Five short phrases that cover almost every restaurant situation, in 16 languages. Show it on your phone or print the card and carry it with you.
Veg.ac · Phrase card
(Spanish)
01 · I am vegan. I do not eat any animal products: no meat, no fish, no eggs, no dairy, no honey.
Soy vegano/a. No como ningún producto animal: ni carne, ni pescado, ni huevos, ni lácteos, ni miel.
02 · Does this dish contain any meat, fish, eggs, dairy, or honey?
¿Este plato contiene carne, pescado, huevo, lácteos o miel?
03 · Is the broth or sauce made with animal stock, butter, or fish sauce?
¿El caldo o la salsa lleva caldo de animal, mantequilla o salsa de pescado?
04 · Can you make it with vegetables, beans, tofu, or rice instead?
¿Puede prepararlo con verduras, legumbres, tofu o arroz en su lugar?
05 · Thank you for your help — it really matters to me.
Gracias por su ayuda — significa mucho para mí.
veg.ac · Free to share, print, and translate further.
Travelling and eating out
A translated phrase card removes the two failure points of eating abroad: the ingredients that are invisible in a dish, and the gap between 'vegetarian' and 'no animal products' in everyday usage.
In many languages the borrowed word is understood in cities and not in villages, and in several cuisines it is read as a preference rather than a rule. Naming ingredients works far better than naming a category: fish sauce in Thailand, ghee and paneer in India, lard in Central Europe, bonito flakes in Japan, chicken stock nearly everywhere. A card that lists specific exclusions gets a reliable answer where an identity statement does not.
East and Southeast Asia: fish sauce, shrimp paste, oyster sauce, dashi made from bonito. South Asia: ghee in breads and rice, paneer, curd, and honey in sweets. Mediterranean and Latin America: lard in pastry and beans, anchovy in dressings, chicken stock in rice. Eastern Europe: pork fat as a cooking base and gelatine in desserts. Knowing your region's three most common hidden items is worth more than a hundred vocabulary words.
A card that opens with thanks and frames the request as a question — 'could this be made without…?' — gets far better results than one that reads as a list of prohibitions. In many food cultures hospitality is central, and a request framed as an invitation to help almost always succeeds where a demand does not.
Ask what the kitchen already makes without animal products rather than asking them to modify a dish; side dishes, breads, bean and vegetable preparations are often naturally plant-based. Arriving outside peak service, ordering several sides instead of one main, and asking about the cooking fat rather than the ingredient list are the three habits that most reliably produce a good meal.
| Cuisine | Hidden ingredient | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Thai / Vietnamese | Fish sauce, shrimp paste | Can this be made with soy sauce only? |
| Japanese | Dashi (bonito) | Is the broth made with kombu rather than fish? |
| Indian | Ghee, paneer, curd | Can it be cooked in oil instead of ghee? |
| Italian | Parmesan, egg pasta, butter | Is the pasta made without egg? |
| Spanish / Portuguese | Lard, ham stock, tuna | Are the beans cooked without pork? |
| French | Butter, cream, stock | Is there butter or cream in the sauce? |
| Mexican | Lard in beans and tortillas | Are the beans made with oil? |
| Polish / Hungarian | Pork fat, gelatine | Is it fried in oil rather than lard? |
Screenshot it. Connectivity fails exactly when you need it, which is inside a restaurant with thick walls.
Hand it over when you sit down, not after ordering. Kitchens can plan; they cannot rewind.
The first line of the card is a greeting and a thank-you for a reason — it changes the reception of everything after it.
'Without meat', 'without milk', 'thank you' in the local language will carry you further than any printed card.
The card is available in every language this site publishes in, including less commonly served languages such as Quechua, Nahuatl, Guaraní and Haitian Creole.
Yes — it is laid out to print cleanly on a single card, and it screenshots well for offline phone use.
No. It covers animal-derived ingredients. Allergy communication needs a medically specific card, because the consequences of a misunderstanding are different.
It happens, particularly with stock and cooking fat. Ask about the fat first next time; that single question prevents most repeat errors.
The ingredient framing works across contexts, since it names substances rather than categories — which is precisely why it travels better than an identity label.