The last time I "cheated" as a vegetarian was July 1st, 2006.
When Christine and I decided to try vegetarianism, I believed it would be a difficult thing for me. It hadn't been that long before that my favourite treat was running out to Bigg's for their 12 ounce steak with salad, rice and fries. When I knew in advance that I'd be going, I'd starve myseklf during the day so I could take a shot at the 16-ouncer!
For that reason, I negotiated that I would make every effort to avoid meat, but my football tailgates were off limits to that rule. I could eat whatever I wanted at those.
As it turns out, when I gave up eating meat, I lost the desire to eat meat altogether. I stopped craving it, which I didn't expect.
At tailgates though, out of courtesy (and rather than see food wasted), I would eat some of the food other people brought, meat included. But then it occured to me that I was eating food that I found, well, unappealing. Not that the person(s) offering was preparing it any differently then when I used to used to eat it like a hog, but my tastes had changed and I just stopped liking it.
So after forcing down a sausage last Canada Day (and its no more pleasant an experience at the other end either, if you follow my meaning), I just sort of made a mental note that it would be the end of that. Friends and family know now and are kind enough to not put us in an ackward position. I haven't eaten meat since.
As far as I know, anyway. We were in Manotick the other day, just out on a drive. We stopped at the mill there. I was roaming around and came about their gift shop where I spotted (to my great delight)...Ottawa style BBQ sauce!
I had not realized that Ottawa has its own style of BBQ sauce. I have no idea what that would be. Bland? ;-)
So I had to try it. I had a glance at the ingredients, found nothing with a name over 30 letters long that I couldn't pronounce and made my purchase.
But then on the way home, disaster struck.
A closer look at the ingredients revealed that the seasoning contains *gasp* anchovies!
Dang!!
Well, I still have to eat it now. When it comes to meat (obviously including seafood), eating it is better than wasting it. But now technically when I do my streak will be over, even though I'm sure that the level of concentration of anchovies is very small (especially since everyone hates anchovies).
I've said before that being vegetarian is a lot easier than people think? Well this sort of thing makes it a little difficult. I knew BBQ sauce went on meat, I didn't think meat went into BBQ sauce. Live and learn, I suppose, but now I wonder how often I've eaten small amounts of meat without realizing it. It appears this little lifestyle choice will require a greater degree of scrutiny than I originally thought.
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