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.