I’ve always been a bit of a guilty carnivore. When pressed, my only justification for eating meat is that personally, I like it. These days, though, that’s increasingly not enough to stand up to the atrocities of factory farms, worldwide hunger, and the environmental impact of eating meat. I don’t want the planet to die. I like living here. So I’m starting small, and trying to eat less meat.

I know individual action is not enough to keep our planet alive. I know that instead of shaming people who use straws, we should be rioting against the 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, so before you take in what I am about to say, please do something about that. However, individual action isn’t not important, and like many people who read the horrific UN report about climate change, I resolved to make a lot of changes in my life. I already cook mostly vegetarian at home, but I challenged myself to order mostly vegetarian meals when I’m out of the house.

It turns out that’s very hard to do if your body is not good at digesting bread. I’m not celiac, but my stomach gets unhappy when I eat large amounts of bread or pasta. I can do it on occasion, but not as often as I’d need to, it seems, to become a full-time vegetarian who enjoys going out to eat. Because if you go to any American or European-influenced restaurant and order their vegetarian main, 9 times out of 10 you’re getting a pasta, a flatbread, or a sandwich.

Of course, there are many restaurants that are the exception to this rule: over the past ten or so years, fine dining chefs have been tinkering with vegetables, giving them the attention that was for so long only given to meat. These places are wonderful, but they’re also few and far between, generally located in big cities, and not financially accessible for most people. They are special treats, not the norm.

So what’s a meat-averse eater to do? I took to Twitter for advice, and found some workarounds, many of them slightly depressing. Some people stuck to assembling their own meals out of vegetarian side dishes or appetizers. Others relied on the tried and true “fries and a salad” order, or mustering the courage to ask for a plate of roast vegetables, as that’s usually something any restaurant kitchen can whip up. (I will note that neither of these choices offer much in the way of protein; nothing is sadder than supplementing a restaurant meal with a Builder’s Bar.) Most told me that if the option was eat a vegetarian dish that would exacerbate my digestive problems or eat meat, I should go with god and get the chicken. But this seemed like a bigger issue.

Chef Juan Torre of LA’s Bar Garcia says he has always been inspired by vegetables, and aims to have a considerable number of vegetarian dishes on his menu. “I've been all over around the world, and you discover so many countries and places, they don't eat much meat. Meat is a luxury,” he said. “In general, vegetables are more affordable.” But he admits the idea of creating food without bread was alien to him when he first came to America. When more diners began to ask for substitutions, he resolved to create more dishes for people with different dietary needs. “And that was the reason why I create some plates like the falafel taco, or the socca [essentially a chickpea pancake], or the paella...they are gluten-free, they are vegan.”