Janis Ian
19 mins ·
Having decided to clean up my act, I resolved to cut out red meat (for a while), concentrate on fish (and truthfully I don't enjoy eating most fish) and shellfish (which I love) and occasionally poultry (but I lived on a chicken farm, so there's a fair amount of denial in there....)
I also decided to cut back on dairy products, because I really don't like putting milk or cheese with tons of additives and weird growth hormones into my body, and the organic stuff has gotten super super pricey.
Be that as it may, here are three things I've learned in the past two days:
1. Almond milk does not work with coffee. Or espresso for that matter. If you're used to having iced espresso with half a cup of milk with breakfast (yes, and it's delicious!), bite the bullet and buy organic milk. Because I am here to tell you, almond milk does not work. Delicious on it's own. Does not go with coffee.
2. Soy milk looks really weird in coffee, kind of like curdled cow's milk. And while I know a lot of people who like the taste, I find it weirdly disturbing - almost milk but not quite. Like something a vegan vampire would drink.
3. A lot of people do not understand what a vegetarian is. Case in point: I had to eat at a hospital cafeteria two days ago. Seeing "taco salad" with "beef, chicken, or vegetarian" offered, i thought "AHA! Order vegetarian, no chips, cheese on the side, be a healthy person." Or at least, as healthy as I could get when my alternatives were Dairy Queen or snack bars.
I asked what kind of beans they were using. "No beans."
No beans? What are you making it of, then? "Chili."
Chili without beans? "No beans."
Wait. What's the chili made with? "Chicken."
What?! Chicken isn't vegetarian! "Yes it is."
No it's not. "Yes it is."
No it's not. "Yes it is."
Okay then. I demanded the manager come discuss this.
Manager: "What's the problem?"
Me and the very annoyed vegetarian standing next to me: "This is not vegetarian if it's made with chicken."
Manager: "Yes it is."
Me: "But it's made with chicken! That's not a vegetable."
Manager: (Casts pitying glance at us) "Chicken is poultry. It's not meat."
Vegetarian lady: "But it's not vegetarian!"
Manager: (heaving a sigh at our ignorance) "It's not meat. It's poultry. It's vegetarian."
Me: "Is not."
Manager: "Is too."
Me: "Is not."
Manager: "Is too."
<silence>
Me: "So how about if I go to the other food bar, pay for a side of beans, and then can you put that on top of my taco salad?"
Manager: "No."
Vegetarian lady: "Why on earth not?
Manager: "Because we can't mix the two food bars."
Me: "But that one has bean chili, which is vegetarian!"
Manager: "So does this one. It has chicken taco salad, which is vegetarian, because chicken is poultry, not meat."
I settled for a yogurt and called it a day.
As Emo Philips said, "Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps."