An Herbivore's Lament

Living in California makes being a vegetarian easy. In fact, vegetarianism is so accepted and expected here, you forget how different your diet is from most of the rest of the country. And since they are never called upon to think about a meatless lifestyle, when you visit, you starve. I once had a long layover in the Houston airport, and if it had been much longer, I wouldn’t have made it home alive. There’s not a single food item in that state not wrapped in, stuffed with, soaked in, or fried with something that used to be alive. At a “Cracker Barrel” in Tennessee, they were at least trying. A tiny section at the bottom of the menu said, “Vegetarian Entree--pick two items,” and listed a number of bean dishes theoretically herbivore-friendly. When the dishes arrived at the table, however, each plate was crowned with a giant hunk of salt pork to top off the veggie vittles. When we brought the attention of our server to the dead pig parts nestled in our beans, she said, “Well, they’re big pieces, just pull ‘em out.” And thus the glaring discrepancy between California and pretty much everywhere else is clearly illustrated. It’s easy to get lulled into dietary denial here. When we read Rita Golden Gelman’s The Biggest Sandwich Ever, it was weird trying to weed through the tuna, lunch meat and hamburger pictures to find something Scarlett could recognize. Then again, it was published in 1980. And not in California.

http://www.amazon.com/Biggest-Sandwich-Ever-Rita-Gelman/dp/059030559X

http://www.ritagoldengelman.com/kids.html