I'll say up front that I'm completely biased. Both my parents were children of the Depression, so subsequently  we had an upright freezer in our home.(They never got a chance to eat meat as children.) Come Oct. we get 1/2 a cow, 8 chickens 1 pig, somtimes racoon. I guess what i'm trying to say there was always meat. I did that whole triple meat thing way before KFC.

I have been to various vegetarian resturants, but found the meals okay. It wasn't the lack of meat-- it was the lack af animal fat, including butter sometime. And a  vegan diet is even further restrictive. I just think it can't be done.

My reoccurring nightmare is to wake up with gluten allergies. I would probably end up being a heroin addict.

I'm not sure what vegetarian or vegan cuisines you've tried, but two recommendations I'd have for you would be to try South Indian vegetarian restaurants or Chinese "faux-meat" restaurants.
The great cultural divide in the Indian sub-continent is between north and south, just as in Europe it's between east and west. Even though South Indian restaurants usually serve dishes from both the north and south, they focus on South Indian dishes, and I don't even know if North Indian vegetarian restaurants exist in the US. This is probably because South Indians tend to be more religiously conservative. Anyway, the big problem with Indian food is that even for vegetarians there is a big emphasis on diary. But there is still plenty for you to eat.
In Chinese Buddhism, there had developed a tradition of cooking in which vegetarian ingredients emulated the taste and texture of meat. So even though Chinese fake meat cuisine may seem like a modern invention, it actually has a long history, You'll be able to essentially eat every single thing on the menu.

I hope that at least will give you a start. Remember that you have all sorts of vegetable oils to give your food body, especially olive oil. And remember that you need to eat PLENTY of vegan foods daily that have a lot of protein in them: lentils and other legumes, WHOLE grains, nuts and seeds, etc. Also make sure you're getting enough calcium and iron. But eating a vegan diet is completely doable, and it can be delicious as well.

I hope that everyone could tell that for the most part, I was being facetious, except for the gluten allergy thing.  Thanks for the info. I've mainly been exposed to French and Italian dishes. Later exposed to Cajun and Creole dishes. I have had a total of 5 vegitarian meals and 1 vegan meal; none of them satisfying.

So I should refine the question. Let's say I become a seafood/dairy/egg vegetarian. Can French and Cajun dishes be tranlated or are meat fats essentail to the taste of these dishes?