business trip update

Here's the summary of the business trip portion of my trip.  It was an unqualified success, actually both foodwise and business-wise.  On the night I was supposed to eat out with my colleague, the party grew to 5 people including myself and the suggestion was to go to a nearby brew pub.  It was the end of a long day and most people just want to go somewhere nearby to eat, and then go to their hotel to collapse (or go out drinking).   This is the classic situation I get into at these meetings.  But this time I had my salad with me.  It worked beautifully.  We went to the pub.  As expected, there was nothing on the menu I could have as a vegan or a "nutritarian" (as Dr. Fuhrman calls us).  I could have ordered one of the salads with most of the ingredients removed.  But since we had a big group and the server was going to get a good tip from us anyway, I decided it was okay to order nothing.  If it had just been two of us, I would have ordered a salad with most of the ingredients removed.  But instead I told the server I had food allergies and brought my own food and could I just get a plate.  She said, sure, no problem.  Then my colleagues asked me about it and I said, actually I'm just vegan.  And then we had the usual jokes about my being from the star system Vega and people told me how they eat grass-fed beef and free-range chicken and then the conversation moved on.   So it was no big deal at all.  And I realize it was a copout to say I have food allergies, but this was effective and easy.  I'll practice other explanations in the future. 

So everything worked great on the business trip.  Breakfast, lunch and dinners were good and I had plenty to eat.   It seems it's not that hard to find a hotel that has a fridge, and then you just have to find a grocery store, bring a bowl and some utensils and you are set.