A little lunch surprise
Intrepid Reporter Jill e-mailed me yesterday to tell me she had lunch at a Thai restaurant (which I'm not going to name because it didn't happen to me). She ordered the pad thai from the vegetarian side of the menu.
It had tofu in it...and then it also had....wait for it.....little pieces of pork.
This struck me as funny (obviously not if you're a vegetarian), but also puzzling. I mean, what does the restaurant gain putting meat in a dish that the customer doesn't want? And if the cook didn't think he was making vegetarian pad thai, why the tofu?
Comments
I'd go for the idea that the cook didn't know it was vegetarian. Sometimes non-vegetarian dishes will have tofu in it too...
Posted by: Maryann | August 14, 2007 11:47 AM
Well, the one thing added by putting pork in the pad thai was flavor.
I do find this funny, but then again I subscribe to the Anthony Bourdain view of vegetarians.
Posted by: Robert | August 14, 2007 11:56 AM
Just an FYI, I know a Thai place here in town that uses pink tinged tofu in addition to the 'regular' tofu, which was often mistaken for pork.
Posted by: aussiewonder | August 14, 2007 2:38 PM
I want to echo the comment about tofu in non-vegetarian dishes. The Thai restaurant that I frequent has excellent pad thai and it always includes little deep fried tofu nuggets.
Posted by: Claudia | August 15, 2007 8:50 AM
I am not sure why this didn't post yesterday when I submitted it?
Vegetarians who care about things being completely meat/fish-free have to be careful with all Pad Thai, even when it is labeled vegetarian. It may not have hunks of meat, but most Pad Thai is made with fish sauce, and restaurants often don't think about this when listing it as veggie.
Posted by: Amy | August 15, 2007 1:37 PM