For a long time most of my closest friends have thought I was a vegetarian until we’d go out to eat and I’d order chicken or salmon and confuse them.
“You’re not a vegetarian?!”
“No, why would you think that?”
“Because you always are cooking tofu and beans on your blog.”
That’s fair. And confusing. Not many people who eat meat ate as much “meat substitutes” as I did. But 2 weeks ago I made the big switch to the V word.
Even though I’d been teetering on vegetarianism for months, maybe years now, it was one moment that put me over the edge. I was at my internship during the lunch shift(I work in a restaurant) and one of my jobs for that day was to clean the soft shell crabs for a pasta sauce. The crabs had just come in from the shore and were still alive, which is important that the restaurant use only live crabs or else we couldn’t verify how long they’ve been dead which creates a risk for disease. Professionally, I really didn’t mind doing this, and I’d probably do it again; it’s just another job at the restaurant that had to get done. But personally it had a big impact.
I never had to kill an animal for food before those crabs. Nowadays it’s normal for people to never see an animal be killed or even bones in their meat, and I wasn’t an exception for the past 20 years. Having to cut the crabs made me question whether I’d want to be the one killing all of my food, how I felt about that, and if I’d go through with it. In short, I decided I’d rather become a vegetarian. (Actually, I decided I’d follow suit with Mark Zuckerberg and only eat meat that I killed myself, but you won’t see me running outside with a crossbow and arrow any time soon.)
This was something that had been in the back of my mind for a while. I’m positive if I weren’t highly allergic to gluten I would have made this transition already, but eating out has always presented a challenge. It’s not uncommon that the only gluten-free option on a restaurant menu be a grilled chicken salad. I’m not sure that I’ve actually figured out a solution to this yet. I just know now I’m a strong enough person to deal with both when I need to.
Will I miss meat? Definitely. In fact, writing this all down is making me miss it more than I ever have, so I should probably wrap this up. You just can’t replicate the juiciness of a roasted piece of chicken or seared steak. I will happily roast a turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Easter for my family just so I can get that smell to permeate the house. But I won’t eat it; I’ll just stand by the oven whiffing.
Do I think I will eat meat again? Probably. Actually, I’d bet on it. Statistically, about half of all vegetarians go back to eating meat at some point. And there will surely be a time when I’m out, starving, and the only thing I can eat is a slab of chicken. That being said, I’m committed to doing what I can, when I can and being happy with that. It’s easy to be happy in a world where chocolate is (usually) vegetarian.
If you have any thoughts, comments, or questions on the topic, leave them in the space below.
