Almost a hanging-offence in the long-ago days…
Now, more and more folk understand that not everyone likes alcohol… let alone wants to risk getting rolling drunk…
If someone presses me to have just a little drop… I explain that it makes me sing… "and you really don’t want me to start singing "
I drink alcohol as and when I choose …
I can and do sometimes enjoy a small glass of wine with a main meal… or it might just as easily be “l’eau du robinet”
Re the food… that is a difficult one for me, no experience… but willing to learn… (as we all should)… not right for folk to feel uneasy in a crowd, because of their personal food-rules.
That’s our problem too. We’ve always been vegetarian, & progressed on to veganism 4 years ago.
It’s not that we can’t discuss our needs (we both speak French) but it does get tiring being an exception, especially in a rural place where you are almost guaranteed to be the only people not eating some animal derived product. Sometime one prefers to talk about things other than repeating the reasons why we’re vegan.
There is hope; our new French neighbour was greatly impressed with the box of vegan chocolates we gave her recently, despite eying them suspiciously initially. Unlike us, she is the one that doesn’t touch alcohol
I’ve probably repeated this too often but, on asking for the vegetation option in a restaurant, a friend was provided with asparagus wrapped in ham. I guess ham doesn’t really count as meat.
Now you’ve got me thinking… I am sure there must be folk in our commune who are vegans… certainly worth enquiring…
then seeing if we can have a “vegan meal” theme for those of us who don’t really know what’s what… to try some tasty vegan dishes…
it will (at the very least) provide a decent subject of conversation with neighbours and help to keep my little grey cells healthy…
One issue is that many people don’t really cook great vegan food, and just create meals with fake meat alternatives which I find quite horrid in taste. Or one gets the heavy thick pasty with some weird toppings. One can of course get very delightful vegan food.
We are heavily plant based without being signed up members of the vegan clan (leather shoes etc). So I would go for a plant based theme which is less frightening as a concept than veganism.
It was interesting to see a vegan Parkin being made as the technical challenge on the GBBO last night. No eggs so height was achieved with baking powder instead. Might give that a go sometime.
I’ve eaten vegetarian food in various places, and for me, the best I can hope for is adequate rather than delicious, though increasingly I find food is like that anyway if eating out. When in India it was often easier just to eat veggie and not find any surprises than to have a meal including animal parts.
As @Badger suggested upthread, many of us who are vegan or vegetarian are heartily fed up with being interrogated about the reasons for our dietary choice if a fellow diner notices that one is avoiding meat. I would welcome conversation about pretty much any subject but that. I made my choice for personal reasons over 50 years ago …
I’m quite partial to the occasional vegetable-based meal and will sometime choose one in preference to meat. However, since surgery, my wife has decided that we need to eat more healthily and we don’t share the same palate, so she is buying increasingly obscure and more bitter greens.
No one should feel they have to defend their food choices. What we put into our bodies is our own and no one else’s business.
If, and it is rare, anyone asks me if I eat meat, I tell them no but thank you for asking. There usually is something on a menu I can eat, I I choose that.
I don’t waste my time trying to persuade fellow diners to abstain, except perhaps in the case of octopus, whom I feel a strong need to protect.
you misunderstand… not interrogating you !!! or any other vegans…
discussing with neighbours if they think a Vegan meal would be of interest, to perhaps include in next year’s “summer events”…
We have 10 weeks to fill with interesting things… so a “different” meal might have appeal…
EDIT: or, if not vegan… then vegetarian… whatever, we must surely be able to find something delicious and interesting ???
EDIT: to be clear… doesn’t worry me one jot who eats what or why… and I’ve never quizzed anyone on this sort of thing… or anything else for that matter…
I’m sure we all agree that one’s choice is one’s choice… as with everything in Life…
I’m just interested in food in all its many forms… and wanting to learn more…
That’s why plant based is so much less contentious. And much easier in restaurants to ask for something that is just plant based which is understandable. Often no one knows what vegan means. But one can identify if something is plant or not.
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I’d rather assumed that Vegan people make meals which are tasty and which they enjoy eating… and which the rest of us/some of us might enjoy too… 
