Savor Scout › Eating out with a restriction › pescatarian
Eating out as a pescatarian
Pescatarian eating — vegetarian plus fish and seafood — is one of the easiest diets to keep at restaurants, because so many cuisines treat fish as a centrepiece. The traps are meat stock, bacon and lard in otherwise safe dishes.
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What actually goes wrong
The most common problem is hidden meat stock. Soups, risottos, rice dishes, gravies and braised vegetables are often made with chicken or beef stock. French onion soup is classically beef-based; many Mexican rice dishes use chicken stock.
Bacon, pancetta and ham also appear in places you might not expect: in greens, clam chowder, salads, beans and pasta sauces. Lard is common in Mexican beans, tortillas and pastry.
The opposite problem is that some vegetarian dishes quietly contain fish — fish sauce in Thai curries, anchovies in Caesar dressing — which, for a pescatarian, is fine and broadens the menu.
What to ask, and how
- Is the stock vegetable, fish or meat? — For soups, rice, risotto and sauces.
- Is there bacon or ham in this? — Greens, beans, chowders, salads.
- Are the beans made with lard? — In Mexican cooking.
- Can this be made with fish instead? — Many kitchens can swap protein.
- What's the catch of the day? — Often the best dish.
Which cuisines make this easier
- Easy — Japanese (sushi, sashimi, tempura, soba), Mediterranean and Greek (grilled fish, mezze), Portuguese and Spanish, Peruvian (ceviche), Indian (fish curries and vegetarian dishes), Thai and Vietnamese (seafood and fish sauce-based dishes), seafood restaurants.
- Harder — Barbecue and steakhouses, where options can be thin. Some Chinese and Korean menus heavy on pork and beef. Diners and Southern kitchens, where meat stock and bacon fat flavour many vegetables.
How Savor Scout helps
Pescatarian works as a search term, but the better search usually describes what you want — grilled fish, seafood, vegetarian dishes — because that's what menus actually say.
What this does not do. Meat stock and lard are rarely listed. Ask about soups, rice and beans.
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Cuisines worth reading up on
sushi, seafood, Greek food, Ceviche
Situations where this comes up: where to eat when half the group is vegetarian, where to eat on a first date, where to take a client to dinner.