On a more serious note, I am not veggie for ethical reasons. For example, I love my leather jacket and have no compunction whatsoever about how someone had to zap some poor cow in the head to make your steak and my jacket. I’m all for wearing cows, I just don’t eat them.
If you must know, this choice is for health reasons. My cholesterol is sky-high. I am not overweight, and aside from smoking, I don’t do anything else that contributes to high risk factors for heart disease. The high cholesterol, in my case, is pretty much genetic. Eliminating land-animal fats from my diet has brought it down, but I still have to take meds to reduce it further to a more healthy level.
There are religions in the world that call for dietary restrictions. Muslims do not eat pork or drink alcohol. Many sects of Buddhism and Hinduism require vegetarianism. Often, people who live in undeveloped countries simply do not have access to as much land-animal meat as we do in the United States, so what is “normal” here is not necessarily typical everywhere.
When people get in my face about my diet, I tend to ask if they’d take the same approach if I were Buddhist or Muslim or some other religion (I believe Seventh-Day Adventists tend to be vegetarian), would you pass the same judgment on me if my choice were due to religious reasons? Often, people back off because it’s considered “rude” to question someone’s religious choices. (Not here at the SDMB, however.)
And, btw, “normal” is a setting on a washing machine. Not really the best choice of word to describe people. IMHO. YMMV, etc.
Still, if that’s the worse omnivores have to put up with from vegetarians, I’ll deal. Sure, there are some people who are annoying about it, but on these boards, other than the buckeye thing, I’ve never noticed people going on about how gross meat is. Well, other than that ill-fated “Ask the Exhibitionist” thread.
(Not that it isn’t possible that the buckeye trees in Ohio weren’t named as such because the useless nuts they drop look like deer eyes. But the candy is meant to represent the nuts off the tree… that grows in The Buckeye State. Someone call PETA! Ohio’s nickname discriminates against Vegans! The horror! :smack:)
That had to have been one of the dumbest pit threads ever. So sorry I missed it!
I don’t get this…I’m an American vegan, and I don’t know how my dietary choices affect kids in Africa, or why I would have a hard time explaining them to one such child. I would basically say, I live in a country where it is possible to meet all my dietary needs with plant foods and I prefer to live this way for ethical and environmental reasons.
Wouldn’t it be harder to explain the fast food industry to a starving African kid, or the massive amounts of food that are wasted by the restaurant industry?
As far as the veggie boards go, I think there are plenty of places where one can debate the merits of a veg*n diet, including this board. How does it make us intolerant to have a place to gather online where we can interact with like-minded folks?
Frankly, I don’t think anyone would have to explain to a starving African child why they don’t eat meat, because starving African children aren’t generally brought up to expect meat on their dinner table at every single meal.
Have you ever tried African or Moroccan cuisine? It’s generally veggie, maybe with a little goat or chicken on very special occasions.
I think that, in North America, meat eating has become an expectation and considered “normal” simply because of the cowboy culture thing and fast food marketing. I could be making shit up because I’ve never been overseas. But I’m thinking there aren’t a lot of cows in the Caribbean and in parts of India, cows are sacred, and there aren’t a lot of cows in Africa…and pork is against the Muslim and Kosher Jewish diets so… perhaps a diet of little to no meat is *actually *what is “normal” if you look at a global human perspective and try not to see the world through the filter of American culture.
I’ve actually found that most North African and Middle Eastern vegetarian food is pretty easy to find or make. In fact, when traveling there, I find it a lot easier to eat out than when at home in the US. In part, I think it is because in the US, it is so common to put animal products in just about everything…green beans with bacon bits, biscuits with little bits of sausage baked right in, chicken fat in nacho chips, whey protein in almost all sliced bread, etc…
So I’ve heard. Got any recommendations for somebody who’s never sampled it before, bearing in mind that I’m going to try to make it myself rather than seek out an Ethiopian restaurant?
Can I just comment on this for one moment? I am not a vegetarian and am morally good with that. When I cook, I cook meat. Meat in things, meat with things.
So, I have a few friends who are veggie types. No skin off my nose generally. Except that I honestly am running out of goodthings to make for them that my other highly carnivorous friends will also enjoy. There are only so many times you can make 'za when a bunch of people come over without looking like a rotten host.
Sure, I use substitutes where I can (if we are having steak, I will have some nice grilled shitakes if we are having a gang over for chili, I make two batches, one without meat) but it does take extra work.
Not knowing what to make is not just a complaint, it really can be challenging for those of us whose meals are meat-centric. We honestly just don’t get it.
Maybe I should try being a veggie for a month and see what I come up with…
The ingera bread is a key part, and it’s damned difficult to make at home. I’m a competent-but-not-great cook, and every time I try to make ingera it comes out in dense blobs. If you have an Ethiopian restaurant nearby, you might want to try to pick up just an order of bread to go with the stuff you make at home. (The missus and I do this with Indian food – we make the main dishes but often drop by the local restaurant to pick up naan). If you want to make the red lentil dish, which is one of my favorites, you’ll probably have to go to a Whole Foods or someplace like that to find the dried lentils. I haven’t seen them in a regular grocery store.
If I can’t find it locally, then it’ll have to be Bob’s Red Mill to the rescue. If they don’t carry it, nobody does. A quick check reveals that they provide both teff flour and the unrefined whole grain.
Here’s a recipe for basic injera. You have to mix the flour with water and let it ferment for a couple of days, then spread it on on a griddle and cook it like pancakes.
Like Bayard said, homemade injera results can be highly variable, but when it’s done right, it’s kind of like a spongy tortilla. In Ethipian cuisine, the injera is used as the eating utensil. You tear pieces off and use them to scoop up vegetables and meat (usually stewed in spicy sauces). Sometimes it’s used as the plate.
I am actually pretty pleased with the Moderating here so far (only a few days but I have been pretty unabashed in my posts).
Places like DU, KOS, NU, and yes, my beloved home FR, tend to (OK just do) ban those who are not onboard with the direction of the site. It never occured to me that veggies would be so inflexible.
To be truthful they should have named their site “vegan” not “veggie.” Veggies are cool, passive and fun. If someone calls himself/herself a “vegan” you are dealing with someone close to or in PETA or ELF. It is a political extremist declaration. It also will be a liberal 99.999% of the time.