USA, Vegetarian

Being a vegetarian in the States is not so simple. Actually, I guess the situation has improved vastly in the past ten odd years. It must have been far more difficult prior to that. For that matter, I suppose, after India, the USA must be the next place where vegetarians have it relatively easier. Today, I had a lunch meeting with another lady and we ended up going to the cafe in the office building. I don’t eat at the office cafe often and hence am not the best judge of what’s good and what’s not. I didn’t want to eat anything raw and so I ordered a vegetarian Boca Burger. Should have had more sense than that because it’s common knowledge that all burgers are fried on the same grill with the same spatula. An instant later, I realized my mistake but decided to go ahead with my order since there was quite a rush of customers around. Also, the guy was using some kind of fat/oil to grease the buns and I don’t even want to venture into thinking about what it was made of.

Quite often, people assume that being vegetarian equates to eating salads three meals a day. What a joke that is! Frankly speaking, I am not a fan of salads. All that raw food creates gas and makes me mighty uncomfortable. Besides, there is a whole body of cooking that is vegetarian and does not include salads.

I was born and raised a vegetarian but I developed a taste for meat as I grew up and went to college. My Mom is a strict vegetarian (she can’t stand eggs either) and hence any option that involved cooking meat at home was completely out of question. However, she allowed us to order non-vegetarian food from outside. Poor Mummy, I feel awful when I think about it now. Now that both Pinch and I are vegetarians, I don’t think either of us is comfortable with the idea of getting meat into the house. I wonder how Mummy felt when we did the same all those years…:-(

Pinch’s story is similar to mine. He grew up in a strictly vegetarian household and started eating meat after growing up. He came to the States for studying and the trend continued. It is so much simpler and cheaper to get meat products in this country. As a student, time and money were in short supply and the easiest option was the order of the day. After two years of nearly-100% non-vegetarian diet, he turned vegetarian completely. I think health reasons were the top of the chart. It was that simple.

When I came here and realized that my once-seafood-junkie-boyfriend was now a 100%-vegetarian-hubby, I steeled myself for arguments and solo dinners at restaurants. However, love won…(cliched!). I found it surprisingly simple to give it up. Of course, the fact that meat served in the USA is not half as tantalising as our reshmi kababs, biryanis and curries made it easier. The desire to eat meat shrivelled up, reduced and died one day.

Now I feel no cravings whatsoever and I have to confess, I hardly expected the end to be so peaceful. I thought I’d go down crying, craving, drooling…:-) None of that. Besides, in order to be a Sri Sri Yoga teacher, one has to be a vegetarian. It was a simple decision.