30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 4 - Variety is the Spice of Life

Today was a pretty standard day...apart from going to bed at 5am after watching Paranormal Activity 3 (not recommended) and waking up 11:30am. I had nothing to eat all day except a banana and a muesli bar. Which makes me wonder, I don't have a good diet in general. I don't eat three meals and three snacks a day. I usually have two meals and that's it. If I'm not eating properly then not eating meat and and getting protein and the rest of it must have some negative effects on me. I head back to work on Monday so hopefully early morning routine will sort me out.

For dinner I met a friend visiting from Sydney, who as it turns out, is a big meat fan. We headed to Brunswick St for a bite and I thought I would try and get him to go to the amazing Vegie Bar, which I have been to numerous times as a non-vegetarian and always had great food and service (except this one time, but that's not for here). Sadly, he was hell-bent on steak so we ended up at Cafe Nova where I ordered some fries and the nachos with black beans, salsa, guacamole and cheese. These were the only items on the menu that were meat free (apart from a salad but I needed something more filling). It made me question two things;

At least I know what black beans look like now

a) Is it common or usual for vegetarians to have to sacrifice eating good, tasty food because of their diet? Why is it so hard for people to not eat meat for one evening?  It's almost like being a vegetarian (and a vegan) is looked upon with disdain by our superior meat eaters. And I am not saying that was my experience with my mate, but it did raise the question.

b) I thought vegetarians were so much better catered for in restaurants and cafes. I thought we had just as much variety and choice than our meat eating counterparts? Is there a special menu we need to ask for? Can any meal on the menu be made without meat, do we just have to request it? Do chefs hate us for being picky?