Experiences with the vegan passport?

[gertvegan]

Ha ha that got your attention. This is from the wvd website.

The Vegan Society is preparing a new, expanded, edition of the famous Vegan Passport. The original edition has 38 languages, including the top twenty languages on the planet (in terms of numbers of speakers).

They are keen to obtain Hausa, Yoruba, Aymara, Guarani, Quechua, Kanarese, Malayalam, Panjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Catalan, Galego, Icelandic, Slovenian and Ukrainian translations.

Is anyone out there willing to provide a translation of a short English master text into any of these languages? The text (about 150 words in English) explains that the bearer(s) of the book is/are vegan(s), explains what vegans are and what they do and don't eat, and requests the reader (waiter, hotelier, host, etc) to provide a suitable meal.

No payment can be offered to a translator, but they will receive a complimentary copy of the book when published, and a warm glow of satisfaction from helping vegan travellers worldwide!

To offer help, email the editor, George D Rodger

george_rodger1940@yahoo.co.uk

[Cloudy]

Well I hope they change the introductory paragraph, sounds a bit stuck up IMHO

[1vegan]

The vegan passport

What vegans do and don’t eat in 38 languages and as a failsafe, described in pictures. Covers 90% of the world’s population - don’t leave home without it.

The best is off course to buy the original from the vegan society : http://www.vegansociety.com/catalog/...products_id=31

But you can also get it online from other sources; search google

It can come in handy while traveling

[ilovetofu]

hey guys

just dropping a note to ask a huge favour if anyone is willing or able. I am going to thailand on friday and trekking, project work etc comes with the holiday...and being vegan its going to be tough trying to tell everyone what i eat (or what i dont!!...e.g. fish sauce!!) so i was wondering if theres anyone who could help me with a few phrases. even better if anyone owns the "vegan passport" book you can get from the vegan society, then if anyone could copy out the thai bit or something!?!

i'm panicking last minute so thanks for anything!!
xxx

[Roxy]

I'm sorry - I can't help with the language barrier.

You are probably already are aware of this.....but quite often Thai restaurants in western countries will call their food "vegetarian" but it will contain fish sauce or shrimp paste. Ugh! I hope you don't run into that problem in Thailand.

Anyway, it looks like an amazingly beautiful place. Have a great time!

[Haniska]

Howdy everyone,

I just got my vegan passport today. I am excited about it but a bit nervous. How do I present it to my server? So far I figure that I will ask them in english if say the beans have lard in them and then show them the appropiate passport page if they do not understand.
If there is lard in the beans and there are no vegan options:
How appropiate would it be to ask them to make me something special? Would it upset *some* chefs? Is it appropiate to leave a tip for the chef if he does make you something special.

Guh, I kind of have residual feelings of my childhood and my parents thinking I was veg to be different (special). Of course they thought that I did everything either to be different or just like my friends.

[Cherry]

If there are no vegan options then I think it's entirely suitable (if you deem the chef to be sympathetic) to request something special. In my experience most chefs like the challenge - it must be boring cooking the same things off the menu every day. I leave a bigger tip if they've made something specially.

If it upsets them then you should go somewhere else! I don't like being 'awkward' either but you shouldn't feel bad about asking for what you want.

My problem with the vegan passport is trying to locate the word 'mushrooms' in every language so it can be crossed out with permanent marker

[Haniska]

I always give the waiter an extra tip but I'm wondering can I give the chef one directly?

[hedgefire]

I always give the waiter an extra tip but I'm wondering can I give the chef one directly?

Sure, just call the wait(er)/ress over when you're done with the bill and put the money for the chef directly into their hand, and say "With compliments to the chef" or something along those lines. It's always gone down superbly when we've done it, and once the chef even came back out to shake our hands!

(It's up to you whether you then leave another tip for the wait(ers)/resses etc.)

[Haniska]

Thanks, I'll try that!

[horselesspaul]

I just took delivery of an excellent Vegan Passport (ISBN 0-907337-30-9), unfortunately a day too late to go with BassPixie on her 10 days in Italy, but it'll be handy soon enough I'm sure.

I may have to put a black marker pen through the second half of the first paragraph which goes:

On principle, vegans do not eat anything of animal origin, for the benefit of people, animals and the environment.

Much as I may agree with it, I don't feel the need to share that with random strangers and restaurant employees, partly because some chef will undoubtedly urinate in and add veal to my slightly preachy food.
"On principle" works just fine for me.

I recommend it heartily though to anyone travelling to anywhere where they are not entirely comfortable with the local language of veganism.

[horselesspaul]

I searched first before starting a new thread but must have missed this..oops.

[tsunami]

Sometimes it's good to point out why though, so the people reading it don't think you're doing it just to be stubborn, complicated, or for some fad.

The vegan passport sounds interesting. I may buy one soon if I start traveling outside the US.

[mariana]

I just took delivery of an excellent Vegan Passport (ISBN 0-907337-30-9), unfortunately a day too late to go with BassPixie on her 10 days in Italy, but it'll be handy soon enough I'm sure.

I may have to put a black marker pen through the second half of the first paragraph which goes:

On principle, vegans do not eat anything of animal origin, for the benefit of people, animals and the environment.

Much as I may agree with it, I don't feel the need to share that with random strangers and restaurant employees, partly because some chef will undoubtedly urinate in and add veal to my slightly preachy food.
"On principle" works just fine for me.

I agree--I would probably want to black that out so as not to sound preachy or anger chefs/employees...but how do you know which part of the sentence to black out in another language? (Unless you speak that language, in which case you presumably don't need to use the passport in that case to begin with.)

[horselesspaul]

but how do you know which part of the sentence to black out in another language? (Unless you speak that language, in which case you presumably don't need to use the passport in that case to begin with.)

Haha. I thought that and decided never to visit countries whose language sentence constructs are not obvious to me....ever.

[mariana]

Haha. I thought that and decided never to visit countries whose language sentence constructs are not obvious to me....ever.

Lol!!