Vegetarians In The House

Most of you (if I have any readers of this online wedding journal other than Jay), probably do not know that as of January 1, 2012 I stopped eating meat.  I realize that some of you probably stopped breathing because this news came as such a shock, and others probably do not believe full stop. 

If you knew me in Chicago, when you hear my name you think of the Wieners Circle (Lincoln Park hot dog joint).  If you knew me in New York, when you hear my name you think of Smith & Wollensky’s or Striphouse and you were under the impression that I rented out a room in the back because I was there so frequently.  And some of you also think of hot dogs (thank you Shake Shack).  And for my LA friends, who are huge foodies, this is going to come as a huge surprise because you remember back to our numerous Vegas trips where we dined on fine foie gras dipped in raspberry sauce and decadent mini kobe beef burgers (that Robuchon meal is still up there as one of my best!). 

There was no one thing that pushed me to the point of making this decision; it was an aggregate of our lifestyle at home, current health issues, and a book I read. 

Jay is a strict vegetarian who has never eaten meat or seafood/fish in his life, with the exception of a tiny brine shrimp that I accidentally served him in pad thai in Thailand – sorry Jay!.  This means that at our house we never cook meat.  I tried cooking two dishes for every dinner when I first moved to Hong Kong and had time because I wasn’t working, but it just wasn’t feasible long term.  Eventually it not only became extremely time consuming and expensive, but I started to get creeped out by our “meat pan” because it never seemed to get as clean as our other pans, and I finally pitched it after making tacos one night.  The idea of having one meat-grease-covered pan in the same cabinet as our vegetarian pans that Jay ate from started to concern me. 

In addition to the cooking of meat becoming a huge hassle, I had also started experimenting with my diet to get to the bottom of some health issues.  My Gastro Doc in Hong Kong said that he thought that the disease I had been diagnosed with as a teenager was likely not what was actually ailing me as it typically dwindles off after adolescence.  His theory was that I had food allergies.  I slowly removed one thing after another from my diet to get to the root of the problem, but nothing was working.  Then I had the idea that perhaps meat, which was in at least half of my meals, was making me sick.  I realize now that it is more likely it was not the meat itself, but instead one of the ingredients in the marinades that the meat was cooked in (since I did not have a reaction every time I ate meat).  I have a close friend who is allergic to black pepper, so this is clearly possible  This theory was enough for me to go full veg for a month and see if I was right.

And just after I made the end of 2011 decision to stop eating meat for one month, I read a book called “Eating Animals” which pushed me over the edge.  I’ll admit, when I use the word “read” what I actually mean is that Jay read the book and regurgitated 90% of the stories to me so that I actually didn’t even need to read the book myself.  Until this book came around, I never believed food-related studies as most tend to be funded by lobbyists or organizations who have ulterior motives for swaying the outcome one way or the other.  But the author of this book, who had previously written fiction novels and wrote this as a pet project, was different.  He was completely independent and a full-on carnivore like me.  He simply wanted to explore the food that he was putting in his body and the process it went thru to get to his plate.  I won’t bore you with details, but will say that if you want to continue eating meat, which is absolutely fine, you shouldn’t read this book.  Even if I had wanted to continue eating meat, there was no way it was happening after reading some of these stories.

The first month of no meat was hard.  I was trying to go full vegetarian and my body was fighting me on it because I hadn’t quite figured out the right balance of protein and carbs and was having a hard time keeping my iron up (and therefore became very lethargic every afternoon).  I discovered that the transition to full veg was too hard for my body, and threw fish back into the mix.  And things got better.  My body was health with no reactions to food, yet I wasn’t exhausted by noon anymore.  I lost the weight that I had put on during the first three weeks due to carb overload, and was fully back to normal but actually new-and-improved. 

One month turned into two, and I haven’t felt better.  I still don’t think that the meat made me sick, but whatever it was that affected me is now out of my body entirely and I haven’t had a reaction since.  Do I still crave meat?  Absolutely?  But when I give in to my urges and go to a steak restaurant or to our local Bratwurst shop on Lower Elgin Street, I never order meat.  When I get there I just don’t seem to want it.  The Vegetarian Italian brat is now my favorite and I am scheming to find a way to bring them back to Chicago with me.

I'm looking forward to the eggplant rollatini that we are serving at the wedding...