Tuesday 19 September 2017

BEWARE OF THE CULTURAL SHOCK: BEING VEGAN IN SPAIN

When purchasing a property in Spain you are not only starting to live your dream, you are starting a new life in a new country with a totally different set of rules and values. We (Spanish) see life in a different light than British.

The other day I saw in a Facebook group a comment about a lady that was thinking in opening a Vegan catering in Barcelona. My first thought was "good luck with that here..." Because half of the people in Spain probably wont even know what a Vegan is.

We have accepted that some people is vegetarian, and today you can find vegetarian restaurants in big cities, and some restaurants even would have a vegetarian option. But the majority of us will go to a vegetarian restaurant same as we go to a Thai one, or Indian, it sounds very exotic.

The very essence of the problem is that we understand different things when we speak about "meat" and what not eating meat entitles.

For us meat is any part of an animal that runs the earth that you can cook. So when a vegan person explains that they dont eat meat, we dont see any difference with a normal vegetarian.

The vegan will start explaining they dont eat fish. Why not? we think. Fish is not meat, is fish. The problem is literally lost in translation. Because "carne" translates both into "meat" and "flesh". So "la carne del pescado" is not "the fish meat" but the "fish flesh".
Therefore, why wouldnt you eat fish if it is not meat? Does it mean you dont eat langostinos? (king prawns) What do you eat at Christmas then?
We will start to look at you with a funny face, but will carry on listening.

Resultado de imagen de pescado

Then the vegan say they dont eat Jamón or any other "Spanish sausage". That is just not on. Basically we dont consider "real meat" the "embutidos", which is what British call too generically "Spanish sausages". Embutido is: jamón serrano, jamón iberico, lomo, chorizo, salchichón, fuet, chopped, mortadela, jamón york, jamón de pavo, ... I mean, we know is made with meat, but it doesnt count because you dont cook it, so why wouldnt you eat it? And it is delicious, if someone doesnt like jamón serrano there is definitely something wrong with them.

Resultado de imagen de embutido

At this point the vegan will have to explain that they dont eat ANYTHING that comes from an animal. What do you mean?, the Spanish will ask while his/her face starts to twitch, and you can see smoke coming from behind our ears. Really, what do you mean with that? It means that vegan dont eat any dairy, nor eggs.

Resultado de imagen de productos lacteos y huevos

Hang on a minute there! Cheese and eggs are definitely NOT meat. What you put in your coffee if you cant drink milk? You must be joking, right? I think I cant breath, you have just disregarded ALL our food.

In a nut shell, the Spanish will think, if a vegan doesnt eat meat, fish, embutidos, dairy products, nor eggs, what do they eat? And the first word that comes to our mind is this: GRASS. Vegans eat grass. Why on earth would you want to eat grass? You are most definitely very weird.

Resultado de imagen de hierba en plato

Time will pass and the vegan will probably became our very beloved friend, and we will do our best to accommodate you in our parties trying to cook things that you can eat (basically just gazpacho), but we will get it wrong, because we will probably prepare Spanish omelette (which has eggs) or a lovely potato salad with canned tune. (What! You dont eat canned tune either? That is not even fish!)

And we will defend your honour when someone says that you are weird for not eating meat and will explain to them what does it mean to be a vegan (probably with a slightly patronising tone of voice, like we are very cosmopolitan and they are not)

However, you will be forever and furthermore our slightly odd friend that eats grass. For example, when talking about our vegan friend with a third party the conversation will go as follow:
-Do you know my friend XXX?
-Not sure, who is he/she?
- You know, the one that eats grass
-Ahhh, yes I know

Dont take it personally, it is just that Spain is different.

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