On saturday afternoon, along with a few friends, I went to a High Tea party to celebrate a friend's birthday. He is not gay, he just likes the more sophisticated things in life. He also made a grander entrance than he might have liked, hoping across the floor of the fancy Victoria Room with what he discovered later to be a broken foot.
High Tea is not a code for beer. It really means Tea accompanied with some delicious morsels of sweet and savory foods presented on an elegant tiered platter. Scones with cream and jam on the bottom, mini cheesecakes, red velvet cupcakes and fruit tartlets in the middle and little sandwiches on top. Well, that's if you're not special because I got my little sandwiches on my very own little plate on the side. I even got more than everybody else's allowance. The only downside was that my sandwiches were exactly the same but without the meat. Cucumber and cream cheese sandwich anyone?
If that wasn't enough to make me feel "different", just a few hours later, I had to tackle the quintessential pub meal, an icon of the Australian food scene. Over the years, I have built a reputation for ordering almost exclusively the burger. I usually scan the menu in search of it without bothering to read about other options. So when the time came to order food, and I had read the whole menu in search of a vegetarian friendly meal, my options were limited to say the least. I could have wedges, chips or a platter of dips. In a feat of despair, I asked Chris to order the wedges for me but he convinced me to negotiate with the bar tender in the hope I could have something a bit more meal-ish. In the end, we settled on a chickpea fritter burger which was the closest thing to a veggie burger. It worked out pretty well with my only punishment for annoying the staff with my special needs being that I was given the two bottoms of the bun while Emma, with her more traditional beef burger, enjoyed both tops...
All in all, it was a successful vegie day despite the obstacles and maybe I was dealt an extra challenging day to make up for the accidental concealed bacon I had the night before. As far as I am concerned, I came out of the week-end with a clean slate!
A pub with chickpea fritter burgers? "The-times-they-are a-changing," no doubt about that.
ReplyDeleteI do think it's often for lack of imagination that people build meals around meat-chicken-fish and perhaps too for fear of not feeling full without them.
I don't know if it's because "everything is bigger in Texas," but I must say the few vegetarians I know here are HUGE. Oh dear, now I have to remember never to recommend this blog to them, but sorry, it's the truth. Does not eating meat cause some people to double the doses of pasta and cheese?
I've noticed too though that with age, many people tend to consume less meat than when they were younger and I wonder if this is due to a message from our innards telling us to cool it and eat lighter.
It's quite possible that people compensate with extra carbs for the lack of meat. I have been trying to be careful with that and try and have beans, lentils or chickpeas instead for the full-factor and the nutrition.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely lost some weight though, the dress from Comptoir des Coulommiers fits perfectly now, it was just a bit tight when we bought it so I am delighted!