There are several pretty good vegetarian restaurants in my city, and I get lunch there from time to time -- and virtually every time, one of the other patrons will say something like, "Wow, that's so great that you're a vegetarian!" ("老師很棒，吃素很棒！"; a direct translation would sound more childish than it sounds in Chinese.)
Back in America, I used to eat at kosher delis fairly often. Not once did anyone ever say, "That's so great that you keep kosher!" or even "I never knew you were Jewish." That's because everyone understands that kosher food is awesome and that there's nothing strange about a goy enjoying it. Vegetarian fare, on the other hand, is apparently understood to be so unappetizing that no one would ever eat it unless his moral or religious principles required him to do so.
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Or maybe everyone did assume I was a kosher Jew (big nose, East European name, it wouldn't be surprising) but just didn't say anything -- either because discussing religion with strangers is taboo in America in a way that it isn't in Taiwan, or because vegetarianism is much more of a missionary faith than kashrut is.
1 comment:
That's mostly true, although I used to patronise a veggie restaurant that just had better cooking than any of the other places in that suburb. Nut Loaf struck me as a genuinely enjoyable centre for a meal.
However, I don't think I ever had a veggie meal that would not have been improved by a bit of bacon (which rules out the Kosher food as well).
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