo dip. Chili is my favorite, and I don’t like spicy things, so anyone could handle this level of heat. This mayo isn’t like the stuff you scoop out of plastic jugs with a spoon and get all over your finger-tips when it’s time to get a new batch, either; it’s denser somehow and stands up to being a dip for these chips. I love sweet-potato fries, but these ones were baked and crispy rather than fried, so that I could eat more of them they were healthier. Remember to ask for salt for them, though!
P.S. everything at Pulse Cafe & Bar is vegetarian, but there are also vegan and gluten-free options on the menu. They serve a range of gluten-free cakes and treats.
American-Style Pancakes (£6.40), Number 33 Café, Norwich
These aren’t really American-style; they’re not those fluffy, inch-thick clouds that you associate with square, yellow pats of butter and Aunt Jemima’s. They’re more like a hybrid crepe-pancake and are a bit chewy, but they’re wonderful anyway and they come with a small pot of syrup and a cup of fresh fruit, including raspberries, which are a favorite of mine.
Traditional Greek Salad (£3.49), Number 33 Café, Norwich
I ordered this as a take-away meal recently--it’d be a bit more expensive to eat in-house--and it’s a mix of calamata and green olives, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, red onions, rocket and other greens. It has a sweetish vinaigrette on it and there’s a good ratio of cheese to the rest of the salad, which, in my experience, is not always the case.
Veggie Burger Meal (£5.45), Burger King
You can find Burger King not as easily as “Macker’s” but it’s in most of the malls and in some big railway stations in London. This is also a chick-pea-base but there’s more beans and corn and carrots in there than I could tell in the MacDonald’s equivalent. The bun often fell apart on me while eating these, but there are worse things (like ordering a side-salad and fries).
Mushy Pea Soup (£4.95), Giraffe, Norwich
There are Giraffe’s everywhere. Apparently, they’re lower-class chain restaurants, but I had a very nice starter-course soup for dinner there my first night in Norwich. They serve it with a couple pieces of garlicky bread.
Look out for a future post in which I enlighten some of you on the terms I learned for food here and how they differ to American equivalents.
