Day Two - Excuse me?

As my friend, Cynthia, pointed out tonight, I have become one of those people. You know who I'm talking about. Those annoying people that scornfully glance at the menu, then ask the waiter, "Excuse me, but do you have any vegan food?" Uggh. Really? If you want vegan, go to a vegan restaurant. Yeah, I'm there with you. But if you want to be with your friends (who are graciously humoring you with your weird vegan experiment), and they are all eating someplace new, what do you do?

It's crazy how little we think while we eat. I can't count how many times I've eaten bags of popcorn and been surprised when I reach in to find out it's all gone. This morning I had oatmeal, and automatically poured milk on it. I had to dump the milk in the sink and reach for the almond milk. Oops. Not only when we eat, but especially what we eat. For the past few months I've been looking at vegan articles and info. Funny how a topic pops up more when you are thinking about it. I've discovered a TV show about meat and teaching people how it's harvested. Even Oprah recently had an vegan challenge episode (surprisingly balanced and interesting: http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Oprah-and-378-Staffers-Go-Vegan-The-One-Week-Challenge?FB=fb_feb_020111 ). A big point they both make, is we aren't aware of what we are eating. How did the cow become a hamburger? What is in that bag of cookies? Do you know where your dinner came from? ("The store", is not the right answer) Shopping takes forever because now I have to read the ingredients for almost everything. But I like the idea of being aware of what I put in my body. Sure it's a hassle, but it seems to be a much more honest way of life, at least as far as diet goes. I feel better about what I'm eating. Even if it's PB+B.

So all the new budding sense of "conscious eating" is going through my head, and I'm sitting in between my two friends looking over the menu and feeling my stomach slowly eat itself. There are a few options that could be okay to eat. Hummus (ha), sweet potato fries, guacamole. And that's when I became of those people. "Excuse me, waiter..." Turns out the sweet potato fries are cooked in the same wok as the calamari. We went with the guac and fries. I skipped the fries. Trial by fire, and I guess I passed. Granted, I don't know exactly what was in the food I ate, but I know for sure there were no high fat animal byproducts. I suppose that is something. And now I can look, with practiced scorn and slightly self-righteous confidence, at a menu that is, oh so obviously not vegan friendly, and ask "Excuse me, what do you have that is veeeegan?"

Good friends, good music, and good vegan snacks.