**************
On the Road as a Vegetarian
First, I want to be up front about something. I’m not really a vegetarian. I’m an omnivore who eats a primarily vegetarian diet. My mostly-vegetarian ways are entirely environmentally based. The less money I funnel into big agribusiness such as the meat industry, the happier I am. And sadly, I’m a little too poor to regularly afford locally raised and butchered meats in addition to whatever locally grown produce and dairy I purchase. (I’m also too fond of seafood to give it up entirely.) So now and again I’ll have a bite of a meat based dish on a special occasion. For instance, the Greek chicken pie my friend Crenshaw made a couple months ago? So very, very good!
Now, that’s out of the way…
For two weeks in April, I’m going on an epic road trip with my friend Andrea. This sort of thing has to be live-blogged, so if you are interested you can check that out at http://2girls1car.wordpress.com/. There we’ll be documenting the wackiness we encounter on the road including food reviews.
I hadn’t really thought too much about the vegetarian thing until yesterday. I was talking with a friend in Oklahoma; seeing if he would be interested in having lunch or dinner with us when we pass through town. He’s also a vegetarian and said there would be plenty of veggie options to choose from. Awesome! But it got me wondering, what happens if we’re in a less veggie friendly environment? It’s bound to happen especially once we hit the mid-west. I’m a bit flexible, but Andrea is a true vegetarian. It’s a new thing to think about.
Of course Andrea is already thinking about it. She’s prepared like that.
One of our stops will be in Denver, CO at a Mexican restaurant called http://www.casabonitadenver.com/. Check out the link; the place has CLIFF DIVERS in the restaurant! That’s just craziness that must be witnessed. Anyway, last night Andrea was looking over the menu. There are very few vegetarian options, which isn’t really surprising for a Mexican restaurant, but they exist. We can have the ‘veggie combo’, whatever that is, or a taco salad without meat. Look at that, TWO whole options! LOL
In the end this just acts as a reminder that even the food on this trip will be an adventure.
I feel your pain! Three weeks in pork- and wurst-happy Germany last summer was really challenging for my vegetarian daughter! She did manage to eat a lot of bread, pommes frites (french fries), and Käse spätzle (Germany's answer to macaroni and cheese).
ReplyDeleteHi Michele!
ReplyDeleteI remember eating dinner at my ex-boyfriends house, his mom was a German immigrant and the food she made was amazingly good. Spatzle was the ONLY thing I didn't like though, so gummy! LOL
I'm going to to have to figure out how to make my own wacky diet restrictions work while we're in NYC, but fortunately that's a pretty great city to get just about any food in!