<p>I'm a strict vegetarian (no meat, fish, eggs, gelatin, stearic acid, mono/diglycerides, oil that's derived from animal fat, etc. Milk/cheese/ dairy stuff is fine though) and I was wondering if anyone could share their thoughts about the vegetarian food at Caltech and how the experience has been for vegans/vegetarians. I kind of went hungry during Prefrosh Weekend, so I hope the food isn't normally like that.</p>
<p>I'm vegan, and have actually found the food to be delicious (but am admittedly unusual). The only problems you might run into are during Prefrosh Weekend, as you noticed, and during Rotation, but this is a very small proportion of your time at Tech.</p>
<p>At least in the North and South houses (all but Avery--and I disinclude Avery simply because I don't know about how things work there), there's a salad bar every night that includes fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts (walnuts yay!), and salad. There's also always rice or (thank the Dabney food rep last term) egg-free pasta, plus cereal, juices, and soymilk. Most nights there are boiled vegetables, and potatoes are in the rotation. Eating dairy will give you more options I don't know about, but being strict about mono/diglycerides when the source is unknown will probably rule out most of the bread (I think I recall 'stear' and 'glyc' in some of the ingredient lists for bread from Chandler).</p>
<p>If you care about flavor/variety, there's also a specifically vegan dish every night, on which opinion varies widely. It is generally held to be better than the other food, to the point that people are really not supposed to take it if they're not vegetarian.</p>
<p>During the day, the South House kitchen is open for lunch and has sandwiches (again, with questionable bread) and the salad bar. Chandler is also open and has pizza and possibly something sushi-like among other things. From looking at freezers they seem to have some decent specifically-vegetarian food. (I'll admit I do almost all of my own cooking and don't really know). The convenience store has some useful stuff like cereal, pasta, rice, milk, and juice. Annd the student-run Coffeehouse has milkshakes, drinks (including expresso-based drinks but not actual coffee), veggie burgers, and fried things (including fried tofu, which is actually pretty good, if I'm working), but (despite what the menu may say) no coca.</p>
<p>Overall basically don't worry. Over the course of the first few weeks you will (a) not starve and (b) get into some habit of procuring food, which may involve a little bit of grocery shopping.</p>