Vegetarians evolve, either by ones self choice or by brought up. Started in the latter category and moved to become one by choice, clueless of how the taste of being a meat-eater is, I take every pride in not being part of petty murders committed on chickens and ducks to entertain human taste buds. The version of vegetarianism I follow, comprise of vegetables and all diary products. Anything starting from egg till pork is exempted from my list. Few people term this list as something in-between Vegan and Vegetarian.
Never ending debates among friends between consuming leaves and ripping the garnished flesh on a dinning table, always conclude in favour of people who rip the flesh! I wonder whether it’s due to the dominating head counts or logical arguments. Amusingly one reality always surface in such combative occasions.
“If chicken is a living thing so are plants; Vegetarians kill plants to satisfy their hunger”. Ironically, this is true. Plants carry cells; they breathe; they germinate; they work hard on photosynthesis; they reproduce and they are 100% living. This is where our arguments on being compassionate fail. Animals feed on plants; we feed on animals; Animals sometimes feed on us - It’s vicious circle of survival. However I am happy on choosing the immobile living being, over cute mobile potential pets like chicken and rabbit. So, have I ever repented on being a Vegetarian? ON MANY OCCASIONS – YES.
“No egg; No Fish; No Meat” – the mantra I use for restaurants in Europe to order food. Being vegetarian, travelling around parts of world having dominating meat eating population is certainly not a cake walk. One of my memorable visits was to the spectacular Mediterranean Majorca island in Spain. Undoubtedly I lost more than 2 kgs in 3 days during my stay in that island. Palma de Mallorca, boasting being one of the ultimate tourist destinations in the world, clearly voiced huge language barriers. Very few people can converse in English that too with a heavy accent and ordering a normal cheese toast took a minimum of 15 minutes for me. During most of my stay there I fed in juices, fruits and some bakery items. Desperate to have food, one afternoon I and my hubby walked into a posh restaurant. The menu card was all Spanish. We requested the waitress to bring anything with “No egg; No Fish; No Meat”, and to my surprise she looked to have a clear understanding for what we ordered. Well, she did have a clear understanding; she brought me a Russian Chicken salad. “Chicken! Add chicken to the mantra!” my inner voice screamed. Energy drained to retaliate, I slowly passed the bowl to my meat eating hubby.
Another moment to cherish was at a restaurant in Venice, Italy. Similar language barrier issue surfaced, however the people in Venice were more friendly. I, my hubby and a cute and simple waitress who unfortunately cannot understand my mantra, began to put forth a skit. We started with “No egg” and got stuck there. My hubby in broken English went to explain egg like “White thing coming out of chicken”, “round/oval” etc. The cute girl in sign language asked us to wait and went inside to search someone else for help. Amazed at the ALPS assignment of going further explaining fish and meat, I and my hubby were in the verge of sneaking out of the restaurant. Just in time the cute girl came in with another cute girl. My hubby exactly uttered the same gibberish broken statements in the hope of her understanding at least one word. To our astonishment, the second cutie in sign language said she understood, went inside but came back with salt in her hand and placed it on our table. Unable to suppress my disappointment and amusement at the same time, I burst into laughter, so did the girls understanding that it was not what we explained all this time and another stranger in eat out watching our skit for the past 10 minutes. He later went to the girls and said something like “Uvo”. They understood and took the order from us with his help.
From my experience, here are some tips for vegetarians planning to travel around the world:
1. Get a good dictionary translating the language of the place you visit.
2. Learn to have at least egg or else be ready to starve.
3. To avoid wastage of money after making an order, always have a meat-eater nearby.
4. My friend’s advice – Do not travel to CHINA
In spite of facing boulders of odds, I still prefer to be a vegetarian. It gives me sense of appeasement beyond explanation. I understand that steak, fish, pork etc are diets rich in high protein and so people have logical explanation to defend them having meat, however it really feels sad to see little species lie butchered and roasted on plates.
Well, May the chicks (and other little animals') soul, rest in peace. Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment