Vallarta’s Vegetarian Voice Speaks Up!

Please Rate Vote 1 Vote 2 Vote 3 Vote 4 Vote 5

By Asha Lakhani

"Quesadilla, quesadilla" I was advised, every time I told anyone in Puerto Vallarta that I was a vegetarian. Cheese, if at all I liked it, was all that seemed to be available for a lacto-vegetarian in this Mexican paradise. However, we all know that paradise should not consist of eating the same food every day and Mexico has a vast variety of dishes that can be prepared in a vegetarian manner. So, why was it that people were so convinced that queso was the only way a vegetarian could get by here? Inevitably, I decided to explore the 'veggie´ scene in Vallarta.

After making several inquiries, there only really seemed to be one vegetarian restaurant that people all knew of: "There is this great buffet place somewhere near the church", they would say. Planeta Vegetariano was the 'place' these people were referring to and I opted to give it a visit. For a reasonable 65 pesos Planeta Vegetariano has more than enough to offer, not only to a vegetarian, but also a vegan or someone who wants a gluten-free option. The salads range from tomato covered in olive oil and basil to fruit salad in yoghurt to just a plain and simple potato salad (but without the mayonnaise, so no need to worry about eggs!). They even have their special homemade bread and delectable cheese! What I particularly admired about this restaurant was its guts; the daringness to experiment has led to some of the finest food I have ever tried appearing as options on their buffet stand. Pumpkin seed balls, anyone? Yes please, I have never tried anything like it! Here, the main courses are substantial, including dishes such as lasagna, soy with peppers and zucchini in Mexican sauce. The drinks too, are nutritious and exciting and to top it off, I had chocolate cake for dessert! For an 'all you can eat', Planeta Vegetariano is the place to dine for one very hungry vegetarian.

My search for vegetarian restaurants thereafter, was somewhat of a failure. People would point me in the direction of the next salad bar and often, my diet would be questioned in attempt to get me to eat some meat. The relief only truly dawned upon me when I got hold of a copy of bay Vallarta - not only did the restaurant listings contain the vegetarian category, but there seemed to be plenty of restaurants to choose from. Therefore, with high hopes and expectations, I narrowed my investigation down to three more restaurants from the list, namely Ola Verde, 100% natural and Green green salad, as I set off on my mission to discover the reality behind vegetarianism in Vallarta.

´100% natural´: what a cliché name for a vegetarian restaurant, I thought to myself as I entered. Yet it seems that I thought too soon and that thought was not to last for long. In fact, after a browse through their menu I was sincerely puzzled. What kind of vegetarians did this restaurant cater for? The type that consumed chicken, turkey and ham it seemed. Whatever the definition of a non-vegetarian was to 100% natural, I excused it and decided to give it a try, because perhaps it was down as 'vegetarian´ as the vegetarian food was absolutely incredible there. What impressed me about this place, was the number of vegetarian Mexican dishes available; *quesabrosas* (tortillas with cheese, spinach, mushroom and onion), *quesadillas*, *fajitas* and *enchiladas* -the full works. However, despite its very accommodating menu, the food was bland and rather boring. I guess one could say that it is the price to pay for healthy food. If a smoothie satisfies your hunger, then 100% natural has a never-ending list of all kinds of smoothies, but other than that, it failed to live up to my expectations.

It was only after lunches at Ola Verde and Green green salad that I began to discover a pattern. In Vallarta, vegetarianism is not vegetarianism in the sense that I am familiar with the term. All three places I had selected from bay Vallarta either served chicken or ham and obviously salads of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and so forth, as that is all us vegetarians appear to eat here. I keep wondering, why have I only encountered one restaurant here (Planeta Vegetariano), which conforms to my understanding of the term vegetarian? Are the conditions for being a vegetarian in Vallarta different? If so, then what are they?

Top Choice: Café des Artistes and Thierry's Prime Steak House (yes, a steak house!)

After much thought, I have come to the conclusion that the largest problem Vallarta faces regarding vegetarianism, is that many people here see it as a product of a choice to live a healthy lifestyle. There is almost an ignorance about the notion that people may not eat meat due to religious purposes, may suffer from allergies, or because they may genuinely dislike the taste of meat. This has led to much misunderstanding. Restaurants label themselves vegetarian if they serve salads and smoothies, yet many people would not choose a vegetarian diet if that was all that was ever available to them. Eating trees is not every vegetarian's idea of a satisfying meal and some of us would not like to pay for something that could just as easily grow in our back gardens. Eating out is a luxury that vegetarian restaurants deny vegetarians of here and I can honestly say that the most mouthwatering vegetarian food that I have been attracted by in Vallarta is from restaurants that are not exclusively 'vegetarian´. Café des Artistes and Thierry's Prime Steak House (yes, a steak house!), two restaurants that are property of Vallarta's most inspirational chef, Thierry Blouet, are amongst those restaurants that understand how many possibilities a vegetarian diet actually has. What I do not understand, is that if a steakhouse can pluck up the recipe for ´roasted red peppers marinated with garlic and herbs´, or ´sweetpotato puree with ginger and coriander´, then why can a vegetarian restaurant that is supposed to specialize in such cuisine not live up to it?

An example that perfectly captures the problem with Vallarta's vegetarian scene involves an incident I encountered at the tourism office. When I initially made the enquiry regarding the whereabouts´ of the vegetarian restaurants here, the man behind the desk recommended a place called The Nutrition Centre to me. I asked if he had been there before and he had not. How did he know it was vegetarian then? I asked him. "Because it is a nutrition center," he replied. I did not know whether to laugh or get extremely worried.