I hate mushroom stroganoff.

Today something not very nice happened. My Grandparents took me and my brothers out for lunch at a local restaurant. They had looked at the menu online before booking and saw that it had a good selection of vegetarian options to had decided to make a reservation which was very kind of them.

I chose a veggie burger, one brother chose a cheese and onion pie and the other brother chose a mushroom stronganoff. We even asked what the chips where cooked in to be sure - vegetable oil. (Recently had a disappointing meal when we couldn't eat chips because they were cooked in beef dripping. Boo, hiss!)

The waitress brought our food to us and it looked super tasty, my brother smelt his mushroom stroganoff, poked it about a bit then put a bit in his mouth. No sooner had it left his fork, he spat it out. It was a beef stroganoff. Beef stroganoff wasn't even an option on the menu. The waitress was still by our table dishing out meals, my brother asked what his meal was and she beef stroganoff (I promise I'll stop saying stoganoff soon. STROGANOFF.) My poor brother rushed to the bathroom and I felt sick and so sad for him. For someone who has never eaten meat, to even touch a piece of meat with your fingers, let alone it be in your mouth for a few seconds is a horrifying thought. He was understandably, upset and shaken.

It might be difficult for meat eaters to understand why someone would get upset about it, he didn't chew a steak, he didn't swallow a black pudding. He spat it right out. But each person has their individual reasons for not eating meat and to experience something like accidentally nearly eating it is really horrible. It was an innocent mistake, my brother isn't sitting in a corner crying about the incident, but it made him feel sick and he was sad about what happened, I just tried to reassure him by saying that he hadn't eaten it, he washed his mouth out and it was barely touching him for more than a second or two.

I've been served a meat version of a vegetarian calzone pizza at Frankie & Benny's before without me knowing. I cut it open, ate a bit of the outside with no filling, starting cutting it up more and realised there were chunks of meat in there. I think I burst into tears (I was about 11 at the time).

In the end a waitress brought the mushroom version but I had that and gave my brother my veggie burger. It wasn't even that nice and I'd lost my appetite anyway. This is why I always smell food which looks ever so slightly meaty to make sure it's veggie friendly. (my brother did that and still couldn't tell with all the sauce in the meal). I've given bits of my meal to my Dad and Boyfriend to test and tell me if it has meat in or not. I'm usually wary of quiche because meat always seems to hide in the bottom of those things and is in tiny chopped up pieces indistinguishable from tomato! 

Have any veggie readers had a near miss with a meaty meal? I understand it might not upset everyone in quite the same way but for a life long veggie, it was a big deal.