Traveling as a Vegan: Some Lessons Learned

I travelled for work for the first time today since adopting my whole foods, plant based lifestyle. My two ventures into chain restaurants have already demonstrated that dining out requires a level of mindfulness that I wasn't quite prepared for... And anyone who knows me can testify that I'm not the most observant person you'll ever meet.

I had a two hour layover in Chicago over the noon hour, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to find a nice sit-down restaurant in which I could order a nice vegan meal. Had I been in more of a rush and needed to do a "grab and go" option, I fear my choices would have been very limited and doubtless I would have experienced some "what can I eat?" anxiety.

After checking out 2 "local" airport restaurant menus and discovering that they had no decent vegan items on the menu, I decided to check out Chilis, figuring a chain like that might offer more of a variety for people with food restrictions.

After my experience with the first two restaurants, I was so elated to discover that you could substitute black bean burgers (my favorite!), for any burger, that I quickly glanced at the list of burger choices, and upon seeing an avocado burger on the menu, quickly sat down and ordered what I thought was going to be a healthy and totally delish meal. I was so proud of myself for going from restaurant to restaurant to find just the right one for my dietary requirements.

Imagine the disappointment on my face when this amazing black bean avocado burger on a beautiful whole wheat bun was placed in front of me, only to have (upon closer inspection) a nice big melted slab of swiss cheese in it, as well as a creamy ranch sauce! This was all listed in the burger's description on the menu, but I had been so excited to find my vegetarian meal that I didn't look for vegan related concerns... It was delicious but I was soooo sick a half hour after eating this that I almost missed my connecting flight because I was stuck in the bathroom! How gross is that? It was so embarrassing to be the last one to board the plane after that awful experience. Lesson #1 Learned: read the menu description carefully and don't get cocky about your food choices.

I was actually quite queasy for half the plane ride until I succumbed to a food coma induced by the massive amounts of calories and processed food I had just eaten and fell asleep... At 1:30pm! Lesson 2 Learned: my body is now HIGHLY sensitive to anything I put into it and there can be no cheating without negative physical reactions!

So here I am at a Green Mill restaurant after another adventure in vegan-dining out. This time I looked at the menu in detail in advance and knew they had a spinach tortellini that seemed like an ok option. They also substitute garden veggie burgers but I didn't want ANOTHER burger so I opted for this pasta dish without the Parmesan cheese on top. It had a cream base, but I just didn't feel like eating a house salad for dinner so I decided to look the other way. Also, I should note that in an effort to be more mindful this time, I even asked the waitress what she recommended for vegetarian dinner options in case she would suggest something not ordinarily offered on the menu.

I was feeling kind of ok about my choice until the waitress threw me a curveball by asking if I wanted soup or salad with my pasta. The soup was a cheesy broccoli (even though I had just told her I try to eat vegan), so that was an easy choice, I asked for the house side salad with the cucumber dill dressing.

Yeah.

The salad came with Parmesan cheese piled on top (although to their credit, the pasta had none, just like I had asked for it to be). And of course the dressing was some sort of creamy based thing. It was served to me with a delicious, very white, fluffy bread and an herbed butter spread, no margarine available. Lesson #3 Learned: be one step ahead and think broadly about things that might normally contain dairy so you remember to be very upfront and clear with your server about what you can and cannot eat so they can help you order a meal that meets your dietary needs.

I'll be on the road for 4 more days so it will be interesting to see if learned anything from these valuable lessons and improve my dining-out skills at all!

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