Hello,

I'm new here and I'm just wondering what the vegetarian options are like in Canada. Here in the UK I can buy good alternatives as in the Linda McCartney and Quorn range. I know they're not available in Canada but are there any good alternatives? I bought something once to use for sandwiches and it was awful! All shiny and synthetic - ugh:-( When I was last over I noticed that yellow grapefruits were $2.50 each! Here I buy them for 39 pence each. Are they that expensive generally? I know these may seem unimportant details, but with the thought of moving (in later life) because I've married a Canadian, and all the changes that will bring, it all adds up. I have lived in Canada and felt at home there, but obviously, there are going to be things that I miss. I'm not a Brit who doesn't like the UK, although I know it's not perfect, but then I think every place will have its disadvantages and advantages. Any advice or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Noreen

Hi Noreen,

I'm a Canadian living in the UK and I've been a vegetarian for about 20 years - 16 of those years in Canada.

Your choices for vegetarian food will generally depend where it is you will be living. I'm from the hippy-dippy west coast where vegetarianism is considered normal. I've never had a problem - tons of quality veggie foods, great veggie SE Asian food, plethora of veggie restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, etc. The same can not be said for many other places in Canada.

In many ways, I've had a harder time being a vegetarian in England - I can only find a two kinds of tofu and to me they both suck whereas in Victoria the tofu sections in the grocery stores are the size of Texas. But I do like quorn and the excellent vegetarian labelling in the UK.

Re pre-prepared veggie food, I find "Amy's Kitchen" fantastic - http://www.amyskitchen.com/ . IMO, this brand is far, far superior to Linda McCartney's stuff - I can't stomach that stuff - and something I really miss. (I can cook when I want to but most days I'd rather shove bamboo under my fingernails. )

I can't comment on the price of food; I've no clue!

Where are you planning to move to?

Hi Noreen and HWP

Im a brit (moving over to BC soon ) and can only speak of my findings when I have visted the west coast of canada.

I am vegan and found an AMAZING range of vegan and veggie food there (as well as some nice vegan canadian beer!), I didnt find it too expensive shopping there.

Not only did the restaurants we ate in know what a vegan was, the staff were friendly, wililing and hepful in checking the ingredients of their products (Something i havent experienced with much enthusiasm here in the UK) .

Canada seems so much more forward thinking in a lot of ways when it comes to meat and dairy free food .

Would agree with posts. BC for Veggies & Vegans has far better options than anywhere in UK, even the grimmer stores have a great selection of products. It is probably the only food shopping that you will find cheaper than UK. Stores like Capers are probably as good as anywhere you'll find on Planet.
The only options back home seemed to be Indian or chips when travelling about.
Most of the familly restaurants do veggie options and dont look confused when you asked for Vegan options.
The only thing harder is buying Veggie option Baby Food which Canadians dont seem to bother with?
I would have thought this situation was similar throughout the major cities across Canada.

Don't move to Calgary. It suits some people. From what you've said about yourself, I don't think it will suit you. Just my opinion.

I don't know if Calgary, with a population of just under 1 million, fits your definition of a major city. If you think of Calgary as a major city, it does not meet your expectations about major cities in Canada, at least not insofar as my experience of vegetarianism is concerned.

Calgary has made some progress in providing vegetarian offerings in supermarkets and restaurants in the last few years, but it's nothing like as advanced as Vancouver is in that regard. Not only are the shopping and dining choices for a vegetarian more limited in Calgary than they are in Vancouver, but Calgary society is less accepting of vegetarianism than Vancouver society is.

Yes, there is a higher level of acceptance in some social pockets than there is in others. But, generally speaking, Big Beef still dominates the Alberta scene.

Hello Noreen

As I said before (this thread http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...7&page=1&pp=15) I was hugely unimpressed with vegetarian food in BC.

BUT it has got better, ingredients are changing (but I have still found gelatine in kids yogurts ) and the labelling is improving (one of my constant gripes, food labelling in this country sucks

You can get Yves products over here (I like it - others hate it!) There are some great places to shop (Capers, Wholefoods).

And, there is an awesome restaurant in Victoria, I've never been but I bought the cook book! http://www.rebarmodernfood.com/

There is No Quorn in Canada. You can buy it in the states (apparently)

Clare

Hi HWB,

Thanks for the help. We are planning on moving to Southern Ontario, around the Chatham - Wallaceburg area. At present the prices are lower in Wallaceburg and my husband says the winters will be slightly shorter than Kingston, ( his home area) by about all of two weeks!:-) We were over in May and I did notice the difference as we drove south; the daffodils and blossom were out. Mind you, we did have a snow storm as well! How long have you been in the UK? Do you find many differences here? Will you be returning to Canada?

My daughter, who is now 22, was a vegetatian from age 9 until this past summer. Her diet presented some challenges when we drove across the big steak belt to LA but, in Toronto, it worked well enough. There are lots of vegetarian restaurants and lots vegetarian options in regular restaurants (a blind eye helps). At home she didn't eat packaged food but only organic stuff from Alternatives (a chain), the Big Carrot (on the Danforth), or the food cooperative her mother runs.

I'm not a veggie but I eat very little meat and tend to eat veggie 'meat'. There doesn't seem to be much in Montreal other than tofu although I haven't checked out the speciality stores yet. I tried out the soy 'meat' which was clearly inferior to Quorn in taste and texture. There were quite a few nut burgers though - maybe that's an option?

I positively love Rebar. An awesome restaurant. I highly recommend the roasted yam quesadilla. Can someone mail me one?

Quick question - is there any jars of baby food like Organix or HiPP available in Canada. (I am not after the pureed carrots - I can do that myself, it is the fun stuff like coconut korma etc I was searching for.)

The organic baby food here only seems to come in iddy bitty jars ... nothing substantial.

Any recommendations anyone?

Clare

No organix or hipp organic or any baby ranges like that, more recently heinz have started doing veggie baby food but I never felt they had quite the same ethos or quality as hipp or organix.

In calgary the veggie range is really poor, extremly expensive and hard to come by so tend to make my own.

It doesn't seem to be as common here either, when my son told his scout leader he was vegetarian they thought he was a total freak and said he could only go on camp if he didn't make a fuss about it and they wouldn't be doing anything different for him so basically if he chose not to eat what they were cooking then go hungary!

Sounds to me like it's not Jr who'll be eating this stuff!

The "ethical Hipp" thing is slick marketing. Meanwhile they're dangerously labelling their (90% sugar) fennel tea for use "from 1wk old" in some countries in clear violation of the WHO International Code, and handing out unsolicited formula samples to mothers and hospitals