Spanish Language Experts
 

Hola

My daughter is currently in Spain. She is a vegetarian and is having trouble asking for menu and grocery items. What Spanish phrase is suitable to request the shopkeeper/restaurant staff for vegetarian food.

Thanks for any help.

Hay comida vegetariana?

pronounced:

Eye co-MEE-da vay-hay-tah-ree-AH-na?

Can you tell us where is she living? We could give you a list of shops where she can find what she is looking for.

Bye, Cova

I think she needs both a menu reader and a food translator. (You can;t go into a grocery store and ask for "vegetarian food" - you need to ask for specifically what you want.

Is she trying to find precooked vegetarian meals in grocery stores - I mean, vegetables look like vegetables, don;t they?

I found this site very good.
Turn up the sound!

http://www.studyspanish.com/pronunciation/index.htm

Can't she just look at stuff in the grocery store and figure out what it is? It's not that difficult to see what is a vegetable, potato, or lentils/beans. She should have a Spanish-English dictionary, also.

Thanks to those with positive suggestions. She is currently in Barcelona. Her main problems seem to be when ordering at a take away outlet. Cova, thanks for your offer. If you could provide some suggestions that would be great.

Many Spanish have there own definiton of what vegetarian may be. My wife asked if a soup was vegetarian and the answer was yes. The soup arrived with a piece of ham in it. The water explained it was vegetarian because the piece of ham was small.

I would keep the conversation simple.

Ninguna carne, sólo verduras, por favor.

No meat, only vegetables, please.

What "vegetarian" means to her may not be the same to restaurant personnel. she needs to get across something like: "I do not eat meat. Does this contain ham, or chicken broth, or other meat product?"
From babelfish, so proceed with caution: Yo no como la carne. ¿Esto contiene el jamón, o el caldo de pollo, o el otro producto de carne?

If your daughter does not speak fluent Spanish, keep the comnversation simple. You can say anything but what happens if he answers?

Another option is to have a Spanish speaking friend or hotel staff write down some information about her dietary requirements on a slip of paper. I do this when on business travel in China - there is no way that I'll ever be able to pronounce Chinese. Over time that piece of paper becomes nearly as important as my passport!

A very popular place for fastfood are the Pans&Company outlets (think Subway with a Mediterranean twist).
You can check the ingredients at pansandcompany.com in the English language part of the website, then switch to Catalan and see the name of the dish/food as it will be displayed in the outlets.
Or stick to traditionally vegetarian street food like falafel.

I don´t think that Pans would be so easy if you are a strict vegetarian. Talking fast food, Maoz is a good option, or the Frescco self-service places with the salads (not the hot counter, there she can find chicken and so on).
A good website for Barcelona : http://www.sincarne.net/

Bye, Cova

Eating so called vegetarian food in a restaurant is a bit hit and miss in Spain.
For instance, the other day I had grilled trout. Inside the fish was small pieces of meat which is done to give the fish some fat to cook it in. It was not a problem for me as I am not a vegetarian but imagine the trouble it would cause a Vegetation.