Vegetarianism

[Warning: This post contains material that may be considered controversial!]

Let me state at the outset - I am not a vegetarian. Well, I think so anyway. The trouble is that the meaning of the word "vegetarian" and the similar one "vegan" is often misunderstood. As far as I know a vegan is someone whose diet consists solely of vegetable matter, whereas a vegetarian eats not only vegetable matter but also things that are not vegetables nor are they meat or fish - such as dairy products and eggs. People's reasons for adopting such dietary regimes are multifarious too: some do it because they think it morally wrong to eat the flesh of other sentient beings; others do it for reasons of aesthetics, health or concern for the environment. Others still might do it because they just like certain foods more than others. This is part of the problem - people (particularly omnivores) just don't understand vegetarianism.

Exhibit 'A' - Griddled beef steaks

Here in the UK a generation or two ago, vegetarianism would probably have been seen as a sort of illness; well, at best a cranky aberration. My father didn't eat red meat ( I never really found out why), but in his youth his parents and schoolteachers tried to make him eat it because they felt it was unhealthy to go without meat. Diet and nutrition were certainly less well understood than they are today. My Dad would for instance never eat Marmite because he was absolutely convinced that it was made from beef - probably because it looks very much like Bovril, which is. Nor was dietary diversity so well developed - people used to eat very much the same type of food more or less every day, wherever they lived. The concept of eating "foreign" food was treated with suspicion. We have come a long way since then! Gone are the days when "Roast Beef of Olde England" was considered our national dish. These days the most popular dish in England is supposedly Chicken Tikka Masala.

Which brings me on to this thought: if we are so keen to experience, accept and enjoy all this exotic cuisine, how come it is still so unusual to find good vegetarian food in a restaurant that is not specifically a vegetarian one? Now I know there are plenty of places where you can get good vegetarian food, but I'm referring to the ordinary "family restaurant" and pub, whose menus still frequently make only a token gesture to vegetarianism by offering one, maybe two, vegetarian choices in amongsts dozens of meat/fish-based ones. Like it or not, when eating out the assumption made by the catering industry is that our meals will be based essentially on meat or fish, and the vegetables are seen as an afterthought (all too often pushed to one side by the diner anyway, and not eaten at all!).



Exhibit 'B' - roasted root vegetables


My Dad used to tell a very amusing ancedote about early 20th century attitudes to vegetarianism: he was dining in a posh London hotel, and the menu didn't include ANY vegetarian dishes, so he said "I'll just have meat / fish dish XYZ without the meat, please". The waiter, looking astonished, says "We'll have to charge you extra for that, sir, because the chef will have to do extra work to take the meat off your plate." Unbelievable! Surely they could have just put some vegetables on a plate (and charged the full price too, no doubt.)? 

As I said earlier, I am not a vegetarian. I eat meat (probably too much of it), but I don't eat fish or seafood (I was put off it for life by the disgusting fish served up to us at boarding-school. For Heaven's sake, who in their right mind would eat cold pilchards in tomato sauce for breakfast???). But the important fact for today is that I love vegetables and eat a lot of them, so in my own eyes I AM a vegetarian!



Exhibit 'C' - home-smoked chicken-breast with home-grown veg



Any family members reading this will know that my mother died young (42), and I think one of the factors in her early demise must have been the stress caused by having to provide appropriate and acceptable food for each member of the family! Consider this:

Husband: eats no meat, but will eat fish, cheese, dairy and eggs; would be happy to survive on vegetables alone.

Son #1: won't eat fish; hates vegetables, dislikes dairy (especially cream - a heinous crime for a Cornish person); very particular about what meat he will eat (e.g. not keen on Lamb in any form)

Son #2: happy to eat most meats, but won't eat any fish / seafood; loves vegetables - except Okra, Peppers, Aubergines, Artichokes and a few others

Wife / Mother: keen on desserts, cakes and pastry, to which the rest of the family is indifferent.

OK, so what would you dish up?

Right, to finish this post off here's another question for you. Of the three photos above (Exhibits A - C), which do you prefer? Meat on its own, vegetables without meat, or meat and vegetables together? You know me, I vote 'C' !