What if you don’t eat veggies?

I love rice, noodles, meat, and some fruits but I just can't eat veggies. Any suggestions for eating in Japan?

??

Eat the things you like. It's easy enough not to eat vegetables. Gyudon, Yaki niku, onigiri, noodles - somen, ramen, udon.

It's very very easy.

guess you would do the same as you would in any other country, take um or leave um!!!

At some restaurants or ryokans you may offend the chef who sincerely prepared the food for you. They have great pride in what they serve and hope you enjoy every bit of it until nothing left on the plate. Or say another Gaijin.

My husband doesn't eat vegetables either. This is what we did:

1. Order Tonkatsu. Tonkatsu usually comes with rice, fried pork, and cabbage (which you can add lots of tonkatsu sauce or ignore).

2. Create your own bento places. I saw one of these in Shinjuku/Kabukicho but I'm sure they're all over. You just choose or point to what you want. You can also choose various meats and side dishes at department stores (these are amazing!). This is the easiest of the options, but you'll probably have to eat in your hotel room.

3. Stick to fast food. If you go to Wendys (have they brought that back yet??) or KFC there will be less vegetables.

Good luck.

You want advice about vegetables? Sure, order what you like and put any vegetables with the temerity to arrive on your plate to the side.

I know this reply is a bit late, but in case anyone else might like advise, here's my two cents:

Bring someone else with you to restaurant who love veggies. I'd be the perfect dinner mate, because I could eat all your veggies for you and you wouldn't have to worry about offending anyone by leaving them on your plate. ^_^

@amazingza
I think you are being a bit extreme...while guests should be polite and not upset the chef by making a big fuss, it is perfectly acceptable that some people do not wish to eat certain foods.
It isn't like a school, you are a paying customer after all.

To the OP...I am curious how anyone could dislike all vegetables, perhaps you had some bad experience with food as a child?...there are some really tasty veggies with such a variety of flavours...hard to imagine how anyone could dislike all of them. Just curious...what is is about vegetables you dislike? is it the savoury nature? if so there are some great sweet vegetables like edamame, pumpkin and satsumaimo in japan.

Not to mention that vegetables are a crucial part of a healthy diet....
I once had an employee that bragged the only vegetables he had eaten in the past 30 years were French fries and fried onion rings..he ate them twice a day...
He died 1 year after retiring...

Mind you, that left more money for the rest of us in the company pension pool..

@gilesdesign: It's totally possible to not like any vegetables. My boyfriend physically can't eat anything that comes from a garden, he gets ill really quick. It's strange but....possible, I guess.

Kafloo,

You don't specify whether you simply don't like veggies or if you can't eat them because of some allergy. If its the latter, then I'd suggest making up some cards that explain in Japanese what your allergies are and what you cannot eat. You can show these to the wait staff to avoid any potentially dangerous foods.

If it's that you simply don't like veggies, then what you do depends on how strongly you dislike them. My Japanese friend doesn't eat anything green (ironically her name is Midori), but she just picks out the green stuff from regular orders. My other friend dislikes shiitake mushrooms, and completely avoids foods with shiitake because the flavors pervade the entire dish. So depending on your dislike you can either pick the offending veggies out of regular orders, or avoid anything with vegetables altogether. On a side note, it is far easier to avoid veggies in Japan than it is to avoid meat, since meat and fish stock are the principle flavorings of many non-meat dishes.

By the way, as far as ryokan go I wouldn't worry about offending the chef. You will probably be able to eat most of the food and then just leave the rest. You'd be surprised how much food is left on the table after those huge kaiseki meals. The chef probably won't even notice that you are any different. However requesting a completely, non-vegetable meal may be too extreme of a request, so I'd avoid doing that unless you absolutely must avoid certain foods due to allergies.

I have never heard of anyone being allergic to all vegetables. Even the term "vegetables" has become a vague human concept, some things like cucumbers, pumpkins, courgettes, tomatoes etc are technically fruits as they have seeds. Also some vegetables like rhubarb we think of as fruit. And then mushrooms we thing of as vegetables but they are not even plants they are fungi.
I cant think how anyone can survive without eating any of these things.

@Rozemaiden
Perhaps your boyfriend is getts sick because of a lack of vegetables... Or if he does get sick from eating all food from the garden perhaps it is just psychosomatic...bizarre.

Well regardless of what you have heard or of what the concept of "vegetable" really means, vegetable and fruit allergies do exist and are a real concern for those that suffer from them.

https://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=vegetab...

But whether or not the OP has a food allergy, the fact is that some people simply do not eat vegetables just as some people simply do not eat meat. It may defy logic, befuddle your mind, and confuse your sense of place in the universe, but countless predatory animals have been doing it for eons so its not like its that unnatural.

Anyway, lets try to focus on providing the OP with helpful answers. And no, "just eat the vegetables" would not be considered helpful.

I think you misunderstood me...I was not debating the existence of allergies. I myself am allergic to spinach. I simply doubted anyone can be allergic to all vegetables...not just because that category definition is more human defined than scientific...but as you say that is not particularly helpful to the OP sorry.

While vegetarians are well known to be able to get certain proteins they need from other foods...a huge number of essential vitamins needed for humans to stay healthy are only found in fruit and vegetables...I was just expressing my curiosity in this unusual diet choice sorry if that offends anyone.

I simply doubted anyone can be allergic to all vegetables...not just because that category definition is more human defined than scientific...

Sorry if I misunderstood you. I agree its highly unlikely that someone is allergic to all vegetables, but I can imagine being allergic to one or two of the larger groups of fruits/vegetables could make life pretty difficult.

Anyway, the second half of my post wasn't really directed at you. Just trying to head of the more unhelpful answers before they're posted.