Sneaky meat rice!
 

There's a Japanese market near where I work that sells an assortment of delicious readymade lunches: sushi, bento boxes, desserts, etc. I got a tofu bento today, which included rice, pickled vegetables, and a tofu patty with some tasty sauce. I get halfway through eating the rice, which has seaweed in it, when I develop the sinking feeling that I've just tasted something I haven't eaten in over 2 months - beef.

I eat fish, which makes me a pesca-vegetarian, I guess. I stopped eating other meat a couple of months ago after reading a book that made me feel like a hypocrite. It's boring to hear someone spout off about why they became a vegetarian, I know, but I'm far from being militant about it. I like meat. I like the way it tastes for the most part. I don't judge people who eat it. Its consumption suddenly grossed me out so I stopped. It was more a moral choice than a dietary one. I avoided fish even, but eventually caved when the temptation of affordable sushi found its way into my life by way of this wonderful market.

And, really, I don't feel about fish the way I feel about pigs, cattle and sheep, etc. I'm not as disturbed by how fish finds its way onto my table.

I have less of a problem with deer hunting/venison, because it doesn't involve hormone injections and slaughterhouses.

Anyway, if I could give up all meat, I probably would. I just find that I don't always feel like I'm getting enough protein from beans and tofu. Plus, I really do love the way fish tastes, especially raw fish.

But beef and chicken I don't miss. Had a bit of a hankering for some oink-oink the other day, but not so much that it was an actual temptation.

And then today, along with the rice, pickled veggies and tofu slab, I discovered miniscule slices of meat in the rice. I took a bite and it was suddenly more flavored than the other bites. Gah! Gah, I thought! I made my co-worker inspect the food and she said, "Maybe it's tempe....no, wait. Yeah, that's beef. Sorry."

MAN! Call it a tofu bento and one just assumes there's not meat to be found. The call it yam noodle rice, why can't they call it yam noodle PRETTY COW rice, too.

It's not like it's hurt me. And, like I said, not militant. If I'm invited over for dinner and all that was being served was meat, I'd probably bite the bullet and eat it, out of politeness.

Still, label things properly, dammit. I didn't want that cow in my tummy!

This post could have been written by me. I too gave up meat. I'll eat fish, but for the most part everything else is out. For me it wasn't a moral reason but more of a omg I realized what I was consuming GROSS reason.

I was never one for a moo with horns or a bok bok baggaaaak. I do like the occasional bacon but that is waning too.

I wish things were labeled better, and restaurants were better informed about what is in the food they serve.

The FDA may have different laws for prepared foods, but all food products must follow FDA guidelines on food labeling - and not, they aren't mor like suggestions. ;)

EH: if it's any consolation, if you ever get something that tastes like it might be pork or chicken flavored but you don't see actual meat, chances are strong that there's more carrot and celery in it than meat.

Can't help with beef though, sorry.

Maybe it wasn't beef. Maybe it was tripe!

Me: The vegetable soup, is it vegetarian?
Waiter: Yeah.
Me: Is it made with chicken stock or beef stock?
Waiter: Yeah.
Me: Then it's not vegetarian?
Waiter: It's vegetarian.

I cannot say how many times I have had this EXACT conversation (sometimes, though, it's not a waiter but a waitress).

Here's a funnier variation:

Me: The stir-fry vegetables, does that have any meat in it?
Waiter: (looking sorry) No.
Me: Good, I'll have the stir-fried vegetables.
Waiter (looks confused)

Pity I didn't ask if the dish had any TASTE. Bah.

For me it's not a moral thing but a taste/texture thing. I hate meat. And it's been long enough that I get violently ill if I accidentally eat any of it. If someone invites me over to dinner, I won't eat it out of politeness, and I would have spit out that meaty rice.

If it were up to me, "Natural Flavor" would not be allowable on ingredients lists.

Is celery really that savory and flavor inducing when cooked? Hmm, I think I need to cook with more celery if that's the case, unless I'm misunderstanding you.

GAH! GAH!

:evil: :evil: :evil:

Yeah, it's really not a taste thing for me. I love the salty carcass goodness and if they made an actual veggie product that tasted exactly like steak tartar, I'd eat it. Sadly, I just can't stomach the idea of eating my furry buddies, anymore. My scaley buddies, however, are for the eating.

Chitterlings? (AKA chitlin's)

Ok, when you said scaley buddies I thought snakes. And then I thought wait, I don't think EH moved to a roadkill diner state...

There are so many products that contain animal. Non-Kosher gelatin can contain cow byproducts. I was at my local Japanese market this weekend and was extra careful about what I purchased since the ingrediants were not in English. I think seaweed, tofu, miso base and rice wrappers are pretty safe.

Frankly, I would have just as hard a time eating my photosynthesizing buddies who are beyond-slaughterhouse easy pickins ... cause they can't even move out of the way!

Vegetation is alive. We kill it to eat it. Yes, we often don't kill the entire organizism to eat part of it ..... but we must cause a bit of death for almost every bite we take to stay alive - - whether we bite Bobby Brocolli, Freddy Fish, or Calvin Cow.



Oh, I know there are tons of really good reasons why so-called higher organisms such as fish or mammals should not be killed for food. And, well, I agree with them. I truly hope to be completely vegetarian .... in my next life.

But in this one, I want to question why we refer to more familar, more anthropomorphic life as "higher" forms of life.

I love my suede and leather jackets.

Tonight we had Fire Breathing Salmon - it was a surprise of a different sort. I will pay for it later, I'm sure

You know what feels reeeeeeaaaaaly nice? Sea otter pelt. But you can't get it legally. (They had sample pelts for show and tell at the aquarium.) Damned endangered species!

Or the poor unfortunates around you.........;)

All the following is IMHO.

I'm with :iSm: on this one. I feel a large kinship with plants. Every time I've made my pilgrimage to Sequoia National Forest I've thought about these living things that are ridiculously old. I mean, you cut these things and they bleed! Making a house out of the bones of trees is basically the same thing as making one out of buffalo hides...a living thing died for your own comfort. That's the way it is, and I'm ok with that.

I'm an animal lover, and I'm a total nutcase when it comes to anything small and furry. But I have no qualms about thinking baby chicks are adorable and then eating roast chicken (or eggs, for that matter).

I gotta say this - Saying that using animals for food and clothing is "bad" is like saying sex is "bad". It's how we were designed. I'm no self-hater.

Of course it's a free country and everyone can abstain from whatever they want. :)

I'm not as spiritual as you are, not by a long shot. But I've heard of experiments with trees that seemed to prove that they were even sentient. One experiment involved a man chopping down a tree in the forest. The trees in the area were fixed with equipment that measured...something. I cannot remember the word. Dude, maybe it was electrodes. My goodness, this paragraph is making me feel stupid. Sorry. Anyway, they were taking some sort of reading from the trees. When the guy returned with the axe, the trees went wonky, crazy, the readins were all over the place. The trees seemed to be aware that the man with the axe had returned, and they might be next...

I do think that all life responds to nurturing and that plants are alive. I realize that human beings must take life in order to survive, so many living things on this planet are natural born sacrifices to their human counterparts. Blah-blah-and so on.

I don't want to snuggle up with a head of brocolli, though. My not eating meat has everything to do with how heartbroken I get when Wilbur and Fern are separated. I wouldn't feel that way if her father had taken away her pet asparagus. Heh.

You know, no one said it was bad. I said it twice, it's a personal choice. I looked at a cow one day and suddenly didn't see a difference between eating a cow and eating my own cat. So, rather than decide it's okay for me to eat my own cat, I decided it's no longer okay for me to eat cows. Not having that kind of emotional attachment to plants (which I seem to be able to kill just by looking at them sideways, even though I attempt plant ownership with the best of intentions), I don't feel so bad about consuming them. And, same goes for fish. That may change in future; I don't know.

But I doubt I'll ever become one of those peole who ONLY eat what's fallen off the vine. I just...I'd be so effin' hungry all the time. Heh.

My dad grew up on a farm. We visited the grandparents on the farm. We played with the cows in the summer and ate them in the winter. I wouldn't eat my cat, because he's become a pet. But I would try cat if I was in a country where cat was eaten. If I go a day without eating meat it feels like I really haven't eaten. I'm also slightly anemic and hate the texture of legumes, so it's a good thing I like meat or I'd be passing out all the time. Mmmmm.

Yeah, I wouldn't knowingly try cat. I'd feel like a cannibal. Actually, I'd find it easier to be a cannibal than a cat eater, I think. And I'd love to have a pet goat someday. And a pet cow. And a pet lemur. Heh.

If I were anemic, I'd eat meat. As it stands, I just get really ticked off when I'm hungry. And shakey. Nothing a salad wouldn't fix.

At least I got to try quail before I stopped eating bird. Quail was really, really yummy.

If I let my iron levels get too low, I perform truly entertaining stunts, like falling out of chairs, sponaneously collapsing in hallways, and so forth. Fun!

I'd like to have sheep. I'd spin wool and eat mutton. And goats. I've never tried goat, but I have recipes! And I know how to make goat milk cheese. Yum! And I could spin angora goat hair. Did I mention that I've helped shear a goat before? I should really get that film developed. His name was Morley and he was annoyed with us so he kept pissing on his fleece.

Morley is a perfect name for a goat.

Goat meat is really, really tasty. I also really love Ox tail. I don't think I'd be able to maintain a mostly vegetarian diet if I still lived in NYC.

Damn. I so want to try goat. You're now the umpteenth person to tell me that it's tasty. Why is there no goat at the grocery store? I suspect I need to find a Halal grocery. Maybe the people at the Gyro House will refer me. They make great food at the Gyro House. I think that's a chain franchise or something, but they basically do their own stuff. I think they're Pakistani. They have great food -- including a lot of actual vegetarian stuff. If you ever come up here, I'll take you and we'll both have yummy meals.

I hope you don't mind but these are my sentiments exactally.

For me eating a carrot does not envoke the same feelings as eating cow. But that may have to do with what I saw coming home from the Grand Canyon. I know my red meat consumption dropped drastically after that.

Oh heck no.

And I'm not getting rid of my leather boots or suede coats. And that's OK. ;)

I was a vegeterian for YEARS. Plus, I only ate organic food - unless I was really hungry then it was what was in the next available can given to me by by parents. Then I met Chris. More importantly, I met Chris' Mom. Have you ever eaten German food? Do you remember large amounts of green things? Well, it's not there. There's lots of brown things as in meat, beef gravy, meat, potatoes with beef gravy, meat, spaetzla with beef. Well, what was I to do. I gave up my veggie ways over starvation.

Now, I still COOK almost all vegetarian or I'm heavy on the vegetables and grains, but I so love my varieties of meat. One of my favorites is Lamb. I try not to think about the cute wittle fuzzy things as I'm eating its delicious, sucullent, tender meat. If I had to kill it myself I'd fo all Fern on you. This is MY WILBUR! But, the guy is already gone, so why not enjoy them?

So, I understand the veggie tendencies. I did it once myself. But, my taste buds and stomach won out in the end.

Mine may as well, for all I know. My guesses for the future are ALWAYS wrong. I'd probably have to reevaluate my choices should I ever actually get to travel in Eastern Europe.

I will certainly keep the invite in mind!

If you've got a Mexican grocer near you, they may carry it as well.

I tried goat milk for the first time after reading Heidi, and man, it's yummy.

I don't object to killing animals for food, I object to the way the animals are treated before killing them. I don't care to eat calves that are fed their moms blood instead of milk (because you can sell milk you know), or meat from hormone injected sick cows that can't even stand up. I don't want to eat a chicken that has never been out of a tiny cage, or eggs from a chicken pumped with loads of hormones to make her lay lots and lots of eggs. I won't drink milk filled with cow puss and antibiotics (the bovine growth hormone gives the cows mastitis which creates puss so the give the cows antibiotics).

So I do eat meat, eggs, and milk, but only from grain fed, free range, organic cows and chickens. If it means I pay $6 a gallon for milk then so be it. I don't want my kids hitting puberty at 7 or 8 because of all the hormones.

Incidentally, Japan (and I think a few other nations) won't import American beef at all because of our low standards.

I'd love to have a pet cow and goat. I think someday I will. Goat's milk is supposedly very healthy. They make me sneeze though.

Snappity-snap-snap, Traci. That, too, is my main concern/objection, or why I started to feel guilty about meat consumption. Free range! Make it all free range!

Try a latino meat market. Goat is a staple of sorts and worst case, if they do not carry goat meat, they might be able to tell you where to get it.

Also, a quick google teurned this info up:

ESMGPA members with USDA meat for sale

Brookside Farm - meat available by individual cuts or by the complete carcass. Billy goat carcasses available by order only. All cuts of frozen goat meat shipped UPS. Contact Elizabeth & Mary Krug, 2302 East Schodack Rd., East Schodack, NY 12063. Phone - (518)477-9548, email at E_Krug@msn.com .


Stone & Thistle Farm - retail cuts available year round. Contact Tom & Denise Warren, Kelso Rd., East Meridith, NY 13757. Phone - (607)278-5773, email at warren@catskill.net.

I have had goat...I can say it is much better when it is the same goat that made sure to wake up the entire family at 4am.

In my particular area, I think I'm more likely to find a halal market than a latino market.

Oh man, I just spit up my Double Bacon Cheeseburger all over my monitor....;)

Oh, I never meant you'd said that. Sorry! I just got off on a little rant there. I hate when people try to push the concept that it's a true sin. I know you'd never do that, babe.

Mmmm tasty fuzzy babies....

Carrots and Celery are used VERY frequently in cooking. They are two major parts of the mirepoix put in a stock pot with water and meat parts to make meat stock. They are, in fact, a very large component in the flavor of the stock.

Me too! Only make that a singular jacket and add shoes.

I also buy the expensive free-range vegetarian eggs.

For me, if I enjoyed the taste and texture of meat, I'd eat it. It sure would make many aspects of my life easier. As it is, I can't stand the stuff. But I'm not bothered by people around me eating fuzzy baby animals--enjoy!

(I am offended by the smell of pork products and those nasty turkey legs they sell at WDW. You can eat 'em, but I might not hang out with you while you do. And I'll offer you a mint when you're finished. ;) )

It was an odd turn of events the week that Audra and I stopped eating meat. She was reading a book about an animal lover. I was reading about low-protein ice cream (hoping to find a treat for my no-protein beau.) And from the vice cream site, I stumbled into a "why vegan" essay. And read a little something about my main protein staple, chicken.

The essay, which I couldn't find again--but which your basic vegan site can tell you-- described how the chicken advertising staff had us all fooled. Look at your basic boneless skinless chicken nutrition info, and you'll see that it's hardly different from beef in terms of cholesterol.

It also talked about which came first, the chicken or the salmonella? No pictures, I promise:


And that is why I no longer eat meat.

I've actually never cared much for the taste of meat. Since 15 I've avoided beef. I tried vegging out in college but didn't get enough protein. Now I eat a small amount of fish, but mostly a lot of beans, lentils, and soy. My new delight is tempeh. Mmmm, tempeh. Love it!

My newest veggie recipe (vegan if you switch to soy cheese):

prepare a cup of rice and slice two italian tofurkey sausages. Stir them together with a cup of marinara sauce of your choice. Hollow out four green, orange, red, or yellow peppers, and stuff them with the filling. Top with a little cheese. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes. Delish!

I'm totally with you on that one....those turkey legs are gross! :p

I just had the best ribeye steak and Caesar salad (Original Parmesan ThinKrisps/Cardini's Caesar salad dressing) for dinner.

Yes, at midnight. Is there a problem?