All about... dialogs

I know I have written in some of my posts here that we, vegetarian and vegan people, have to listen to some things that are quite unbelievable. Living in Dublin made me forget how it is hard sometimes to go out to eat or just to have a “simple” conversation about what I do eat or not. At least, people here know what is the meaning of the word vegan*.

So, today I will post some of these strange dialogs, conversations or just questions I have listened for many years:

- I'm vegetarian.
- Ah, don't you eat meat?
- Yes, that's it.
- But fish and chicken you do, don't you?
- Oh, yes, they're vegetable now, didn't you know? (well, most of the times I don't answer like that, but sometimes it happens)

- Hi, I'd like to know if this lasagna has meat in it.
- No, just ham and cheese.

- Try this (some kind of snack that's very common in Brazil)!
- No, thanks, there's egg (or cheese, or meat) in it.
- Ah, come on, it's just a little bit, you won't feel the taste!

- Hi, does this chocolate has milk in it?
- I don't know, why?
- I'm allergic. (this is the best technique used to prevent people lie to us)
- How much allergic?
- Whaaaat?

- Hello, does your pasta has eggs in it? (In Brazil most of the pasta is made with eggs)
- Of course, there's no pasta without eggs, lady! It's necessary to make it “stick together”.

- So you're vegetarian. Do you just eat lettuce?
(this can be the end of the conversation or the beginning of a long one)

- But the animals exist for this, it is natural to eat them.
(no conversation)

- But I don't understand, you don't eat meat, right? But why do you eat soy?
(This one I'm still thinking about what the person really wanted to tell me)

- I understand that to eat meat is bad, that it's not good to kill an animal. But what's the problem with the milk? The cow has it anyway.
- What do you think about somebody taking milk off your mother breast for months to feed another animal?
(this happened just once. Nobody knows how to be nice all the time!)

Well, for sure I have more but I can't remember now and there are some that just make sense in Portuguese because of the words.

* I remembered about this post yesterday because I saw a big article about veganism in one of the biggest newspapers here in Dublin. And the headline was something like “how veganism can make the world better”.