TIPS FOR EATING VEGAN IN NON - VEGAN RESTAURANTS

So i posted about vegan restaurants in Lake Como before, find that post here.  

Now let's take a look at some tips for eating vegan at non-vegan ones. 

Okay now, there are a few vegan options popping up on menus in non- vegan restaurants here, which is really big steps forward because a few years ago there really wasn't much at all. So hurray! This is really great to see and some are really tasty! 

For example at the moment Figli dei Fiori's Bistro restaurant in Como town now has a vegan corner option on their menu, which is really nice and colourful! 

I LOVE when there is already something on the menu specified as vegan so you can trust the restaurant knows the term and you can see what the ingredients are. 

If there are no vegan options marked on a restaurant's menu, the best option is to call them ahead of time and ask if they can possibly prepare something vegan. I have found that many restaurants do actually say yes, so you can make a booking for a table at the same time as you ask for this possibility. Of course there's a few where they don't offer this, so then you know that and can go somewhere else <3 

In general around the lake vegetarian options can be easier to find than vegan options on a menu, but as mentioned before there is way more now than just a few years ago, so the more people who ask for them, the more they show up :-) Yay! 

If you're out and about in some of the pretty villages by the lake and haven't called ahead or don't feel comfortable asking for things off the menu then check out the side dishes! Usually the restaurants have a vegetable side dish or salad - staple here is grilled zucchini, bellpepper, aubergine - just ask how it's been prepared, with olive oil and not with butter. There's usually a basic leaf salad often with carrots, tomatoes, corn... 

In pizzerias I've had great success asking for a vegetarian pizza but without the cheese and then adding on other ingredients like olives, mushrooms etc. Of course there's usually a Marinara pizza on a pizzeria menu too, which traditionally is just tomatoes, garlic, olive oil & oregano. 

Basic tomato bruschetta and basic tomato or olive foccacia are also traditionally vegan so you can keep an eye out for those & just double check their ingredients.  

I also always have an energy bar in my bag ( or a fruit/mixed nuts) just in case but in my experience when I do muster the courage to ask I have found that many places will gladly veganize a meal if you kindly ask them, you can also ask to just add ingredients / take away ingredients to your meal. I hope this is your experience too and I will share which places have been very nice to make delicious vegan food, even if it's not on their normal menu. So keep an eye out for these posts are a-coming :-)

Also it's good to make sure the restaurant understands that it is vegan you want, not only vegetarian. A few people in non-veg restaurants can confuse the terms vegan and vegetarian, thinking it's the same thing if they haven't had much experience with it. So it's good to have kindness, patience and explain when necessary. You can for example specify: without cheese, (senza formaggio) without butter (senza burro), without milk (senza latte), senza uova (without egg).  Of course you can specify without meat (senza carne), without fish (senza pesce) etc but thankfully most people do know what vegetarian is, so it's a good starting out point. You can also simply say senza ingredienti origine di animale (without ingredients from animal origins).  

Also do remember that some fresh pastas have egg in them, such as a lot of tagliatelle etc so if you see pasta pomodoro on the menu ( pasta tomato) just make sure to ask that the actual pasta part itself is a vegan one <3