The New Old Standby

It has been 11 days since I forayed into vegetarianism. I did eat meat on Saturday though. I went to Arigato's Japanese Steak House with some friends and while I did order the Vegetable Hibachi (which was awesome, btw), I forgot about the hibachi shrimp appetizer that comes with it. And who can resist those golden little nuggets of shrimp cooked with soy sauce and butter?! I couldn't. But other than that, I've been surprisingly at ease with the vegetarian thing.

Not to say that I haven't had my moments. The other night, I was wandering around my apartment staring in the fridge and the pantry, and though I had plenty of options, nothing was appealing to me. To be honest, I had a taste for a philly cheesesteak. I hit up Burger King instead for their veggie burger. It's actually not bad.

But it did get me to thinking about when and how I eat meat. For example, if I'm up in the air about what to eat or don't want to cook, I hit up Wendy's or Arby's and get a burger, chicken sandwich or something else that is predominantly meat and starch. (Did you know that french fries is often the only vegetable American children-- particularly those under the age of five-- consume? Scary stuff.) If I order a salad, I always get meat on it. I'm used to planning my meals around meat; vegetables are an afterthought. Vegetables are an afterthought for most of the food I eat. In fact, the first food group in the USDA's Basic Four Food Groups from 1953 until 1992 (during the time I was growing up) was always meats (and I mean meats-- not proteins); fruits and vegetables were always last.


Pizza-- pepperoni was a given.
Stromboli-- a roll stuffed with meat? Yes, please! And my vegetable? Does marinara count?
Sandwich-- always a meat base unless it was peanut butter
Soup-- defaulted to chicken or beef broth (even my potato soup uses bacon fat)
Pasta-- meat sauce of some sort
Tacos-- ground meat or fish
Salad-- Do you want fish or chicken on it?
Stir fry-- chicken, shrimp, beef, or pork
Wraps-- usually chicken though I do like falafel a lot


Meat is the staple food source, the primary food source. When I'm thinking about what to eat, I always think in terms what kind of meat or how I want my meat cooked. The last week or so of vegetarianism has really forced me to examine how I conceive of the culture of my food, not just the food itself. That our food culture privileges meat is not a new revelation, but just how much has surprised me. The question is why?

My soups with a vegetable broth base are actually very, very tasty. Veggie burgers pretty good. A taco made with veggies and black beans is really tasty. Stir fry is so much less greasy with vegetables. Salads don't need meat to be good.

I know...protein, right? Beans, nuts, and seeds can be added to virtually anything for protein. I add a few beans to pasta sauces, soups, wraps, tacos, and stir fries. I've also taken to adding a teaspoon of ground nuts and flax seed to my cereal, soups, sauces, salads-- everything I eat really. The flavor is so mild and just barely nutty. It isn't, however, always aesthetically appealing, but it's something I'm rapidly getting used to.

Our food culture privileges meat and with that it privileges certain ideas about how, when, and what to eat, what are good sources of different nutrients, and even how our food should look and what food should be eaten by people of which gender. And while I've spent the last several years analyzing representations and significations people, ideas, institutions, etc., I've never given much thought about representations of food and food culture (though I do know this is an area of rapidly growing scholarship). When I decided to try vegetarianism, I knew I would be challenged to rethink my food choices regularly. But I'm beginning to see that rethinking personal food choices is only the beginning. There's a need to rethink the entire culture of food in order to understand why I feel compelled to make the meal choices that I do.

I always conceived of food as a deeply personal choice (more on this in a future blog). But I'm only just starting to see how those choices are influenced by much larger systems.

I WANT A PIECE OF COW!

I want a steak. I want an effing hamburger. I want a piece of cow! And make it a good piece! ... No tripe.

Just kidding.

Well, not entirely. Today was kind of stressful because of work and school. I've been up since six o'clock this morning working on a stupid response paper that I started three days ago. In my head it all made sense, but trying to put it on paper was not working. And so the paper was late AND it was crap, which made me very angry at myself. And then I had forgotten about a piece of campus bureaucratic BS that I had to turn in today and so after turning in my paper immediately began working on that. And now I have to finish grading papers, and I have a feeling that will take me until at least 12:30 tonight (or this morning-- I worked 3rd shift for years and still can't get that straight) if not later. Plus, I have some in-class writing from Thursday I have to comment on.

I know I have no one to blame for this but myself. I totally should not have gone for those walks in the park this weekend.

Actually, yes, I should have. They made me feel really good. (My psychologist would be so proud right now. Ha!)

Anyway, with today's stress I finally took a break to decide what I wanted to eat. Well, what I wanted to eat was a hamburger...or a steak...or a philly cheesesteak. And I thought about it. And I salivated a little bit. And I got my car keys.

And I put my car keys down, got out the romaine lettuce from the refrigerator and made a Caesar salad with lots of croutons. And I ate the whole damn thing. And when I was done, I washed my dishes, put them away, and grabbed my car keys.

And then I put my car keys down, opened the freezer, took out a bag of frozen seasoned potato wedges and dumped some in a baking dish and prepared to make cheese fries.

Eating vegetarian does not always mean eating healthy. Hey, a potato is a vegetable, right?! But, at least I'm eating vegetarian. Everyone's gotta have a release, right?

If you don't understand my Liz Lemon reference, you must click here.

Day Three...and Counting

So far so good. Day two was leftover baba ghanouj and dolmathes from Easa. So that was easy...and delicious. And to make it even easier, I took my dog to the dog park for a couple of hours and felt completely relaxed.

Day three wasn't hard either. I ended up hiking the 4 mile cross-country trail at the park near my apartment, something I've started doing a lot lately. The weather was gorgeous and when I finished the trail, I lay in the grass by the lake for about a half hour just enjoying the gorgeous spring weather (which seems too good to be true, by the way). But when I got home, I was hungry and was pondering what to eat. I still have some meat in my freezer. This may be a big mistake. But I loathe to throw good food away. So I'm keeping it until I can give it away (or until I give up).

I had taken to making steak alfredo over the last few months. I made it one time as a quick meal for a friend, usually using chicken but only having some steak in the house that needed to be used up. This is when I realized that steak and alfredo sauce was actually a pretty awesome combination. And last night, I was seriously considered taking that steak out of the freezer, slicing it up, marinating it, and cooking it into an alfredo sauce to lather over some penne pasta.

But I didn't. Instead, I put some olive oil in a frying pan, chopped up some onions and threw them in, sliced up some baby portobella mushrooms, and chopped some asparagus tips into one inch sections, diced a clove of garlic, added a dash of dried red pepper, threw in some alfredo sauce and layered that over penne pasta. To be honest, I didn't miss the meat at all. In fact, it was actually better without the meat since the flavors were a little less muddy.

For today, I'm planning to try Alton Brown's leek potato soup recipe. I love leek potato soup but have yet to find a recipe that rivals the flavor of the versions I had in Dublin and Killarney. But I have yet to try an Alton Brown recipe that I didn't like. Wish me luck!

Day One...One Day

Yesterday was the first full day on the veggie train. In some respects it wasn't totally weird; I mean, you wouldn't know to look at me, but I don't eat meat every day. I tried to approach it like it was just one of those days where I didn't feel like eating meat. In other respects, it was strangely hard. I had thought about this day for years, but it was always reduced to "one day," meaning future day. And suddenly, it was here. I felt disconcerted.

For example, I woke up yesterday morning to the smell of bacon. I thought I had to be dreaming in meat smell! Is that even possible? To dream in smell? Was I so dreading the move to vegetarianism that I was hallucinating bacon smell?

To be honest, if I were to hallucinate a smell, frying bacon would definitely be at the top of my list.

But a few moments later, I also smelled waffles. It turned out that on yesterday's sixty-degree morning, my neighbors who never, never, never cook had opened their doors and windows and decided to make bacon and waffles.

And that is when I knew, the meat gods were going to make this very hard for me.

But breakfast, in spite of the scents of bacon and waffles wafting through my open windows, was easy because it was so...normal. Cereal, banana, orange juice. Pretty straightforward.

The rest of the day actually turned out to be a breeze, too. I was on campus early and wasn't able to leave until 5:00 pm to pick up some vegetarian delights made by my friend Easa at the Jerusalem Market on High Point Road in Greensboro. For dinner, he made me and my evening class rice-stuffed dolmathes, baba ghanouj and pita, hommus and pita, spinach pie, and pistachio baklava decorated with Jordan almonds. As is the standard at Jerusalem Market, it was excellent! The variety and flavors and freshness! And It was hard to conceive of it as vegetarian because nothing was omitted. The Mediterranean and Middle-eastern diet is so vegetarian friendly. I did not miss meat at all. In fact, I entirely forgot about it until this morning.

Day One Lesson: It's mostly psychological (at this point anyway), and it helps (A LOT) to have friends that can cook vegetarian meals without even thinking of it as being vegetarian.

My heavenly food father, who art Anthony Bourdain, please forgive me for what I am about to do.

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I'm going to try to go veg.
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There. I said it.
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I'm going to try to go veg. . Yeah, saying it twice makes me much less certain about my success.

This isn't a new idea for me. I'm not just happily jumping on the great vegetarian bandwagon that seems to be crossing this country. If you want to know the truth, going vegetarian for me feels less like jumping on a party bus and more like winding up with the Donner party. (Yeah, that simile makes no sense at all, but it was the feeling I was going after. Just roll with it.)

I've pondered it for years, but I'm too much of a food lover to want to give up meat. I love making stock from Thanksgiving turkey carcasses. The smell of a pork roast in the oven with onions and apples can bring tears of joy to my eyes. A medium-rare NY strip steak on my plate is an aphrodisiac. Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe. Rosemary roasted lamb. Ground beef chimichangas. Hell, a club sandwich from subway. Bacon.

Yes, I love meat. My family loves meat. For a long time, that was enough to keep me from trying vegetarianism. I justified my reticence by claiming that eating vegetables while the rest of my family gloried in the joys of meats, stocks, gravies, gelatin was just too difficult; to force my vegetarianism on them would be unfair.

But I've also been in the Anthony Bourdain camp for a long time. There are so many wonderful foods on this earth, and I am here for a very short time. I want to eat them! And vegetarianism is predominantly a post-industrial phenomenon that often ignores the needs of developing countries.

But times, they are a-changing. The older I get, the more political everything becomes, including food. There are, of course, the various ethics of vegetarianism including but not limited to animal rights and environmental protection. And there are also health reasons.

Look, I grew up in an upstate New York farm community. My earliest years were spent on farms. And one of my most traumatic memories involves being chased by a headless chicken with blood spurting out of its neck (more family legend than an actual memory). Animals had a distinct use value for me. They were labor and food and on rare occasions companions. They still are all those things for me. But what I've begun to realize is that I am no longer a farm person. There increasing distance between my acknowledgment of the labor that goes into producing my food and the value I get from eating it. And this is why I want to try vegetarianism.

I'm not against meat. Right now, I'm dreaming of pork gyoza (thanks a lot, Jenna). I'm not against farming or animals used for food. From what I saw of farms growing up, most animals on farms are very well cared for and attended to and, in some cases, even loved. But I'm no longer a farmer anymore. I have my little garden and container gardens. I get a great sense of pride from eating pesto made from the basil I cultivated in a pot on my patio. Gardening makes vegetables and fruits much more comprehensible to me. But if it came to chopping a head off of a chicken, well, if I was starving it wouldn't be a problem. But I'm not. In fact, like the majority of Americans, I'm at the other end of that extreme. Food is too easy to come by and too plentiful. As I walk through the grocery store loading my cart with boneless skinless chicken breasts, cleaned and bloodless, and wrapped in shiny plastic, I have to admit that I do not give a single thought to where that food came from or how it got into my grocery bag. And that bothers me.

I have to admit that while I do find many arguments for vegetarianism offensive to developing countries, rural people, and farmers, I find it more offensive that I can't appreciate the labor that goes into putting meat on my plate. And according to Worldwatch Institute, "Massive reductions in meat consumption in industrial nations will ease their healthcare burden while improving public health; declining livestock herds will take pressure off range-lands and grain-lands, allowing the agricultural resource base to rejuvenate. As populations grow, lowering meat consumption worldwide will allow more efficient use of declining per capita land and water resources, while at the same time making grain more affordable to the world's chronically hungry." Of course, Worldwatch Institute doesn't negotiate the occupational retraining of farmers, farmhands, and migrant workers that this plan would force. Nor do they mention what they would do with vast swaths of unused, undeveloped land or who would protect these lands while they "rejuvenate." Nor do they mention who would pay property taxes on said lands or who would protect them from becoming the next strip mall. Nor do they explain how land is being inefficiently used currently. But it sure does sound good, doesn't it.

In spite of all my critiques of the Worldwatch Institute, I still have to admit that I think the basic idea is good in theory if not in practice; I'm going to have a go at jumping the theory/practice chasm. Having been a meat-eater for as long as I can remember, I anticipate this is going to be painful for me. Statler has agreed to try it with me. I'm sure she'll post her own blog justifying her reasons for doing so. But we're going to share our pain with you here on this blog so you can either sympathize with us or laugh at us. Either way, I'm okay with it.

For the record, I'm going ovo-lacto vegetarian. The most common type of vegetarianism that still eats dairy and eggs. It seems to be the most accommodating type for my lifestyle (and animal hormone dependency). And I will probably indulge in meat in the coming weeks; I do not anticipate going cold-turkey (pardon the bad pun). But I'm eager for the challenge. I feel better when I eat more fruits and vegetables, and the pleasure of trying new recipes is something I look forward to.

But I still have to send out my apologies to my food idols Anthony Bourdain (the man who can butcher a pig in his sleep), and Andrew Zimmern (the pork-loving New York Jewish guy). What can I say, gentlemen? I can't ignore the politics of the food-table.

How I spent Superbowl Sunday

There was a time in my life where I would've watched the Superbowl. Where I would've felt a personal investment in the game whether I liked the teams or not, simply because I was a sports fan. I grew up in a sports watching family and at first it seemed like torture to go to a game, especially football. Hours and hours out in the hot sun or pouring rain, trying to pay attention to something I didn't understand or care about? No thanks. I remember being dragged to football games with a bag full of crayons, books to read, and My Little Ponies to play with. Some of my fondest sports related memories are of reading Beverly Cleary and Amelia Bedelia books in the stands, the sun at my back. Eventually I started paying attention and grew to enjoy the game. But this year? Nope. Didn't care. Honestly, I think I have sports burnout from years of following a team that sucks more often than not and from listening to all the shit-talk. I've barely watched any games this year and I haven't missed it. So when Superbowl Sunday rolled around all I was interested in doing was watching some of the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet and 30 Rock on Netflix. (The 30 Rock cast is my dream team and they almost always win.) This Superbowl Sunday was awesome, basically.

I started with the Puppy Bowl. It really doesn't get much better. Puppies playing, a kitten half-time show, chicken cheerleaders, hamsters in a blimp, a cute ref--and this year they added a kiss cam and shots of animal tailgating. They are really upping their game. After about an hour of Puppy Bowl I decided to try out a baked ravioli recipe from Martha Stewart. The recipe itself was pretty easy, but things got a little messy when I was trying to mix up the sauce. This may or may not be due to the fact I was drinking some beer and having a halftime dance party of my own. (Cee Lo's "Fuck You" is really catchy, you guys!) It turned out pretty tasty, despite the mess. Say what you will about Martha, but she knows her crafts and her food.

Once the ravioli was out of the oven I switched to 30 Rock and contemplated Kenneth's origin story. Seriously, have you ever thought about what his back story is? About his childhood in Stone Mountain, GA and how he got to 30 Rockefeller? Kenneth is really fascinating and frightening on top of being hilarious. Anyway, sometime in between snarting at Liz and pondering over Kenneth I fell asleep and woke up two episodes later after my friend sent me a text about the halftime show featuring The Black Eyed Peas. And wow, what a show it was. It was a medley of worst hits. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, when you thought this is the worst song I've ever heard, it got worse. And instead of having Fergie pee her pants, they just dressed her up in a fug dress and bedazzled pads while Slash trotted out to play a few bars of "Sweet Child of Mine" so she could screech along. And then there was that weird interlude with the guy that had the Max Headroom hair and Usher. I get that they have a song together, but I don't think it added anything to the overall performance. In fact, I think it just made it that much more obvious how auto-tuned everyone is. Yeesh. It seemed like I wasn't missing much, so I put the game on mute and went back to 30 Rock. And I made this:

Around the time I finished sewing on the last button I looked up to see final. Good for Green Bay. All in all, it really was a pleasant, relaxing night, and that's good by me.