In the early 70s I met a guy on the beach who somehow convinced me to go vegetarian. Didn't know him; never saw him again. But his argument was sound and persuasive -- he told me to give it a 30 day trial run and just see if I felt better. I did, and I did.
So, that began my 7 year odyssey as a vegetarian -- in the days when it was hard! Forget eating out, and forget "special orders." In addition, my husband was a meat eater and insisted on separate dinners. One of the daughters was a vegetarian who occasionally eats bacon, and still is, at age 37.
What did me in was a neighbor famous for is BBQ who was barbecuing prime rid that had been marinated for days. I had a taste, and then a full dinner. Of course later I threw up, but decided that I wanted the option to eat meat.
My next vegetarian moment was during the heyday of psychedelics. Let's just say that when under the influence of, say, special mushrooms, it is impossible to eat meat. Just impossible. Oranges look like a super food and your body craves clean, fresh, produce. That made me wonder if maybe we weren't meant to eat meat -- just because.
Now as I try to eat healthy, local food -- and nothing with more than 5 ingredients, preferable nothing packaged, I find that a lot of my favorite food bloggers are vegetarian or vegan and I find myself wondering -- again -- if that is a choice I should make. I never eat ground beef, rarely eat any fast food, but I do love a steak about once a month. Otherwise it's chicken and seafood, and I now it would be hardest to give up seafood.
Many high school and college kids are vegetarian now, and with the health food stores and shift in consciousness about farmed animals (rent "Food, Inc.") it is something I'm flirting with. Not ready to commit, mind you, but it's rumbling around in my brain as a next step.
What do you think?
We were on Maui last weekend meeting friends for the weekend and one of the couples (who happens to be vegetarians) told me to rent Food, Inc. so I am going to put it on my netflix que.
Posted by: Kymry | February 24, 2010 at 03:55 PM
> That made me wonder if maybe we weren't meant to eat meat
Or maybe we weren't meant to eat special mushrooms.
:-)
(but experimenting is good)
Posted by: Anna | February 18, 2010 at 02:25 PM
Vegetarian foods have more variety these days, check out BriarPatch or any of the local "health food stores" including sections in the mainstream supermarkets.
Restaurant dining can be a little monotonous. Locally, Ike's Quarter (Nevada City) and Latitudes (Auburn) have the best variety. IMHVO (the V is for vegetarian, of course)
Posted by: mike | February 17, 2010 at 03:47 PM