But diners should still ask about key ingredients

It can be hard out there for a vegetarian. Dangers lurk in nearly every restaurant kitchen.

Take tortillas. Are they made with lard?

Or rice. Could it be cooked in chicken stock?

Even soup. Sure, the menu calls it “hearty vegetable,” but is it possibly prepared with beef stock?

The answer to all theses questions, of course, is yes. That’s why vegans like David Sudarsky satisfy their urges to eat out by going to a handful of restaurants they know and trust – Lovin’ Spoonfuls, Govinda’s Natural Foods Buffet or Casbah Teahouse.

“And I rarely go outside that group,” says the 36-year-old founder of The VegetarianSite.com, an online resource guide for vegetarians and vegans.

But as more restaurantgoers demand meat-free meals, restaurant owners are responding with ways to attract this growing segment of the market.

“Fifteen years ago, vegetarian cuisine had this sort of hippie connotation,” says Doug Levy, chef/owner of Feast. “That’s changed. It’s stepped a little more into the mainstream.”

As a result, vegetarians are no longer limited to pastas and salads. Levy changes the menu at his East Speedway Boulevard eatery every month and always has what he calls an “interesting” vegetarian option. Last month, it was Sweet Potato Chilaquiles, a tortilla casserole with sweet potatoes, tomatillos, poblano peppers, onions, cilantro and Monterey Jack cheese.

“It doesn’t have to be boring,” Levy says.

At Teresa’s Mosaic Cafe, chef David Matias is proving that even typically meat-heavy Mexican cooking can be tweaked to accommodate vegetarians.

“If you don’t have a good part of menu that is vegetarian, I don’t think you’re going to succeed,” says Matias, whose parents, Alfonso and Teresa, started the Silverbell Road restaurant 26 years ago.

Matias is especially proud of his Oaxacan mole, a chocolate-based sauce served with chicken. But all a customer has to do is ask, he says, and the rich, spicy sauce can be served with Mosaic’s vegetarian Super Deluxe Burrito.

“We try to please everybody,” he says. “Especially now. Everybody is trying to eat right. People are on diets. People want to take care of themselves.”

As Sudarsky sees it, eating vegetarian in restaurants is “a little better” now than in the past.

“Restaurants are more aware that there’s a large vegetarian population out there,” he says.

But, he adds, it’s important to ask questions.

“Ask your server if anything on the menu is vegan. If they don’t know what vegan is, then you know right off the bat there might be a problem.”

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DEFINING ‘VEGETARIAN,’ ‘VEGAN,’ ETC.

Imagine if every Arizonan was a vegetarian.

That group of about six million people would equal the number of adults in the United States who follow what the American Dietetic Association calls “vegetarian eating plans.”

Of course, much depends on how you define vegetarian. The ADA has four main categories:

Semivegetarian: those who occasionally eat meat, fish or poultry

Lacto-ovo vegetarian: those who eat eggs and dairy products along with plant foods

Lacto-vegetarian: people who consume dairy products in addition to plant foods

Vegan: those who avoid eating all animal products.

But regardless of what you have with your salad, there are definite health benefits to a vegetarian diet. The ADA says such diets tend to result in lower rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. Vegetarians also can have lower body mass indexes and cholesterol levels.

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WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Many restaurants offer meat-free options on their menus, but that doesn’t mean vegetarians or vegans don’t have anything to worry about. Here are some animal products to watch out for:

Lard (rendered pork fat): in refried beans or tortillas.

Rennet (an enzyme to coagulate milk that comes from the intestines of beef calves): used to make cheese.

Chicken or beef stock: may be used to make soups, sauces and in rice dishes.

Pasta sauces can be made with meat or meat stock.

Nonvegetarian oils: can be used for frying foods.

Fish sauce: can be found in many Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai dishes.

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STAND-BYS FOR DINING OUT

Some restaurants best known for their vegetarian and/or vegan fare:

• BENTLEY’S HOUSE OF COFFEE AND TEA 1730 E. Speedway Blvd., 795-0338

• CASBAH TEAHOUSE* 628 N. Fourth Ave. , 740-0393

• THE CUP 311 E Congress St., 798-1618

• DELECTABLES RESTAURANT AND CATERING 533 N. Fourth Ave., 884-9289

• THE GARLAND RESTAURANT* 119 E. Speedway Blvd., 792-4221

• GOVINDA’S NATURAL FOODS BUFFET* 711 E. Blacklidge Drive, 792-0630

• GUILIN HEALTHY CHINESE RESTAURANT 3250 E. Speedway Blvd., 320-7768

• LOVIN’ SPOONFULS* 2990 N. Campbell Ave., Suite 120, 325-7766

• NEW DELHI PALACE CUISINE OF INDIA 6751 E. Broadway, 296-8585

• OY VEY CAFE* 1245 E. Second St., 624-6561

• TORK’S CAFE 3502 E. Grant Road, 325-3737

• ZEMAM’S 2731 E. Broadway, 323-9928

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Body, Local, Taste. Tags for this post: Body-Nutrition, Body-Nutrition-Local, C.J. Karamargin, Food, Nutrition, Taste-Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.