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Eating out and social situations
Practical notes on restaurants, other people's homes, and travelling, without making it awkward.
Restaurants
Most cuisines are full of dishes that were never built around meat: dal and chana in South Asian food, tofu and vegetable dishes in East Asian food, falafel and mezze in Middle Eastern food, bean-based dishes in Mexican food, pasta with tomato-based sauces in Italian food. Checking a menu online first removes most of the friction.
Other people's homes
Tell your host early, keep it low-key, and offer to bring a dish. Most people are glad to accommodate when they know in advance and dislike surprises.
Travelling
Carry snacks such as nuts, fruit and oat bars. Supermarkets almost everywhere sell bread, hummus, beans and fruit.
Dishes that fit this
Named for how they taste, with the difference each makes against the meal it stands in for.
Falafel with hummus and warm flatbread
Crisp outside, herby inside, on hummus loose enough to scoop with the bread while it is still warm.
About 1.9 times the land of chicken wrap.
Falafel salad bowl
Grains, slaw, pickles and falafel in separate heaps, so every forkful is a different combination.
About 1.5 times the land of chicken salad box.
Three-mushroom curry noodle soup
A deep yellow coconut curry broth, three kinds of mushroom for texture, and herbs thrown in at the table.
About a sixth of the land of chicken noodle soup.
Malaysian vegetable curry
Coconut, turmeric and curry leaves, with vegetables cooked just past crunchy, over plain rice.
About half of the land of chicken curry.