h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Damn, you know I knew this, at the back of my mind - about the animal rennet. In fact I actually think that people who eat any dairy, also ought to eat properly produced (welfare standard) veal, as that is another product of the dairy industry that nobody talks about.

Sorry, this is derailing your PR thread.

Can we have a suggestion for vegetarian cheeses? Is ricotta produced without rennet?

Entry: What to do with a Vegetarian at Christmas - A87724830
Author: Z / Dr Zen - U185843


Page turner. More suggestions about the Entry itself please.

Baked brown beans and roasted Brussels sprouts with chestnuts are two of my favorite Christmas treats.

Of course I remember the one Christmas Eve where the potatoes had cheese and butter, the stuffing had sausage added and even the tossed salad had bacon. I had dry sliced bread and black olives for dinner that year. (And graciously thanked the hostess for the lovely dinner, anyway. The following year the potatoes at least were made with olive oil. )

What a FAB idea for an Entry. A848612 mentions vegetarians, in case you want to have a read through or link through to it.

Step 1 - finding out. A very important section! I'd say to try to ask the person themselves if possible because their mother might not know since the person in question left home five years ago (or something...)
It's also important to find out what they like, or what they usually have at Christmas - you may have found out that they don't eat any meat at all but there's no point in serving them a leek bake if they don't like leeks. Or they may always have had nut roast and wouldn't feel Christmassy if they didn't have it.

I really like your list of how a vegetarian views a Christmas dinner, but I would put more warning on the roast vegetables - it's pretty common to cook the potatoes and parsnips in the fats from the meat. You address this in Step 2, but as you haven't mentioned that it's a problem in Step 1 this may confuse some people as you did mention it in the gravy.

Step 3 - I would combine 3 and 4 as calling something Shepherd's Pie would make me (omnivore that I am) assume it had lamb in it. And essentially they're the varients on the same dish.

I *really* like your Things To Avoid section, especially that bit about not making a fuss.

Sorry about that, I missed the last post. I've nothing else to add about the Entry itself- unless Z wanted to suggest more "side dish" ideas, in which case my last comment might be somewhat useful. Otherwise I think this reads wonderfully!

PC - your remark ought to be a quote in this Entry


"I remember the one Christmas Eve where the potatoes had cheese and butter, the stuffing had sausage added and even the tossed salad had bacon. I had dry sliced bread and black olives for dinner that year. (And graciously thanked the hostess for the lovely dinner, anyway. The following year the potatoes at least were made with olive oil."

Very good article - I'd like to see this on the Front Page by Christmas, but I suspect it's a bit late for that this year.

Other than minor spelling mentioned above, footnote spaces and full stops (which can be picked up later), the only thing I would suggest is reference links to similar themed articles. Such as:

A848612 - Planning and Preparing a Christmas Meal
A666669 - Buying and Preparing the Vegetables

<BB<

I think I want to see a fast track for these type of Entries, where they are good ones, into our topical Entry category on the Front Page.

So, the more we can help Z and other authors to polish their writing here, the better for the sub-editors later on.

This doesn't answer the question of what to stuff the vegetarian with.

Also some vegans won't drink beer, (I don't know why) so have some cider.

Here you go, McKay: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_and_beer

Apparently some of the processes can involve animal products and not all breweries declare their use.

It's to do with the finings used to make beer clear. Made from fish.

Now, to read the entry...

I like that this isn't just recipes, but a whole plan of action.

I served nut roast last time I had a veggie for Xmasish dinner. I did make it myself though.

You can get veggie suet, which might be worth a mention if you are making your own Xmas pudding. You'd have to know a few months in advance for that though, or, perhaps, just make it with veggie suet as standard.

Oookay, I'm still getting the hang of this peer review thing, so excuse me if I get this wrong...

I like the light heartedness of the entry, but I'm not sure if you're trying a little too hard to try and be funny. A lot of the original entries (which I thought were great) had this same sort of humour, the different species / alien type stuff, and over time the Guide seems to have moved away from outright humour to a more light-hearted reality. If that makes sense.

I am very glad you mention about asking the vegetarian. Different vegetarians have different ideas of what's acceptable or not to eat, even different vegans do. There's a whole can of hurt if they start arguing about whether it's okay to eat honey or not.

You use make stuffing balls, might be worth also implicitly saying "AND DON'T COOK THEM INSIDE THE DEAD ANIMAL" I've seen this done.

"try and seat your guest as far away from the food as possible." No, try and seat them as far away from the meat as possible


Overall this is a nice entry, but I can't help but think that it's a little short on substance. I think it'd be *so* much better if a few people here could add some anecdotes / stories to it of particular bad experiences of eating at a panicky cooker's house, they always make me laugh.

I remember the first Christmas me and my wife (who was vegan) went to my parents for Christmas dinner, and my mother had roasted the potatoes in butter as she normally did, simply because she didn't understand that butter contains animal products.

There's a nice entry: A980723 that could be referenced or possibly used to update/combine about having a vegan dinner guest.

You're a bit too quick to discuss Nut Roast. A few veggie mates of mine feel the same way about Nut Roast as I do about Turkey.

Namely that it's crap. It's crap, and you can tell it's crap because if it wasn't crap, you'd eat it in March. Or October. Or any time other than Christmas Day.

But regardless of it being crap, it just wouldn't be Christmas without it.

Argh! Dismiss, not discuss.

If the turkey's crap, you've done it wrong.

Good turkey is just sub-par chicken. That's why I get her indoors to roast a ham.

I've never had a nut roast. Can a link to a recipe be included in this entry?

Most wines in the US aren't suitable for vegetarians or vegans, either, as well as many beers (and spirits, too).

When I was a kid, before I switched to a vegetarian diet, I never cared for turkey *or* ham. So I'm actually used to making meals out of side dishes and the relish tray. I'm actually grateful most of the time for the lighter meal.

Must say my family (a clan of bloodthirsty people if ever) don't eat turkey at christmas - we eat beef.

We also break convention by having it away from home - we always go away for christmas, to the same place, to the extent that it is almost like family

We do the whole family thing one week before, where far larger amounts are eaten.

We had been considering what to serve one of my extended family members who had been vegetarian until about two weeks before, but then changed.

Maybe if the circumstance comes up I'll point her this way

Do vegetarians need to be patronised?