Dr. Sulekh Chand Jain
In life, many of us have occasions and chances to eat outside the home in both veg. and non-veg restaurants. Let me share here a few of my own experiences about being careful about what to eat.
In North America, Europe, and I am told even in India, many Indian restaurants are notorious for not telling customers about the animal-based ingredients in their food preparations, which they call and serve as “vegetarian” foods. Examples include Naans, Roomali Roti, and also some sweets. Most of us think that these are vegetarian items but the fact is that many restaurants add eggs in the flour dough, for example, and the further irony is that restaurant owners will neither tell nor write about it on their printed menu.
- In one city in USA, I was told that one Hindu Mandir used to get lunch (with naans) catered every Sunday from a restaurant of a devotee of that temple. The food was served as prashad to the Sunday congregation. The restaurant always used eggs in the naans and never told the temple about it. Thus the prashad itself was no longer pure veg. When I told the temple about it, the truth came out in the open. So my advice is to avoid Naans and Roomali Roti. Instead, order plain roti or tandoori roti. You will be safe.
- In supermarkets, fast food and grocery stores, some of the food items marketed as vegetarian may not be vegetarian. Even from the list of printed ingredients, it is difficult to be very sure. Please be careful. Some of our youths here when specifically contacted the manufacturers, the truth came out but not easily.
- Whenever my family and I go out to eat, especially pizza, we always ask the waiter to wash his hands, wash the cutting knife and the cutting board, put on new gloves and then make our pizza and other food items, including sandwiches. If he refuses to do so, we don’t eat there and find some other place. We follow the same practice everywhere, including at Subway fast food restaurants.
Now you decide: is this behavior consistent with ahimsa?
