Veg with Non Veg. WHAT?

As you are probably aware the food here caters to vegetarians since many people in this country do not eat meat of any kind. Others will only eat chicken if they desire to eat meat but that is it. Of course they never eat beef for their religious reasons. Thus, my husband and I had a great conversation on the differences in food preferences here yesterday while eating at a restaurant in Delhi. 

We ordered the starter of "Corn Nibblers" (which is basically flour, water, corn, sugar, and green peppers) which you dip into a dill sour cream mixture. Really yummy. So we order our veg appetizer and when the waiter returns with our drinks we proceeded to tell him our main order. I was having the chicken sandwich and my husband was having the beef burger (water buffalo by the way). The waiter looks at us, staring with his mouth slightly open and says, "So veg starter....no meat....and beef sandwich for sir and chicken for mam?"

My husband says, "That is correct."

The waiter still stands there. "Veg for appetizer. Non Veg for your meal?" He looked confused. 

I respond, "Yes."

He says, "TK." (Otherwise known as 'thik hai' or in English 'OK.') He walks away to put our order in at the kitchen clearly slightly dumbfounded. 

As I sat there and thought about what had happened, which was a minor little incident, I realized the reason for his question. I asked my husband to see if he agreed, "Sometimes in India I get the feeling that people, like our waiter here who is probably a vegetarian, assume that if you are a meat eater that you must eat meat all the time. For instance, you must eat meat during your appetizer. You must eat meat during your main course. And perhaps you will eat meat during desert. And they appear to be concerned when you mix the two...veg with non-veg."

My husband laughed. "Hm. Maybe that is true. Or maybe he just assumed because we are American, and we all look overweight to them, that we must eat meat constantly." He made a little piggy face at me and oinked. 

We both laughed loudly at this. But as I thought about it a cultural reality hit me. Every time we ordered a vegetarian appetizer in the past year while living here we did get some confusion from the waiter about mixing the two. Maybe there is something to that. The concept that you can only eat veg or non-veg but NEVER combine the two. 

Funny what little cultural tidbits you randomly pick up while mulling over lunch.