How much meat do you eat??

[OverWyreGrower]

Right, after a trip to the local butchers...

Diced chicken 1.5kg £8.48
Sausages (12) 1kg £6.57
Pork chops 1.2kg £7.37
Bacon 400g £4.21
Lambs liver 400g £2.30
Loin of Pork 1kg £7.39
Diced lamb 1kg £8.00
Minced steak 2.5kg £14.85

Comes to just under £60, so about 1/3 of my total food budget for the month.
The pork loin is for Easter weekend, so I wouldn't normally buy that.
It's all in the freezer now (except the pork loin), and will last us just over a month for 2 people, eating meat 5 times a week.

All the meat above is locally reared, slaughtered and butchered. Our butcher can tell you the entire history of the meat. All sausages and bacon are made/cured on site etc.

[Two_Sheds]

Is vegetarianism exclusively a British thing?

I'm not widely travelled, but I can say that: France is hopeless, but New York is worse (surprisingly).
In France I could only eat chip butties (frites au pain?). It caused such a stir that all the waiters and the chef came out to watch this mad English bird eating a frites sandwich.

In NY, everything is smothered in heaps of meat too. I asked for a veggie burger in Burger King, and got a bap with some lettuce in it.

Barcelona was hard too: lots of seafood. I ended up eating every day at the Hard Rock Cafe (more chips), sadly.

Singapore was great: such a foodie's paradise. Vegetarian food is normal and nearly every restaurant has a good selection (as you'd expect being so close to China & India). My favourite was Thai spicy salads.

Great Yarmouth is awful: mostly I am restricted to halloumi & pitta, or a jacket potato (or omelette) & salad. We have some nice Indian restaurants, but I always have to ask for a hotter sauce (they make them really mild)

[bobleponge]

In defence of La Belle France, veggieism isnt widely accepted, for the same reasons as in China, only paupers cant eat meat, but a lot of French home cooking in a family group is very meat sparse.
It is becoming more understood and widespread, there is a fantastic (so I'm told, I ate next door) veggie restaurant in the 13eme arrondisement in Paris, I have a mate who is a veggie who lives in Montpellier and he eats out in veggie resto's quite often in and around where he lives.
I have had a few veggies come and stay over the last 5 years, and there is a veggie who lives just across the back of the valley from me, its not impossible to find good veggie food here, but I would agree not as easy as the UK.

Just remembered, the veggie came to dinner once, and I made a fantastic (much trumpet blowing) veggie terreen(sp)

[janeyo]

enlevez la viande madame (plus hand gestures)...... is a normal cry in France although the last time we went we did find some veggie stuff in the supermarkets.

OH can't go a meal without meat. *He loves it. Mainly pig. My 2 boys are showing definite signs of wanting to be totally carnivorous too.

* well he can when I don't cook it lol, and then he always sounds so surprised when he says he enjoyed his meat free meal

[Patchninja]

4oz meat per day is the amount of protein the body needs ( on average)
130g.
Not a lot is it???


(£25 for a fresh leg of lamb!!!...£12 for a medium chicken


rolleyes:

Where on earth do you shop?
A red label chicken ( and there's always one on special offer) is about 6 - 8 Euros!
And I buy frozen New Zealand legs of lamb

[Patchninja]

I think that most French take vegetarians to be rather potty!

[bobleponge]

I think that most French take vegetarians to be rather potty!

I would agree they dont really "get" it.

[Hilary B]

A few years back my son (who is a definite carnivore) had a vegan girlfriend (like Sophie Dahl, she would cook meat for others, but wouldn't eat it). They had a holiday in Barcelona, and what they couldn't find was anywhere that served food to suit BOTH of them! There were a couple of veggie restaurants, but nowhere else served any vegetarian food at all!
Have to admit to a bit of relief when she decided the relationship was not what she wanted, and he has now married a lovely lass from Mexico!

[Two_Sheds]

they couldn't find was anywhere that served food to suit BOTH of them!

I mean, how chuffing hard is it to make a decent salad/curry/stir fry etc with a tasty sauce and no meat?
It isn't.

I frequently feel tempted to go into the darn kitchen myself and rustle something up

[MrsC]

Veggie myself, OH isn't, not a big meat eater though, bit of chicken or minced steak, likes salmon. That's it really, he probably has more veggie meals than he realises and I always have fresh veg/salad (well in the next few weeks from the lottie). I could live on just veggies, fresh eggs from the girls etc. Each to their own though. I must admit we've had a few parties/BBQs with lots of veggie food and no complaints.

[Patchninja]

Just got back from a stay in Cornwall with my daughter. Anyway, her FIL is vegeterian. I LOVE a pork pie (another thing the French don't really do well - pies.... drool.....) and discovered that the FIL had filched my pie! Are there any things that some of you vegetians can't resist?

[maytreefrannie]

Two daughters of mine are veggie - one lives at home still and I just cook meat separately - say for a bolognaise-type dish, I cook pasta and vegetables, sauce together, then cook the meat with tomato sauce in another pan - those who want meat can add it.

I eat meat 3 or 4 days a week, usually not free range but reared with good conditions of space, light, outside access etc. I buy from a butcher who knows his sources.

I love this thread.

[bobleponge]

(another thing the French don't really do well - pies.... drool.....)

I SO hear you, cant beat an s+k pie or a good Cornish pasty, and the French, for all their undoubted culinary prowess, just dont do 'em.

[Pies]

I eat two chicken breasts and one piece fillet of fish per week sometimes i will have a couple of sausages

[Rabidbun]

Just caught up with this thread after a hectic week!

Thanks for the blitzing idea Two Sheds, will give it a try at the end of the bean season when I have some nice varied dried ones (or at least when I give in on drying beans and buy some if the whole thing doesn't work! ) .

I've been inspired I think to start meal planning again on a weekly basis (don't think I could be as organised as Over Wyre Grower and do a whole monthly plan), will have to find some time later on this evening and work out what I can cook!

(and now I fancy a steak pie and a pasty, grrr!)