"Eat you greens for you good health" am told while young. I am a vegetarian by birth and due to the sumptuous vegetarian dishes, meticulously prepared by the ladies at home I never bothered to even try thinking of taking a bite from the 'chick'en lunch boxes brought to school by my friends. Since, India is known for its varied mouth-watering street food and sweets I never (again) took the pains to even think of adding other 'LIVE' alternatives into my food regime.
BUT (there is always a but and probably I hate this particular 'but' the most!) as I migrated to western part of the world for almost 8 years now (on and off) I developed this sympathy for myself that I am a vegetarian. I hardly get anything to eat!
At work when there is a morning tea I am often greeted with this - "oh poor you! let us see if we can find some chips or may be few biscuits' - I don't even make an effort to pick a plate during lunch meetings, what's the point when it's going to be empty anyway. A tissue is good enough for my chips! isn't it?
When its a sunny weekend and we just want to go out for a brunch - my vegetarianism slaps at me again - I keep looking at the menu card that's hung onto the stand...try hard to spot the small 'v' and I do find a couple of them in the salad section and then one of them in the mains and do a quick math of the opportunity cost of eating out..'opportunity cost' of munching those leaves and the pleasure 'foregone' eating out and wanting to have your stomach full! Chefs are so considerate towards veggies I tell you!
Then there are these quick stop by places where you just want to have a quick bite on the go - KFC (Aus), McDonalds (Aus) don't even considerate vegans as humans I guess, they have NOTHING vegetarian. OK I am 'exaggerating' they do have potato fries/chips whatever one wants to call them! They go any lengths to keep inventing new dressings for the chicken buckets, they introduce a new variety of non-veg stuff often - but then don't take pains to try creating something delicious with those few veggies.. just few veggies, what's the big difference in taste would it make if you or don't add/delete few of them!
This particular one hurts me the most! My son started going to the day care. I put my preference as vegetarian while enrolling him. Few evenings where the 'others' have beef balls etc for evening snack, he gets a biscuit. How hard would it be, to boil an egg or make few cheese balls for vegetarian kids?
This is not an issue with what my son is eating or not eating. This is a serious institutional problem. People have developed this habit of not catering to something that's not a majority. I pay $$$ a day for the care they provide for my son like any other child and expect him to get the same quality of nutrition like any other child! It is an important criteria for me at a particular level of thought.
I discuss this with my friends and they don't find any big deal with it and instead all of them advised me to try not restricting my son's diet only to veggies and egg - I find this very bickering because first of all, it's not a sin being a vegan, secondly, I have decided as a parent that I will make his diet decisions till he is capable of doing it himself. Another thing to muse is, when cooking veg is effortless why try compromise and get used to new stuff? Its just like asking a meat lover to quit meat and turn to veggies. I am just talking like a veg-lover! Its not a sacrifice either of us ask for.
As a vegetarian family we really eat healthy at home (also quite deliciously )with lots of variety and all this is done effortlessly and efficiently. I hope someday I can get to eat too in this vast western world..as of now...
...I hardly get anything to eat out!
BUT (there is always a but and probably I hate this particular 'but' the most!) as I migrated to western part of the world for almost 8 years now (on and off) I developed this sympathy for myself that I am a vegetarian. I hardly get anything to eat!
At work when there is a morning tea I am often greeted with this - "oh poor you! let us see if we can find some chips or may be few biscuits' - I don't even make an effort to pick a plate during lunch meetings, what's the point when it's going to be empty anyway. A tissue is good enough for my chips! isn't it?
When its a sunny weekend and we just want to go out for a brunch - my vegetarianism slaps at me again - I keep looking at the menu card that's hung onto the stand...try hard to spot the small 'v' and I do find a couple of them in the salad section and then one of them in the mains and do a quick math of the opportunity cost of eating out..'opportunity cost' of munching those leaves and the pleasure 'foregone' eating out and wanting to have your stomach full! Chefs are so considerate towards veggies I tell you!
Then there are these quick stop by places where you just want to have a quick bite on the go - KFC (Aus), McDonalds (Aus) don't even considerate vegans as humans I guess, they have NOTHING vegetarian. OK I am 'exaggerating' they do have potato fries/chips whatever one wants to call them! They go any lengths to keep inventing new dressings for the chicken buckets, they introduce a new variety of non-veg stuff often - but then don't take pains to try creating something delicious with those few veggies.. just few veggies, what's the big difference in taste would it make if you or don't add/delete few of them!
This particular one hurts me the most! My son started going to the day care. I put my preference as vegetarian while enrolling him. Few evenings where the 'others' have beef balls etc for evening snack, he gets a biscuit. How hard would it be, to boil an egg or make few cheese balls for vegetarian kids?
This is not an issue with what my son is eating or not eating. This is a serious institutional problem. People have developed this habit of not catering to something that's not a majority. I pay $$$ a day for the care they provide for my son like any other child and expect him to get the same quality of nutrition like any other child! It is an important criteria for me at a particular level of thought.
I discuss this with my friends and they don't find any big deal with it and instead all of them advised me to try not restricting my son's diet only to veggies and egg - I find this very bickering because first of all, it's not a sin being a vegan, secondly, I have decided as a parent that I will make his diet decisions till he is capable of doing it himself. Another thing to muse is, when cooking veg is effortless why try compromise and get used to new stuff? Its just like asking a meat lover to quit meat and turn to veggies. I am just talking like a veg-lover! Its not a sacrifice either of us ask for.
As a vegetarian family we really eat healthy at home (also quite deliciously )with lots of variety and all this is done effortlessly and efficiently. I hope someday I can get to eat too in this vast western world..as of now...
...I hardly get anything to eat out!
You are right srivadana, these people think that veggies miss something. .but when they know that only veggies have the option of eating anything fresh , raw..and the one which have life...and the same thing they can't do that..anyways
ReplyDeleteWhen they can understand only veggies stomach is not a burial ground to burry things which are dead..
If they can do this...then one day im quite sure that veggies will b the majority..
Nice blog. I agree with you. Even though I eat chicken, most times I have to ask for the other meats to be left out of my food. I can understand that the options would be very limited if chicken is not an option. And who wants to eat a salad every time? I pack my kiddos' (yes plural) lunch to day care because we eat organic as far as dairy and meat. If we choose not to eat their meats, then all they get is cheese or yogurt. Does Australia have something similar to Subway/Quiznos? Curious.
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