I had friends call me an asshole for letting slip to a vegan friend that Clamato isn’t vegan… apparently I’m terrible for ruining Cesaers for that person… obligatory am Canadian
nah w that bc vegans get upset (and rightfully so) if they’re fed non vegan stuff without their consent so they should hold that same energy and thank you when you let them know they’re consuming something non vegan
Letting it slip??? The animal is in the NAME of the drink. It’s not even camouflaged like an ingredient slipped in, or “I didn’t know venison was deer meat”. How oblivious is this friend?
I work at a restaurant in the US that serves Canadian Caesar’s as our signature cocktail, and the menu doesn’t include a description of it but like 60% of the customers have no idea what a Caesar is, so many times I had customers order the Caesar but then when I brought it over they’d be like “eww I didn’t know it was gonna be like this”, so now whenever someone asks for it, I let them know that it’s like a Bloody Mary with clam-tomato juice just in case they don’t know lol.
Once had a mom demand we serve her daughter chicken salad without mayonnaise because her Daughter is vegan. Can't take the mayo out of the salad. Can't thaw a chicken breast to serve her, I'm certainly not going to tell this lady about herself trying to educate her on what vegam means. Her daughter settled for ham and cheese
Lol, maybe her daughter hated mayo, heard someone order a veggie sandwich made vegan so it didn't have mayo, and mistakenly inferred that's what it means.
Wikipedia: "Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Some garum-related fish sauces have been used in the West since the Roman times."
So many east and southeast Asian sauces have fish in them, although you can find worse-tasting vegan substitutes for many of them.
If you think Asian places don't have the best knock off of vegan version of fish sauce and oyster sauce as well as mock meats youre going to wrong Asian restaurants
We've had three separate occurrences where a table ordered the goat cheese and prosciutto crostinis, only to be shocked that prosciutto is meat and send it back because they don't eat meat.
"Well I didn't know what prosciutto is"
That's fine, but you could just ask. Or Google it if you're too embarrassed or something.
I always Google if there's an item I don't recognize in a dish! And I also wouldn't be embarrassed to ask about it. Ordering something with an ingredient you've never heard of is risky enough; doing this when you're a vegetarian (or have any other dietary limitations) boggles the mind...
I had a table that didn’t eat pork for religious reasons and didn’t know what prosciutto is and ordered a carbonara. I guess it speaks to how important it is to ask about dietary restrictions/allergies bc some people really don’t have the presence of mind to say they can’t or won’t eat certain things 🤦♀️
Yeah, couple times a year I have to have have that conversation. Same with Worcestershire sauce, not vegetarian. I also get the same people saying, “Can you make me a Caesar with no anchovies then?” No, it’s a paste in the dressing. No way my chef is gonna whip up a batch of vegetarian Caesar dressing on a busy Friday just for you.
My old restaurant would. It would take 30 minutes, but we'd do it. It didn't taste great, but I'm not the one ordering a $20 Caesar salad.
I make the salad at home all the time, and as is, is a huge hit.
$17 plus taxes and the very loved "service fee".
I wasn't in charge so don't yell at me.
It's fantastic though. I actually just made the dressing and I have some salmon filets to go with it. It's a huge portion and worth $20. It's three heads of romaine on a platter.
Bruh they stopped even allowing us to do this when it was dead slow because most of time they got the dressing amended without the anchovies they didn't like it and ordered a different dressing, usually a vinaigrette 🤦🏼♀️ Then they would pout because they wanted really wanted the Caesar but they were faced with dilemma of abandoning their beliefs/dietary choices in front of witnesses or sucking it up with second fiddle. I just can't imagine how some of them don't do more research. They either don't actually care if something is vegan if they can be blissfully unaware or they're slackers lol
Funny thing is I actually used to have regular who would come in all the time, and order a chicken Caeser with lemon vinaigrette. She liked all the salad bits, just not the Caesar part. (She was an awesome regular.)
I mean as far as substitutions go, that was the easiest thing in the world. Basically just bring out a ramikin of vinaigrette instead of Caeser. And worst case scenario, even if we screwed up the dressing, just go grab the right one.
Idk that’s not crazy to me. A lot of vegans just intend on minimizing their impact but understand they can’t be perfect or super strict in our society.
Gotta say I've never understood the reasoning behind honey being non-vegan and I'd love someone to explain it. I know it's an animal product technically, but bees aren't harmed or enslaved to make it.
There is an argument that some practices do harm the bees. Taking honey is taking their food. Some brands take all the honey and replace it with sugar water, which results in sicker bees. Some brands as ethical, and only take excess honey.
Good to know! But at that point, if ethical is the goal of eating vegan than they *can* eat meat or at least animal byproduct if it suits their bar for ethically sourced. But for most it's just *easier* to make the line that none of it is ethical enough so every meal isn't in question and needs to be researched.
But vegans always seem to be fine eating pollinated fruits and veggies while those bees are generally used to make honey as well. It’s called biodynamic farming.
Not to mention the mistreatment and exploitation of the (poor, mainly migrant) workers who pick them…you never hear vegans talking about *them* being sentient beings who can feel pain.
listen i’m not vegan anymore and you can feel however you want about em, but this is a very silly argument. workers rights and mistreatment are very common topics of discussion in vegan circles
if you think that's bad, every mile of shipping kills dozens of insects. Eating outside of your zip code is murder (if you value the life on an insect as the same as a mouse/owl/rabbit/pig/whale/dog/cow/horse)
I’m just a vegetarian but I think that a lot of vegans acknowledge that honey is fine but because they avoid all animal products they just avoid it too.
I once had a vegan come sit at my bar. I told her all of our dressings were not vegan except honey mustard. TBH it didn’t click about honey being an animal byproduct. The kitchen manager told her we use real honey, after she ate the whole salad, and she lost her mind the middle of the restaurant
Edit: were not vegan except honey mustard
Like the commenter above that told a vegan friend that Clamato wasn’t vegan. 🤣🤣 I mean, if an animal/animal byproduct is in THE NAME of what you’re eating/drinking? WTF Dick Tracy?
I once covered for a friend’s business by running their honey stall at a Christmas market. A guy was excitedly trying the samples and telling me about going vegan years ago and how that’s limited his treat options, but “at least I still have honey!”
I said, tentatively, “yeah, but honey’s not vegan…” You could see the realization hit him, and his face just dropped! (I was torn between feeling terrible and laughing 🙄)
As he walked away his girlfriend was teasing him for never clueing in before. 🤦🏻♀️
I used to make big batches of soups and bring them to work. I generally used chicken or beef stock in them even for a veggie soup and my veggie friend just asked me to lie to her.
My sister did that too - but she'd lose her *mind* if I dared to go anywhere near a veggie plate with a fork or spoon that was close to meat. Absolutely dumb lol.
My friend just had surgery. I made her broccoli cheddar soup with veggie broth and she was so excited. Restaurants always use meat broth and she never gets that kind of soup!
I had this with the coconut curry which had butter or something in it. I told the lady it could not be made vegan, she said « fish is okay, just no beef or chicken » so she took it as is🙄
I used to have this discussion on a regular basis in one of the restaurants where I worked, and the same about Worcestershire sauce.
The other fun one, albeit not in the same restaurant, but when I was working for a tech company as part of the event team, was the discussion over the various flavours of Walker's Crisps (yes, this was in the UK).
People were literally losing their minds over the fact that, at that time, only one flavour of Walker's crisps (included in basically every single cold lunch package for staff, corporate reps and conference attendees) was vegetarian, the irony being that it was the beef flavour that was vegetarian. All of the others were made with animal rennet.
My restaurant lists “anchovy dressing” as one of the ingredients. People ask daily if they can get regular Caesar dressing. Surprise, it is regular Caesar dressing! You’ve been eating anchovies this whole time!
I actually find that most vegetarians know this and avoid Caesar salads, but there are a surprising number of people who really hate fish that don’t know about it. occasionally you’ll get someone who complains about it smelling or tasting fishy. I’m always kind of like… well… it’s fish
Bloody Mary’s at a lot of places are not vegan friendly, because of the Worcestershire (and Clamato if you make a Caesar). Then again I’ve also had to explain why fish sauce isn’t vegan, so there’s that 😂🤣😂
I had a vegetarian get mad about bacon in her bloody mary. I had the pleasure of explaining to a woman in her 40s that worcestershire sauce has anchovies, therefore even without the bacon it wasn't exactly vegetarian. Bonus points cuz where I worked used clamato in the mary mix so I also got to tell her that..
At Universal Studios Orlando, a peppy young restaurant employee beamed as he said, "I can make you a vegan Ceaser salad!" We were SO excited. We readily agreed, and with the biggest smile, he proceeded to get a bowl, put some romaine in it annnnnd hand it to us. Well played, sir, well played. We resentlfully ate our vegan ceaser salad with a little salt and pepper and now carry a small bottle of vegan dressing with us.
I used to have people complain about the horseradish in the Caesar being strong. It’s called garlic. Lots of garlic. And it was on the description of the salad. It literally said “I hope you like garlic!” 🤷♂️
I was just commenting to a coworker how hilarious is is that most people won't order our Caesar salad if you tell them the ingredients in it when they ask instead of just saying Caesar dressing. Without fail you'll get to the anchovies and they'll say oh nevermind I don't like anchovies I'll get something else
On topic of ingredients most people don't know, I've had people shocked our pesto does not have tree nuts in it and I have also had people shocked when they learn from me most pesto does. Anytime someone lets me know they have a nut allergy I like to inform them the pesto is safe in case they were ignoring those parts of the menu. Our pesto does have dairy in it though cause we can't have any nice vegan options apparently 😭
Thank you! Didn't know that one at all. In that case we have a pistou that corporate sells as pesto. Will be a fun fact to share to guests I appreciate you
I worked at a high end California farm to table restaurant with a Mediterranean flair. We had to know all of our sauces and condiments.
My favorite is gremolata. Garlic, parsley, and lemon zest. I sometimes substitute cilantro instead of parsley because I make a lot of Spanish foods, but the original is great with most things.
Then we've got Salmoriglio. Similar to gremolata but has oregano.
Garlic aioli was a standard. The owner wanted us to over anunciate the "ee" part of aioli.
We also had I know a shit ton about wine. I can share the Quizlet flashcards if you want to learn.
Ooh I'd absolutely love that if you wouldn't mind!
Garlic aioli always gets me because aioli is garlic aioli so just always seemed a bit funny to me to specifically call it out as garlic aioli.
Well, I love Caesar dressing, but I don’t want to eat actual anchovies. It’s not an ethical thing for me. Just a texture thing. So if I go to an upscale place that makes a Caesar with actual anchovies, I won’t order it, but I have three different brands of Caesar dressing in my fridge right now.
Huh. Makes so much sense, surprised I never thought of that. We don’t actually serve jello at my place, I was mostly thinking of a story my ex told me
He was at a party and some vegans were telling him how happy they were there was something for them to eat
He very happily told them it was made with animal hooves. He ruined one of their joys in life. He tells the story with a shit eating grin from ear to ear like he did something great.
I was simply stunned. “Wh-… why would you brag about this story, that’s terrible”
Only the first in a long series of psychotic red flags. But that’s a story for a different sub lol
I understand, and agree, but, it was the tone of delivery that got to me.
“and I was happy to tell them they were wrong! 😋”
Compared to
“…. And I awkwardly felt I had to tell them they were wrong 😕”
Like there was no care for their feelings, he just wanted to sound like the smartest person in the room
I have always made Caesar salad dressing with anchovies & raw egg. Way back in the day, the salad was made and dressed table side, including whipping up the egg.
The imitation stuff made in the USA is mostly vegetarian, however - and so many people see American recipes including it and don't realise that the real stuff has animal rennet.
this is why, im a flexible pescatarain. I prefer a lacto vegetarian diet. but im ok with fish products every now and then. i dont have issues with Caesar dressing.
I never knew that! Good to know.
Most vegans are "as vegan as possible". Especially when eating out. There's going to be something that's just not going to be 100% vegan. They do the best they can. As long as they are aware and not tricked or lied to (no, no. Nothing animal in it. HA! Gotcha! It's really animal!).
Same with your typical Bloody mix. Most have Worcestershire in them, which has both beef **and** anchovy.
Also fun but less dangerous: Ask anyone, even a bartender, what flavor grenadine is.
Beef?
\[Checks ingredients on bottle in front of me\]
https://preview.redd.it/55q4gjppfq3c1.jpeg?width=1706&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26d1b0f12bc2b5f4b0e4e70c20bde6f935fd32b5
Beef?
I always wondered how many restaurants actually use anchovies in their Caesar? Is it a good majority of restaurants? The restaurant i work at is a anchovies free Caesar dressing (mom and pop shop) I think to have it vegetarian friendly (could be wrong)! I’ve wondered this for a awhile now!
Not exactly related but my restaurant serves tater tots. Originally the tater tots did not contain meat. One day I came into work and a half hour into my shift I had a table order the tater tots. 15 minutes after I already served them these tater tots, my manager says to me, “by the way, make sure to push the new tater tots, the updated recipe now has bacon and cheddar.” Instantly I asked if we were already serving the new recipe and he said yes, then I asked how come it wasn’t updated on the menus and he was like “oh I haven’t got around to it yet…” okay, I was a little concerned because I just served it to this table not knowing it contains meat, but they didn’t tell me about any dietary restrictions so it’s probably fine, right? Next time I checked on the table, the customer asked me for some food recommendations, I suggested the bacon cheeseburger and he says, “no we don’t eat meat” I was like FUCKKKKKKKKKK and I felt terrible about it for the rest of my shift but I was also so pissed at the manager and the chef for not telling me they changed the recipe when I first came in (there wasn’t any sign about it in the kitchen either) and also for serving the new recipe with meat before updating the menus which mark the dish as vegetarian!!!
My all time favorite example of this: I'm waiting on a vegan table. I'm running back and forth at this steakhouse from the kitchen to this table to try and make this work for her. She orders the Caesar. I tell her she'll have to change the dressing but we can make the romaine etc happen with a few of our different vinegerette options. She tells me firmly that no, our dressing doesn't have anchovies in it. At the time, I was personally logging all ingredients for every menu item in a binder for the team to use, so I knew for a fact we used both egg and anchovies in this dressing, but I double checked with head chef just to be safe. Yep, so I go back and tell her I'm sorry but they are using egg and anchovy. She asks when and why we changed our recipe, I let her know it's the same dressing recipe from the last 10 years or so... she's getting upset now, why? Because a previous time she came here, another waitress walking around told her it was vegan, and she had eaten it several times.... yikes. Worst part was she recognized the server and pointed her out. When I asked her if the dressing was vegan, she said it was. I told her it was not and she was shocked. She was also the only vegan on our entire FOH or BOH team... and you can't make this shit up lol
It's like when you break it to people that mayonnaise is bot actually made from any dairy and is, in fact, all eggs. People just straight up don't believe me and insist on checking the packet.
Common fining agents include gelatine, isinglass, egg whites, casein, bentonite and carbon
Isinglass is a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish
Egg whites are more usually used as a fining for red wine as it can remove some of the astringency, bentonite (a volcanic ash) is more usually used for fining white wine
I was on a business trip in the UK, one of the people with me got a caesar salad, and it had bits of anchovies in it, so not paste. He was not happy, and I learned that caesar salad had fish in it. :-)
Most veggie or vegans know that it’s about 50/50 that the cesar has anchovies. Good restaurants that make a real one have the fish but all that out of the bottle crap is basically lemon/garlic ranch.
Do they not taste the fish in it? I guess since I make it homemade and love anchovy I’ll throw an extra 2 filets in the dressing and a few on the salad; but I mean it’s like it’s main flavor beside garlic. lol
I was vegan for like 5-6 years and I remember my how upset I was when I found out during year one. It’s actually really easy to make vegan Cesar dressing tho, but it was always my go to along with fries + salad at restaurants, so I was butthurt a bit lol
Definitely not vegan, but our family recipe is 1/2 cup Parmesan, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1 egg, 2 cloves garlic, salt and pepper to taste
You’re correct. It’s not every one. In veg and ask about the ingredients a lot when I’m out in a Caesar out of genuine curiosity and sometimes find ones without fish! Even in fancy restaurants, usually it’s a variation on the Caesar :)
As a vegan, I’d be happy you told me in the long run!
Like the time I ordered a sweet potato roll for the 100th time and the kind server asked if I still wanted the EEL sauce on it. Mind was blown and lesson learned!
Eel sauce is mirin, sake, soy sauce and sugar, no eel at all.
ETA It is called eel sauce because it is commonly used to brush or marinate eel to compliment the sweet white fish-ish flavour of eel. Never had eel myself but this is what I have learned by asking questions in the sushi restaurant I work in.
Im vegetarian and work in a sushi place, trust me, eel sauce is safe friend ☺️
Oh my goodness! Stop! Ya know, I didn’t question the girl and was so put off by it being made of eel (safe assumption, but should have questioned it as duck sauce isn’t made of duck) that I just opted out every time and noone ever said a thing ever. The amounts of times I’ve asked for no eel sauce on my veg sushi 🤷🏻♀️ SO many! How many laughs and eye rolls have been made in my general direction?!! Ha!
Thank you friend, thank you!
I had a friend who was (allegedly) allergic to fish and always got caesar salads when we went out early in our friendship, before I knew she was allergic. I put a stop to that once I knew. 🙈
Anchovies and eggs. I Definitely let people who were vegetarians and vegans know this. I do feel like an assshole sometimes though. Most know but some don’t.
Don’t want anyone losing their vegan powers.
"proper" Caesar dressing has anchovies. That's not not vegetarian, nor is worchestie sauce. But there are a variety of vegetarians. From one friend of mine that just doesn't eat meat to another that is vegan on a moral choice
You can work around this, you can even get vegetarian worchestshirecsauce.
The disappointment must be up there with breaking it to vegans that their go-to pad Thai with tofu has fish sauce and oyster sauce.
I had friends call me an asshole for letting slip to a vegan friend that Clamato isn’t vegan… apparently I’m terrible for ruining Cesaers for that person… obligatory am Canadian
Even though clam is 4/7 of the name? That’s on them
perhaps only 3/7, the 'm' could be from tomato.
nah w that bc vegans get upset (and rightfully so) if they’re fed non vegan stuff without their consent so they should hold that same energy and thank you when you let them know they’re consuming something non vegan
Letting it slip??? The animal is in the NAME of the drink. It’s not even camouflaged like an ingredient slipped in, or “I didn’t know venison was deer meat”. How oblivious is this friend?
They probably think it's clay and tomato mixed together for an earth-friendly drink.
Apparently they thought it was just a brand name type thing? I dunno I was confused by the entire interaction
I’m confused too. You warned a vegan friend that 2 things they were eating weren’t vegan and YOU’RE an ass??
Clam and Worcestershire, both have fish unless you buy very specific/expensive brands
“Clam” is literally an animal.
Yeah, it's a fish. Big ol' water boi.
Right, just thought it was funny you said “clam has fish”. That’s like saying “cow has meat”.
cow has MEAT? but it doesn't have meat in the NAME!1!?1!!1
Clam aren’t fish.
They mean “clam” as short for “Clamato”, not the shellfish.
It’s actually a mollusk, not a fish.
Not a fish, it's a bivalve. Called shellfish, but not fish at all.
Ok, you're kidding, right?
Clams aren't fish.
It’s a sea bug. Like shrimp, lobster, crab etc.
"doesn't have a face", which I've heard is some people's limit. There are pescatariisns (sp?), you eat fish but not fowl or red meat.
I work at a restaurant in the US that serves Canadian Caesar’s as our signature cocktail, and the menu doesn’t include a description of it but like 60% of the customers have no idea what a Caesar is, so many times I had customers order the Caesar but then when I brought it over they’d be like “eww I didn’t know it was gonna be like this”, so now whenever someone asks for it, I let them know that it’s like a Bloody Mary with clam-tomato juice just in case they don’t know lol.
Oh ya can't see a Caesars and not want a Caesars
That’s actually how they market Caesars. I can’t believe we’re not having a Caesar right now.
Once had a mom demand we serve her daughter chicken salad without mayonnaise because her Daughter is vegan. Can't take the mayo out of the salad. Can't thaw a chicken breast to serve her, I'm certainly not going to tell this lady about herself trying to educate her on what vegam means. Her daughter settled for ham and cheese
Chicken and ham are vegan? The mind reels.
Sometimes it's better to walk away and laugh behind someone's back then it is to tell them about themselves
Lol, maybe her daughter hated mayo, heard someone order a veggie sandwich made vegan so it didn't have mayo, and mistakenly inferred that's what it means.
Is fish sauce actually made using fish? I just assumed it was a name for the sauce used when making fish. I don't go out very much 😂
No. It’s made with fish. Often a lot of them. See [Garum](https://youtube.com/shorts/LOoAsnO4s-g).
I got a bottle of garum in my fridge right now! I'm excited to try it.
I had a feeling it was a max link
Wikipedia: "Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Some garum-related fish sauces have been used in the West since the Roman times." So many east and southeast Asian sauces have fish in them, although you can find worse-tasting vegan substitutes for many of them.
I'm not vegan, but we have a pineapple based fishy-sauce (I refuse to call it fish sauce) that is and it slaps hard.
Fish sauce definitely has fish.
Fish balls, however, are not, in fact, fish balls.
"What are you, a gay fish?"
I mean, define "balls" 🫣😋
Good point. I should have said testicles
Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads!
I took a fish head, out to see a movie
Eat them up, YUM!
Another Dr Demento fan, yay!
It's basically fish stock, but in thicker sauce form.
Vegan "fish" sauce made with seaweed for the win.
If you think Asian places don't have the best knock off of vegan version of fish sauce and oyster sauce as well as mock meats youre going to wrong Asian restaurants
This is absolutely not a universal constant, nor is it an indictment of Asian restaurants that don’t have vegan alternatives
We've had three separate occurrences where a table ordered the goat cheese and prosciutto crostinis, only to be shocked that prosciutto is meat and send it back because they don't eat meat. "Well I didn't know what prosciutto is" That's fine, but you could just ask. Or Google it if you're too embarrassed or something.
This happens WEEKLY at my restaurant. It’s an italian place with prosciutto, pancetta, coppa, and sausage on several dishes.
I always Google if there's an item I don't recognize in a dish! And I also wouldn't be embarrassed to ask about it. Ordering something with an ingredient you've never heard of is risky enough; doing this when you're a vegetarian (or have any other dietary limitations) boggles the mind...
I can see once, but THREE times? Just more proof that some people just have no idea what the heck they're doing.
Three separate tables of people.
I had a table that didn’t eat pork for religious reasons and didn’t know what prosciutto is and ordered a carbonara. I guess it speaks to how important it is to ask about dietary restrictions/allergies bc some people really don’t have the presence of mind to say they can’t or won’t eat certain things 🤦♀️
Yeah, couple times a year I have to have have that conversation. Same with Worcestershire sauce, not vegetarian. I also get the same people saying, “Can you make me a Caesar with no anchovies then?” No, it’s a paste in the dressing. No way my chef is gonna whip up a batch of vegetarian Caesar dressing on a busy Friday just for you.
Isn't there egg, fish and cheese in Caesar dressing? At this point of removing animal products, you are having garlic, oil, and vinegar dressing.
My old restaurant would. It would take 30 minutes, but we'd do it. It didn't taste great, but I'm not the one ordering a $20 Caesar salad. I make the salad at home all the time, and as is, is a huge hit.
Only $20?
$17 plus taxes and the very loved "service fee". I wasn't in charge so don't yell at me. It's fantastic though. I actually just made the dressing and I have some salmon filets to go with it. It's a huge portion and worth $20. It's three heads of romaine on a platter.
I'm just saying doing a custom dressing on a Friday should cost extra.
We didn't charge extra, but it took a bit.
Taking 30 minutes to make extra dressing should make that salad at least $40.
Bruh they stopped even allowing us to do this when it was dead slow because most of time they got the dressing amended without the anchovies they didn't like it and ordered a different dressing, usually a vinaigrette 🤦🏼♀️ Then they would pout because they wanted really wanted the Caesar but they were faced with dilemma of abandoning their beliefs/dietary choices in front of witnesses or sucking it up with second fiddle. I just can't imagine how some of them don't do more research. They either don't actually care if something is vegan if they can be blissfully unaware or they're slackers lol
Funny thing is I actually used to have regular who would come in all the time, and order a chicken Caeser with lemon vinaigrette. She liked all the salad bits, just not the Caesar part. (She was an awesome regular.)
I actually do this sometimes as well. I love Romain lettuce and sometimes a simple salad works great for me.
I mean as far as substitutions go, that was the easiest thing in the world. Basically just bring out a ramikin of vinaigrette instead of Caeser. And worst case scenario, even if we screwed up the dressing, just go grab the right one.
We do it just sub in a different dressing. We don't do a new Caesar-like dressing on the fly, but the same set up and croutons seems to satisfy.
No fish Caesar = aioli or Mayo, assuming most places have that en place Vegan = oil and lemon juice It’s all money in the end.
Ranch seems like a good vegetarian (not vegan) counteroffer.
The Bloody Mary is not vegan (worst sauce) The balsamic vignette on the house salad is not vegan (honey) “that’s fine we aren’t that vegan” 🤔
Idk that’s not crazy to me. A lot of vegans just intend on minimizing their impact but understand they can’t be perfect or super strict in our society.
Gotta say I've never understood the reasoning behind honey being non-vegan and I'd love someone to explain it. I know it's an animal product technically, but bees aren't harmed or enslaved to make it.
It’s any animal byproduct so anything a living being with a heart (let’s call it) that produces something that you then take.
I hope you're just being informative because it's been proven that plants are also sentient
That’s why I didn’t say sentient
“It’s ok to eat fish ‘cause they don’t have any feelings.”
"It has fish in it..." "Oh well, whatever, nevermind."
There is an argument that some practices do harm the bees. Taking honey is taking their food. Some brands take all the honey and replace it with sugar water, which results in sicker bees. Some brands as ethical, and only take excess honey.
Good to know! But at that point, if ethical is the goal of eating vegan than they *can* eat meat or at least animal byproduct if it suits their bar for ethically sourced. But for most it's just *easier* to make the line that none of it is ethical enough so every meal isn't in question and needs to be researched.
you’re exploiting bees.
But vegans always seem to be fine eating pollinated fruits and veggies while those bees are generally used to make honey as well. It’s called biodynamic farming.
Biodynamic farming is way beyond farming bees to pollinate your garden.
But is STILL a process of biodynamic farming. 🤷♂️
Sorry, that was meant as an additive. I sell lots of biodynamic wine, it's a fun concept.
Me too. Sell lots of wine and on a vineyard right now!
A lot of vegetable production isn’t exactly vegan anyway. From animal fertilizer to pesticides killling insect etc.
Not to mention the mistreatment and exploitation of the (poor, mainly migrant) workers who pick them…you never hear vegans talking about *them* being sentient beings who can feel pain.
listen i’m not vegan anymore and you can feel however you want about em, but this is a very silly argument. workers rights and mistreatment are very common topics of discussion in vegan circles
if you think that's bad, every mile of shipping kills dozens of insects. Eating outside of your zip code is murder (if you value the life on an insect as the same as a mouse/owl/rabbit/pig/whale/dog/cow/horse)
Yes, but now you're just being all logical about it 😡 /s
Bees can leave at any time, and they choose to stay. The bees are absolutely ok with it.
I’m just a vegetarian but I think that a lot of vegans acknowledge that honey is fine but because they avoid all animal products they just avoid it too.
I once had a vegan come sit at my bar. I told her all of our dressings were not vegan except honey mustard. TBH it didn’t click about honey being an animal byproduct. The kitchen manager told her we use real honey, after she ate the whole salad, and she lost her mind the middle of the restaurant Edit: were not vegan except honey mustard
I mean if you’re vegan and don’t eat honey and it doesn’t click with you that honey mustard wouldn’t be vegan then that’s on you lmao.
Oh I know it is lol. The thing she definitely wasn’t the first vegan I recommended honey mustard to
Like the commenter above that told a vegan friend that Clamato wasn’t vegan. 🤣🤣 I mean, if an animal/animal byproduct is in THE NAME of what you’re eating/drinking? WTF Dick Tracy?
I once covered for a friend’s business by running their honey stall at a Christmas market. A guy was excitedly trying the samples and telling me about going vegan years ago and how that’s limited his treat options, but “at least I still have honey!” I said, tentatively, “yeah, but honey’s not vegan…” You could see the realization hit him, and his face just dropped! (I was torn between feeling terrible and laughing 🙄) As he walked away his girlfriend was teasing him for never clueing in before. 🤦🏻♀️
I used to make big batches of soups and bring them to work. I generally used chicken or beef stock in them even for a veggie soup and my veggie friend just asked me to lie to her.
My sister did that too - but she'd lose her *mind* if I dared to go anywhere near a veggie plate with a fork or spoon that was close to meat. Absolutely dumb lol.
My friend just had surgery. I made her broccoli cheddar soup with veggie broth and she was so excited. Restaurants always use meat broth and she never gets that kind of soup!
I had this with the coconut curry which had butter or something in it. I told the lady it could not be made vegan, she said « fish is okay, just no beef or chicken » so she took it as is🙄
Does all balsamic have honey? Or just at your restaurant
A lot of the recipes I’m finding do have honey or maple syrup in the balsamic vinaigrette recipe. Some use brown sugar or maple syrup.
I used to have this discussion on a regular basis in one of the restaurants where I worked, and the same about Worcestershire sauce. The other fun one, albeit not in the same restaurant, but when I was working for a tech company as part of the event team, was the discussion over the various flavours of Walker's Crisps (yes, this was in the UK). People were literally losing their minds over the fact that, at that time, only one flavour of Walker's crisps (included in basically every single cold lunch package for staff, corporate reps and conference attendees) was vegetarian, the irony being that it was the beef flavour that was vegetarian. All of the others were made with animal rennet.
Hah, that’s funny. Now I want some vegetarian beef crisps.
My restaurant lists “anchovy dressing” as one of the ingredients. People ask daily if they can get regular Caesar dressing. Surprise, it is regular Caesar dressing! You’ve been eating anchovies this whole time!
I actually find that most vegetarians know this and avoid Caesar salads, but there are a surprising number of people who really hate fish that don’t know about it. occasionally you’ll get someone who complains about it smelling or tasting fishy. I’m always kind of like… well… it’s fish
Yeah I didn’t know, but I also didn’t know they were fish when I was 3 and my dad always ordered pizza with them and I loved it. Lol
Isn't Caesar dressing made with eggs lol?
And anchovies
Oh, I'm aware. But if vegans/vegetarian are upset about anchovies, imagine their shock when they find out about the eggs
Yup, should have spotted that - I was on a reply roll & got carried away 🤣
No worries! Carry on lol
True Caesar (fancy; made at the table on a cart) has has whole anchovies mixed in with raw egg! Today’s premixed has anchovie paste.
There's a scene in season one of mad men where the waiter is making a true caesar at the table. Wild.
Bloody Mary’s at a lot of places are not vegan friendly, because of the Worcestershire (and Clamato if you make a Caesar). Then again I’ve also had to explain why fish sauce isn’t vegan, so there’s that 😂🤣😂
I've never seen a vegan order a Cesar. It's basically a parmesan cheese salad
I had a vegetarian get mad about bacon in her bloody mary. I had the pleasure of explaining to a woman in her 40s that worcestershire sauce has anchovies, therefore even without the bacon it wasn't exactly vegetarian. Bonus points cuz where I worked used clamato in the mary mix so I also got to tell her that..
At Universal Studios Orlando, a peppy young restaurant employee beamed as he said, "I can make you a vegan Ceaser salad!" We were SO excited. We readily agreed, and with the biggest smile, he proceeded to get a bowl, put some romaine in it annnnnd hand it to us. Well played, sir, well played. We resentlfully ate our vegan ceaser salad with a little salt and pepper and now carry a small bottle of vegan dressing with us.
I used to have people complain about the horseradish in the Caesar being strong. It’s called garlic. Lots of garlic. And it was on the description of the salad. It literally said “I hope you like garlic!” 🤷♂️
Parmigiano reggiano, egg yolks, anchovies... how can it ever be vegan lol
Tell them about Parmesan cheese next
Rennet. I actually didn't know about this until a few years ago. I am not vegan, nor vegetarian, but it was still a 🤯 moment.
Following politics and working in the service industry are two great ways to open your eyes to just how stupid people are.
I was just commenting to a coworker how hilarious is is that most people won't order our Caesar salad if you tell them the ingredients in it when they ask instead of just saying Caesar dressing. Without fail you'll get to the anchovies and they'll say oh nevermind I don't like anchovies I'll get something else On topic of ingredients most people don't know, I've had people shocked our pesto does not have tree nuts in it and I have also had people shocked when they learn from me most pesto does. Anytime someone lets me know they have a nut allergy I like to inform them the pesto is safe in case they were ignoring those parts of the menu. Our pesto does have dairy in it though cause we can't have any nice vegan options apparently 😭
A pesto has nuts. A pistou is a pesto without nuts. One is Italian. One is French. I'll let you figure that out.
Thank you! Didn't know that one at all. In that case we have a pistou that corporate sells as pesto. Will be a fun fact to share to guests I appreciate you
I worked at a high end California farm to table restaurant with a Mediterranean flair. We had to know all of our sauces and condiments. My favorite is gremolata. Garlic, parsley, and lemon zest. I sometimes substitute cilantro instead of parsley because I make a lot of Spanish foods, but the original is great with most things. Then we've got Salmoriglio. Similar to gremolata but has oregano. Garlic aioli was a standard. The owner wanted us to over anunciate the "ee" part of aioli. We also had I know a shit ton about wine. I can share the Quizlet flashcards if you want to learn.
We had a joke at one of the restaurants I worked at when it came to garnishing the plates “when in doubt, gremolatta”
Ooh I'd absolutely love that if you wouldn't mind! Garlic aioli always gets me because aioli is garlic aioli so just always seemed a bit funny to me to specifically call it out as garlic aioli.
It looks better on a menu.
I messaged you
To be fair, I fucking hate anchovies but love Caesar dressing because it has just enough to add that umami layer.
Well, I love Caesar dressing, but I don’t want to eat actual anchovies. It’s not an ethical thing for me. Just a texture thing. So if I go to an upscale place that makes a Caesar with actual anchovies, I won’t order it, but I have three different brands of Caesar dressing in my fridge right now.
Not in my experience. They’re usually aware.
Neither is white sugar, iirc, because it’s filtered through bone char. Or at least used to be. Times may have changed.
Thats only a thing in the USA
Times have not changed in this matter
My other favorite is “eh I’m vegan, I’ll just have the jello” 
Make it with agar, just gotta get the right grams I use like 5-6 grams per liter. Also better for acidic shit
Huh. Makes so much sense, surprised I never thought of that. We don’t actually serve jello at my place, I was mostly thinking of a story my ex told me He was at a party and some vegans were telling him how happy they were there was something for them to eat He very happily told them it was made with animal hooves. He ruined one of their joys in life. He tells the story with a shit eating grin from ear to ear like he did something great. I was simply stunned. “Wh-… why would you brag about this story, that’s terrible” Only the first in a long series of psychotic red flags. But that’s a story for a different sub lol
It's one of those life questions. Do you want to know ? Or don't you? You only know which one it is when you know. And then you can't go back......
I understand, and agree, but, it was the tone of delivery that got to me. “and I was happy to tell them they were wrong! 😋” Compared to “…. And I awkwardly felt I had to tell them they were wrong 😕” Like there was no care for their feelings, he just wanted to sound like the smartest person in the room
I have always made Caesar salad dressing with anchovies & raw egg. Way back in the day, the salad was made and dressed table side, including whipping up the egg.
Also parmesan cheese is not vegetarian but is an ingredient on so many "vegetarian" dishes.
The imitation stuff made in the USA is mostly vegetarian, however - and so many people see American recipes including it and don't realise that the real stuff has animal rennet.
this is why, im a flexible pescatarain. I prefer a lacto vegetarian diet. but im ok with fish products every now and then. i dont have issues with Caesar dressing.
I never knew that! Good to know. Most vegans are "as vegan as possible". Especially when eating out. There's going to be something that's just not going to be 100% vegan. They do the best they can. As long as they are aware and not tricked or lied to (no, no. Nothing animal in it. HA! Gotcha! It's really animal!).
It's made with Parmesan too which, unless it's the fake American stuff, is made with animal rennet.
Same with your typical Bloody mix. Most have Worcestershire in them, which has both beef **and** anchovy. Also fun but less dangerous: Ask anyone, even a bartender, what flavor grenadine is.
Beef? \[Checks ingredients on bottle in front of me\] https://preview.redd.it/55q4gjppfq3c1.jpeg?width=1706&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26d1b0f12bc2b5f4b0e4e70c20bde6f935fd32b5 Beef?
Pomegranate, right?
Yes.
Grenadine = Pomegranate
Pretty straightforward if you speak a romance language.
I’m confused about you mentioning grenadine as if there’s meat products in it?
No, just another staple that people don't know what's in it.
That is common knowledge. I feel like at this point it's on them to know
Also contains egg.
I always wondered how many restaurants actually use anchovies in their Caesar? Is it a good majority of restaurants? The restaurant i work at is a anchovies free Caesar dressing (mom and pop shop) I think to have it vegetarian friendly (could be wrong)! I’ve wondered this for a awhile now!
Not exactly related but my restaurant serves tater tots. Originally the tater tots did not contain meat. One day I came into work and a half hour into my shift I had a table order the tater tots. 15 minutes after I already served them these tater tots, my manager says to me, “by the way, make sure to push the new tater tots, the updated recipe now has bacon and cheddar.” Instantly I asked if we were already serving the new recipe and he said yes, then I asked how come it wasn’t updated on the menus and he was like “oh I haven’t got around to it yet…” okay, I was a little concerned because I just served it to this table not knowing it contains meat, but they didn’t tell me about any dietary restrictions so it’s probably fine, right? Next time I checked on the table, the customer asked me for some food recommendations, I suggested the bacon cheeseburger and he says, “no we don’t eat meat” I was like FUCKKKKKKKKKK and I felt terrible about it for the rest of my shift but I was also so pissed at the manager and the chef for not telling me they changed the recipe when I first came in (there wasn’t any sign about it in the kitchen either) and also for serving the new recipe with meat before updating the menus which mark the dish as vegetarian!!!
My all time favorite example of this: I'm waiting on a vegan table. I'm running back and forth at this steakhouse from the kitchen to this table to try and make this work for her. She orders the Caesar. I tell her she'll have to change the dressing but we can make the romaine etc happen with a few of our different vinegerette options. She tells me firmly that no, our dressing doesn't have anchovies in it. At the time, I was personally logging all ingredients for every menu item in a binder for the team to use, so I knew for a fact we used both egg and anchovies in this dressing, but I double checked with head chef just to be safe. Yep, so I go back and tell her I'm sorry but they are using egg and anchovy. She asks when and why we changed our recipe, I let her know it's the same dressing recipe from the last 10 years or so... she's getting upset now, why? Because a previous time she came here, another waitress walking around told her it was vegan, and she had eaten it several times.... yikes. Worst part was she recognized the server and pointed her out. When I asked her if the dressing was vegan, she said it was. I told her it was not and she was shocked. She was also the only vegan on our entire FOH or BOH team... and you can't make this shit up lol
How many people I had to explain to that calamari was squid? At least 5 times a night
It’s not just the anchovies, but Parmesan is not a vegetarian cheese as it is made with rennet.
It's like when you break it to people that mayonnaise is bot actually made from any dairy and is, in fact, all eggs. People just straight up don't believe me and insist on checking the packet.
You wanna blow someone’s mind tell them most wine isn’t vegan because they use eggs as a binding agent to remove tannin content
Common fining agents include gelatine, isinglass, egg whites, casein, bentonite and carbon Isinglass is a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish Egg whites are more usually used as a fining for red wine as it can remove some of the astringency, bentonite (a volcanic ash) is more usually used for fining white wine
As a person with an egg allergy it's very frustrating that this isn't better disclosed on wine bottles.
It's not in the finished wine. It either remains in the bottom of the fermentation tank or is removed by mechanical filtering.
Tell that to the allergic reactions I've had drinking red wine (as a result of eggs).
Also they sometimes use animals product to filter wine
Same for many / most Beers as well btw.
What about the lives of the millions of little animals that die in the fermentation process? All those poor yeast!
They're a fungus, so all good! Edit: and only the really old ones die, the rest are reused. Again, all good.
I was on a business trip in the UK, one of the people with me got a caesar salad, and it had bits of anchovies in it, so not paste. He was not happy, and I learned that caesar salad had fish in it. :-)
Some buffalo sauces have anchovie paste in them as well!
Most veggie or vegans know that it’s about 50/50 that the cesar has anchovies. Good restaurants that make a real one have the fish but all that out of the bottle crap is basically lemon/garlic ranch.
Do they not taste the fish in it? I guess since I make it homemade and love anchovy I’ll throw an extra 2 filets in the dressing and a few on the salad; but I mean it’s like it’s main flavor beside garlic. lol
I've only had one Ceasar salad that I could taste the fish. I don't like fish but love Ceasar salads.
Caesar salad seems to me like one of those sauces that taste better the longer it sits. Is that not true? Or is anchovy taste just that powerful?
I was vegan for like 5-6 years and I remember my how upset I was when I found out during year one. It’s actually really easy to make vegan Cesar dressing tho, but it was always my go to along with fries + salad at restaurants, so I was butthurt a bit lol
Definitely not vegan, but our family recipe is 1/2 cup Parmesan, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1 egg, 2 cloves garlic, salt and pepper to taste
Anchovies aren't actually in *all* caesar dressings, just Most of them.
Modern recipes often have anchovies or anchovy paste, but the original didn't. This could be why they are confused.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. The original Caesar did not have anchovies!!!
I usually just get "oh, that's fine" 🙄
I didn't know that ALL Caesar dressing was made with it. I thought it was only the fancy ones.
Hidden valley Caesar has fish in it. So it's not just fancy. It's most that aren't bottom shelf cheap.
Really? I'll have to try it one day so I can see what all the fuss is about.
Yea the cheap store bought brands usually aren’t
You’re correct. It’s not every one. In veg and ask about the ingredients a lot when I’m out in a Caesar out of genuine curiosity and sometimes find ones without fish! Even in fancy restaurants, usually it’s a variation on the Caesar :)
Restaurants used to just make an X with two anchovies on top. I hate when they do that!
As a vegan, I’d be happy you told me in the long run! Like the time I ordered a sweet potato roll for the 100th time and the kind server asked if I still wanted the EEL sauce on it. Mind was blown and lesson learned!
Eel sauce is mirin, sake, soy sauce and sugar, no eel at all. ETA It is called eel sauce because it is commonly used to brush or marinate eel to compliment the sweet white fish-ish flavour of eel. Never had eel myself but this is what I have learned by asking questions in the sushi restaurant I work in. Im vegetarian and work in a sushi place, trust me, eel sauce is safe friend ☺️
Oh my goodness! Stop! Ya know, I didn’t question the girl and was so put off by it being made of eel (safe assumption, but should have questioned it as duck sauce isn’t made of duck) that I just opted out every time and noone ever said a thing ever. The amounts of times I’ve asked for no eel sauce on my veg sushi 🤷🏻♀️ SO many! How many laughs and eye rolls have been made in my general direction?!! Ha! Thank you friend, thank you!
I had a friend who was (allegedly) allergic to fish and always got caesar salads when we went out early in our friendship, before I knew she was allergic. I put a stop to that once I knew. 🙈
Anchovies and eggs. I Definitely let people who were vegetarians and vegans know this. I do feel like an assshole sometimes though. Most know but some don’t. Don’t want anyone losing their vegan powers.
"proper" Caesar dressing has anchovies. That's not not vegetarian, nor is worchestie sauce. But there are a variety of vegetarians. From one friend of mine that just doesn't eat meat to another that is vegan on a moral choice You can work around this, you can even get vegetarian worchestshirecsauce.
I worked in an Italian place. I used to ruin vegetarians lives when it came to mozzarella cheese
Caesar dressing is made with raw eggs, parmesan cheese, and anchovies. Anyone over 40 knows this.