Greeting sign at Hermans
Vegetarianism has come a long way recently. Once considered only the domain of hippies, it is now much more widespread and accepted. This is a good thing.
I have a conflicting view on being a vegetarian: I support the ideology, but I also just love meat! This puts me in an awkward place which I feel a moral twinge of guilt about sometimes. To date I have not had too many problems suppressing my conscience and justifying my carnivorous ways though – even if only to myself.
Hermans Salad Bar
One of the reasons I continue to eat meat-based dishes is because often the alternatives are bland and boring. Often the vegetarian dishes at restaurants seem like a bit of an after thought – something to satisfy the people that come to dine with the ‘real’ customers – not unlike a ‘kids menu’.
If vegetarian fans/chefs can produce dishes that taste better than meat based alternatives then I am sure the popularity would slowly rise. I do not mean suddenly there would be thousands of vegetarian converts, just that people would choose to eat vegetarian dishes more often – or go to vegetarian restaurants.
There are of course a number of good reasons to become vegetarian eat more vegetarian dishes. Unless the meat-less dishes taste good though I doubt I will be able to convince you to do so.
Many of the vegetarian dishes I have had tried do not even come close in taste to the meat-based alternatives. However, a restaurant I went to recently that served numerous amazing vegetarian dishes was Hermans in Stockholm. To be fair, it is a vegetarian restaurant – they have no meat dishes – and after sampling a few mouthfuls I was not craving meat at all. When I went there was Lasagna, Nachos, Stews, as well as really good salads (and not just a vegetable or two cut up in a bowl) available. All of them were excellent – and a lot better for you than the meat based alternatives I would imagine.
They serve them all in true Smorgasbord fashion – which although requires some self restraint to avoid overeating – does allow you to try many dishes. Compared to all the other restaurants I went to in Stockholm, this is the one I will definitely be going back to.
