Salad is not food enough

Why is it that every time I go to a restaurant and ask about a vegetarian dish, they say proudly: "we have salads!" ??
The fact that I've decided to not eat "food" that was once alive does not mean I will eat like a rabbit and only have green leaves.
Yes, it means I don’t eat chicken, or even schnitzel (some people don’t find it fleshy enough), I don’t eat fish, even though it's very very healthy, and I don’t eat any animal that produced or sucked milk. I think that covers it all.
Another important rule of mine is that I don’t eat anything that originated from water e.g. ocean, sea, lake, river or even a puddle if possible. There are no exceptions, except rice.
If you were wondering, sushi is also out of the question, even though they are filled with vegetables.
Yes, I eat dairy and I eat eggs. Chicken eggs that is.
So I say NO to salad.

When the waiter adds: "we have a vegetarian pasta!" with the same enthusiasm and proud tone as mentioned above, I think to myself (sometimes out loud): if I wanted to have a good pasta, I'd have gone to an Italian restaurant. Besides, usually my own pasta is much better than the none-Italian-restaurants pasta...
So only sometimes I say no to pasta.

So what bothers me the most? The fact that most waiters and chefs think I should eat vegetables. Can't they be more creative? Are they afraid of the challenge of feeding vegetarians? They are mislead if thinking they can feed carnivores with a big piece of meat and some mashed potatoes, and they’ve satisfied everyones needs.

Us, the vegetarians, are human-beings, and we also have needs, a bit different than others, but still, we don’t ask for a lot…