I’ll (probably) never be a vegetarian
I’ve thought about becoming a vegetarian, but the idea wafts away whenever the I encounter vinegary, spicy buffalo wings (the kind that make your eyes water when they’re delivered to your table).
I lived with a vegetarian for a little over a year. He boycotted meat for moral reasons (he’s the guy on the left with the salad). When we moved into our house, my meat-free roomie plastered my leather boots and some meat I placed in the fridge with stickers saying something about saving a cow. I respected his vegetarianism (I like how that sounds like a disease). When we fired up the grill, I didn’t flip his veggie burgers with the same spatula I used for my beefy burger. I also always tried to suggest restaurants that offered meatless options beyond the standard salad and cheese sticks.
I doubt I could ever eliminate meat from my life because of buffalo chicken and pork BBQ. Even after reading the graphic description of how pigs appear on my plate in this N&O series, I still can’t help but crave pulled pork ALL THE TIME.
But I do not have any major issues with your personal choice to be a vegetarian. So if you’re planning to chow down on tofurkey instead of turkey Thursday, I’m not going to judge. In fact, I want to help maximize your sans turkey celebration.
Turns out the country’s largest vegetarian Thanksgiving Day feast is right here in the Triangle. The meat-free meal is hosted by the Triangle Vegetarian Society and sounds pretty tantalizing, even to this meateater. The gourmet menu includes oyster mushroom croquettes, roasted garlic olive oil mashed potatoes with chives, mushroom gravy, apple-pecan stuffing, and fresh raspberry-cranberry relish.
The only catch is the meal is so popular it’s already sold out. But you may still be able to snag a plate. The society is taking names and will contact fellow vegetarians if anyone cancels their reservation.
Whether you’re a meat eater or not, I hope your Thanksgiving is truly special. I know the holiday is a favorite for many because it’s a chance for family and friends to come together and unite around food. You don’t have to buy presents, flowers or cards. Just eat and be happy. Now that’s something I can appreciate.
What I'm Doing
12 Responses to “I’ll (probably) never be a vegetarian”
The stickers said “Don’t wear a cow, man,” and I didn’t plaster them everywhere, I only had two of them, and I needed somewhere to put them, so that seemed like the best option.
This video should be enough to turn you off of thanksgiving turkey for awhile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-kjM1asH-8. There’s a delicious tofurky roast already waiting in my fridge here.
By Tdonz on Nov 25, 2008
@Tdonz How convenient that those two stickers only ended up on my boots and my meat in the fridge. Why didn’t you at least put one on something of Pappy’s? BTW, didn’t you drive all the way to Savannah to search for a tofurky?
By ginny on Nov 25, 2008
I basically eat pescatarian for energy efficiency reasons, but I eat red meat and chicken a couple times a month so that it won’t make me sick if I eat it sometimes.
I want to be able to still eat the meat people shoot and dress themselves. Also my life goal is to shoot and eat my own turkey.
By Metricula on Nov 25, 2008
Glad to hear you’re not planning on turning anytime soon. It’s a good thing too, because I have a hypothesis that beer tastes better with meat dishes than with vegetarian ones.
That’s as good of a reason as any, right?
By mtdukes on Nov 25, 2008
How do you make oyster mushroom croquettes without killing oysters?
By Brandon on Nov 25, 2008
Correction: I left work early and SPED to Savannah to get the last known tofurky in the Lowcountry/Coastal Empire region. Totally worth it. And, although I gave up meat originally for ethical reasons, the environmental reasons have become nearly as important in my mind in some ways. It’s the curse of the Wal-Mart effect — we’re increasingly detached from the origins of our food sources, making us less attached to the means of production and less concerned about the impact of what it takes to get the food to us.
By Tdonz on Nov 25, 2008
@Brandon Excellent question, perhaps some vegetarians eat shell fish? Or maybe they’re made with oyster crackers.
@mtdukes You’re right about beer tasting better with meat dishes. And you know how much I love me some tasty beer.
@Metricula I used to fish a lot when I was a kid and we always ate the fish we caught. Fish are the only animals I’ve killed and eaten. But I’ve eaten deer meat that my family/friends have killed. Don’t think I could ever kill a deer though. Hypocritical maybe, but true.
By ginny on Nov 25, 2008
uh… oyster mushrooms are a kind of mushroom kids
By Tdonz on Nov 25, 2008
I’m guessing most vegetarians will agree that meat tastes better than the soy or mycoprotein derivatoves sold to us as ‘meat substitutes’, so there usually isn’t much of an argument as far as taste is concerned.
In addition to Tdonz’s statement about environmental reasons and the more common moral concerns (only one small part of my decision), the big reason many eliminate meat from their diet is for health reasons.
I’ve had several direct and close family members die of heart disease or heart attack at a very young age. After partially hydrogenated oils, saturated fats from animal products are at the top of the list of causes.
Eliminating meat from your diet certainly won’t assure long life, but studies have shown that vegetarians do live longer than their meat-eating counterparts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarian#Longevity). It’s interesting to note that vegans actually have the same average lifespan as meat eaters, likely because of nutrient deficiencies.
Despite the moral and health reasons that led me to my decision to avoid meat, I have had fish that was caught. I would probably eat deer or other game that I killed myself, that is if I could stomach the gutting process (highly unlikely).
Like it or not, as vegetarians we are forced to live with a certain amount of hypocrisy. You cannot completely avoid animal byproducts in the products you purchase. Beef tallow is used in tires and the paving of roads, so should you always travel on foot? Keep that in mind when passing judgment on those who don’t share the same lifestyle as you.
Likewise, for those who pass judgment on vegetarians, realize that they hold a strong moral conviction to live with such a difficult lifestyle decision in order to benefit something greater than his or her self.
And Ginny, thanks for the tip about the largest vegetarian Thanksgiving celebration (even if I’m not going). One more reason I love Durham.
By John on Nov 26, 2008
I love meat,but I think that I could be a vegetarian given the right choice.The really important thing to me is taste.
By Diana Siebels on Nov 26, 2008
I’m barely a generation off the feed lot[1], so I’m liable to be a bit biased in this, but I’ve never really gotten the moral argument. Certainly that should put you off CAFOs[2], but there’s a lot of well-raised meat out there. There’s a nice conversation about this to be in Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”.
The health argument is a good one, although I wonder what the health results would be if you compared vegetarians to people with reasonable diets of meat (say, 2 deck-of-cards-sized servings of organic, grass-finished/pastured meat per day). The biggest issue Americans have is that we have a totally messed up concept of how much protein is really required in our diet, and most of the protein we eat is mass-processed, drive-through-window crap instead of the antibody/antioxidant/omega-3 rich free range alternatives.
And, to bring this comment back around to the original post — I’m all over buffalo wings. To the point of making myself sick. I just can’t turn them down…
[1] http://www.hegerfeldpremium.com/
[2] http://www.epa.gov/region7/water/cafo/index.htm
By Robert Fischer on Dec 4, 2008
Just now seeing this post and wanted to comment. I was a vegetarian for 10 years. It was hard at first, but got easier. Several years ago I decided it would be okay to add a little fish and poultry back in, mostly for the sake of convenience and choice–chicken dishes far outnumber veggie options on restaurant menus, plus it makes things easier when you go to friends’ houses and such. But now it’s to the point where I eat fish or chicken almost daily. I still avoid pork and beef, and if offered deer or bison I would decline. I do feel conflicted and a little hypocritical, but my philosophy is, do what you can.
By Melissa on Dec 8, 2008