When a woman included pork in her traditional tofu dish, she was called out by a vegetarian at the event.

We live in a world where it is necessary to understand the feelings of others. This is especially true when it comes to dietary restrictions.

People are living with serious restrictions from allergies, some of which could be deadly. They also have food choices that they make, regardless of whether they avoid gluten or dairy, or if they are a vegetarian.

Photos: Pixabay / PublicDomainPictures

Sometimes, it can be difficult to do everything the right way when you have so many people with different eating habits. That is especially true when it comes to serving a dish at a potluck.

Making A Delicious Pot-Luck Dish

Nobody knows this better than the woman who recently posted on Reddit. She brought a dish to the event that was tofu with stir-fried minced pork, ginger, and spring onions included.

She described it as being 'similar to mapo tofu but not spicy.'

Sounds delicious to me, but the plot is about to thicken.

Someone at the potluck asked her if the dish was Halal, which is an Arabic word meaning permissible. She answered properly, telling the person that it was not because it included pork.

The Word Spreads Quickly

One of the visitors at the potluck, Jen, overheard and 'freaked out that she ate meat.'

That is when the woman realized that her dish created quite a stir at the potluck. Some of the other vegetarians had eaten the food, going on the assumption that it was a vegetarian dish.

Photos: Pixabay / Engin_Akyurt

After the word got around, people came up to her for the rest of the party and told her that she was a real jerk for including meat in the 'vegetarian dish.'

The problem was, it isn't a vegetarian dish. It does contain tofu, but she said, and many of the commenters agreed, that tofu is an ingredient, not just a meat substitute.

Why Didn't They Know?

It was not a vegetarian event, and nothing was labeled on the buffet table. Other meat dishes were there, but since hers contained tofu, the vegetarians at the event assumed it was an acceptable food choice.

There were only four vegetarians at the potluck out of 20 people total, more or less. Nobody asked her if the food had meat in it, other than the person who asked if it was halal.

In the comments, many people agreed that she was not in the wrong. There were even many vegetarians who agreed, saying it was the responsibility of the person eating to verify they were eating something acceptable to them.

People love food, and they are sensitive about the food they eat. Vegetarian or not, we want to enjoy our meal, and when it is disrupted in such a way, it's easy to get upset.

That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that it is the other person's fault. As many people on this thread agree, sometimes it's just necessary to accept what happened and move on.