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I’m abstaining from meat for a week. Read why here.
Sorry for missing yesterday's update — it's been an extremely busy couple of days, but I can confidently say that I am still holding it down.
I'm still thinking about meat a lot, though.
On Wednesday night, I whipped up a recipe for tofu and black bean tacos submitted by Meal Ticket reader Christine. "Try this and I promise it won't seem like you're NOT purposely avoiding meat," she wrote. Despite having to shell out a pretty penny for cumin and ground coriander (didn't have these spices on hand), I was extremely pleased with the results — the recipe was easy to pull off and quite satisfying, with the hearty texture of the crumbled seasoned tofu and black beans filling me right up. And though the recipe didn't call for explicitly, I had a blast squeezing the excess water out of the extra-firm protein blocks with my bare hands. (I decided to do this after hearing several home cooks gripe about the inherent sogginess of the stuff.) The move definitely contributed to the overall thumbs-up texture of the meat replacement. Thank you, Christine!
For lunch on Thursday, I hit up Rouge, where talented and kind chef Matt Zagorski asked my girlfriend and I if we wanted to sample a cross-section of items from his new Petite Additions small-plates lunch menu. (Felicia D. wrote about it on Tuesday.) Any other day, I told him, I would be ripping through awesome-sounding items like his mini Rouge burger and roasted half quail with carnivorous gusto — but this week, unfortunately, was not conducive to such indulgence. I opted instead for a sick endive salad and a nice little polenta dish. I think I did a terrible job of explaining to Zagorski that I was also eschewing seafood, though, which made it all the more torturous when he blessed us with a mid-course of tuna tartare and a smoked salmon BLT (sans the bacon). The girl, a pescetarian, was happy to step in and help, making a sizeable dent in both plated proteins while I nibbled on the teeny pumpernickel top of the BLT. Life is so hard. I also drank two beers.
Dinner last night saw me dropping by El Fuego at 21st and Chestnut and scarfing down a vegetarian quesadilla while I drank some more beers. (It's coping, OK?) I also had a serving of guacamole, as several TWWM readers have been telling me that hearty fatty stuff like this will help me both stay full and maintain a shiny, lustrous coat. Wait that's border collies.
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| Erik Marcus of vegan.com |
The other day, I promised a recap of my chat with Erik Marcus of the vegan.com blog, who reached out to me to share some tips and tricks for my temporary veg conversion. Here's what I learned:
- Marcus' book, The Ultimate Vegan Guide, helps people make a smooth transition to veganism. One of the biggest concepts he discusses is what he calls "crowding, not cutting" — instead of making yourself miserable by thinking about all the stuff you can no longer eat, why not help yourself move past that by replacing them with foods you've never tried? “If you try to go vegetarian or vegan by cutting out the foods you like, you’re hosed," Marcus said. "Instead, you [should] make it a process of discovering new foods and going out of your way to try new things." The distinction here with TWWM is that I do, on occasion, hit up meat substitutes in real life, so they're not entirely foreign and exotic to me. I eat falafel regularly. I sometimes munch on tofu and seitan dishes. (The fake wings at El Camino Real, as one recent commenter pointed out, are bangin'.) I just don't eat this stuff nearly as much as meat and seafood stuff. I am going to make it a point tonight and over this weekend, however, to branch out and sample some meat substitutes I don't really mess with all that often. People keep telling me about the kofta sub (fake meatballs) at Govinda's, and many have also preached the gospel of Quorn to me. Any thoughts, commenters?
- I expressed to Marcus that one of my chief complaints about TWWM is that I often don't feel very full after eating my vegetarian meals. He felt as though it was a matter of perception. "I don't hear that as a complaint from people who have been vegan for awhile," he told me. "As a former meat eater, [I can say that] your perception of 'full' changes. Once you internalize that the objective is not to be filled up, [and] stopping short of that is actually better thing for your body, [it will help] change your default mindset." This definitely makes sense, but I feel as though achieving such an understanding/mindset will be difficult for me, as I'm only doing this for seven days. I did, however, feel pretty satisfied after Wednesday's tofu taco adventure, so perhaps I just need to eat things with more notable protein content.
- Marcus urged me to take a look beyond just the eating aspect of vegan/vegetarianism and delve into some research on the motivations behind why people eat this way in the first place — controversial issues like the global impact of raising meat, animal cruelty, etc. I admit that have not focused enough on this side of the issue, but I agree that it is worth my while to give these viewpoints a fair shake. Do I think it will change or affect my relationship with meat? Honestly? No. But I am trying my best to keep an open mind. I will be doing some thinking and reading tonight and will return with impressions tomorrow.
You should watch this video as part of your research. It gives a nice overview of why someone would want to eat less meat, without being overly crude and disgusting. http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html It's by Mark Bittman, food journalist famous for his "How to Cook Everything" cookbook series.
[...] January 30th Meal Ticket• The Week Without Meat Day 6: Bacon wishes and pork cutlet dreams• The Week Without Meat Days 4-5: All this veggie confusion is causing me to drown in space an...• Rum Bar owner Adam Kanter's recipe for Admiral's Chicken• Ramos Gin Fizz, fresh or [...]
[...] If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Drew Lazor at the Philadelphia CityPaper is a confirmed carnivore who decided to blog about his week without meat. I stumbled upon his series when it began early last week, and invited him to give me a call. We talked for more than half an hour and he ended up blogging about my advice. [...]
[...] this page was mentioned by Christine Ernest (@cernest), Philly City Paper (@citypaper) and others. [...]
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