Aras recently wrote about his “month” of “not” eating meat and added a few questions throughout that I suppose were rhetorical. Well, for the next thousand words or so, I’ll pretend they’re not.
At the outset he claims to have gone “all out” with not eating meat, like me. I would hardly consider myself “all out.” First, I’m not a vegan, despite having been a vegan for a few stretches of a few months. Second, I’m generally a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”-type of vegetarian. At restaurants, I’ll avoid food that I can nearly guarantee has meat in it (nearly every soup unless it says otherwise), and if there’s a large doubt, I’ll ask. But I won’t push the issue to demand separate cooking spaces, etc. There are people who do that, and I respect their decision, but though I’m against meat contamination, the main thrust of my not eating meat has to do with reducing consumption.1
The first question Aras asks is about the ethics of throwing away already owned meat instead of eating it. Everyone approaches this differently. When I stopped eating meat, there was still tons of meat in my mom’s house, and none of it got thrown away. In fact, there still manages to be a ton of meat in her house that doesn’t get thrown away. If Aras included his whole family in his scheme, then it was simply a peculiar scheme, that I’ll return to below.2
The next question has to do with eating at a formal event. Basically, Arai, it does suck. That’s the life of being a vegetarian in the Western (or, in the case of Vilnius, wannabe Western) world. You are nearly always an inconvenience, especially to extended family members who keep forgetting your dietary restrictions. Before any big dinner function (wedding reception, say), I’ve gotten into a habit of eating a meal on my own, since I know that the bread and salad at the table won’t be able to compete with the night’s drinking afterward. I have fond memories of sitting in a parking lot in Rosemont, IL, eating a stuffed spinach pizza from Edwardo’s by myself to prepare for a Šokių Šventė banketas.3
Airlines are getting better about serving vegetarian food, by offering it as one of the main choices, instead of as a special dish, though there are certain limitations.4 Banquet halls are also getting better, but we’re still a far ways away from being normative. When Medieval Times offers a vegetarian meal that isn’t steamed vegetables with a cup of melted butter, I’ll know things are ok.5
This bends into Aro next question, of “if real vegetarians are ever caught so off guard.” No, we aren’t, since we understand that we live lives that are, despite increasing visibility, outside of the mainstream. I know to eat before a wedding reception. I know to bring snacks aboard an airplane. It’s like having a game or something ready with which to occupy your child when you’re about to embark on something that will test her patience. You anticipate and prepare, two verbs that are central to any adult’s vocabulary. And you enjoy being surprised when you’ve overprepared.
And sometimes it means not being a part of a certain social circle, or understanding that you can never fully be a part of a certain social event. For example, I love my friends, but I’m sick of going to barbecues at their houses. No matter how many delicious “sides” there are and how full I can get off them, we can’t escape the fact that the centerpiece of the event, and what the host usually prides him or herself with the most, is a giant slab of carefully, lovingly prepared meat. Similarly, my friends in Chicago go to a rodízio every year. I simply decline the invitation, since $40 for an all you can eat salad bar (and it is a good one!) is an obscenity.
But, considering how scarce meat was in the western world until about a century ago, and how scarce it continues to be throughout much of the world, an all you can eat meat buffet (as well as a night devoted to pushing the limits of said buffet) is its own obscenity.
Finally Aras brings the issue to Vilnius and about being a vegetarian there. I’m not as much of an expert on this topic as Ed (who eats fish) or my friend Veronika, who has been a militant vegetarian for the near decade she’s lived in Vilnius, but I do know a few things.
First off, there are certain cuisines/restaurants one simply avoids. The rodízio is one example. German restaurants and French bistros are another. These culinary cultures are simply not accepting of vegetarian lifestyles, and one anticipates this in advance. When I go to a French restaurant in Paris, I know that I will either be eating some kind of omelette or a pair of measly “entrées” (sides) while my friends go to work on half a pig. It’s funny that Aras specifically mentions Bravaria, since it was another German restaurant in Vilnius I was planning to go to over the summer until my suspicions (there won’t be anything there I can eat) were confirmed by the menu on the web.
Next, one learns of places that do have decent vegetarian meals, without having to resort to going to Balti drambliai all the time. Briusly and Beirut (while it stays open!) both offer multiple vegetarian dishes of astonishingly good quality. Sue’s has an even more expansive (and expensive) menu. Even my over-maligned Tres mexicanos serves its vegetarian clients multiple dishes (I think there are five things on their menu one can order without meat without ordering it specially).
But even local Lithuanian cuisine, based as it is on farmers who were too poor for meat, has greasy, starchy, non-meat alternatives, making places like Čili kaimas or Amatininkų užeiga perfectly fine dining options. Furthermore, the crêpe/blini/blynai culture of Eastern Europe gives both sweet and savory options that never even come near meat. One won’t convince me that Теремок in Moscow has a tastier thing on the menu than their “Блин ‘E-mail.’” So it’s not the case that because Vilnius lacks “vegetarian restaurants,” it’s difficult for a vegetarian out there. In fact, I never felt particularly without a place to eat, unlike in Paris, where one can get sick of cheese omelettes. Furthermore, Vilnius is much more amenable to drinking and dining than the US is, where usually if I’m out drinking with friends, I’m limited to pub food (read: nachos, french fries, or something else deep-fried).
So what’s the crux of my response to Aro post? Something about how being a vegetarian is not personally terribly difficult, but it does still have a non-trivial social cost, one that Aras felt in passing, remarked upon, and then abandoned, since, for him, this was merely a one-month experiment. I, for example, and Aras has witnessed this personally, try by all means to weasel out of dinner parties, knowing that I’m, simply put, a pain in the ass. Most people I know are not used to preparing vegetarian dishes (or considering the extremely wide array of non-meat dishes outside of omelettes and pasta), so I know I’m a burden when they invite me over. Some families, like Aro, I’ve learned are up for the task. But I can’t hold it against my stepfamily for not being similarly adventurous.
I have friends who abandon their vegetarianism when it’s polite to do so. I certainly do many, many things out of politeness only, and I used to eat shellfish this way. It took my mom about three Christmas dinners before she remembered I don’t even eat shellfish anymore, so I politely ate the stuff, especially since I saw how proud she was of the effort she went through to make a dish just for me. But these days, I would simply refuse, as I simply can’t eat shellfish anymore. It grosses me out, as does all animal flesh. When I tackled vegetarianism here last, I wrote that going back to meat is simply not an option anymore. This isn’t an experiment; it’s a way of life.
This whole post I have avoided trying to compare the social cost of not eating meat with the social cost of being a recovering alcoholic. There are obviously vital differences I can’t even begin to imagine. Yet I find it slightly instructive that it’s the example I kept wanting to return to. You’re a person who, for whatever reason, is cut off from what remains a vital social component of your cultural life. And you also know that there is no going back–no returning to that cultural life. All you can do is wait for everyone to join you, pretty much, to wait for culture to change. It’s not worth it (or even the case, for me) to feel sorry for yourself about the differences. You just anticipate and prepare, over and over.
- On the other hand, I generally don’t “eat around meat,” which Aras did during his experiment. [↩]
- On a side note, I would certainly not choose a winter month for an experiment in vegetarianism, unless it’s an experiment on “how bad can things get?” The variety of food available in the wintertime is much lower, and that’s felt acutely by vegetarians. I’m glad I’m not yet sick of potato leek soup. [↩]
- Friends were jealous when I later told them what I ate for dinner, when they compared it to their rubber chicken. Of course, I also paid the $50 or whatever for food I didn’t eat. Thinking about functions in that way is an exercise in madness. If I considered a banquet ticket to include the price of the food, I’d never go to another banquet again. [↩]
- This truly is tragic. American Airlines used to offer a vegan meal, a vegetarian meal, and a Hindu meal. Despite how impossible it is to get in a special meal request with them, the Hindu meal was always fantastically aromatic in comparison to the steak and potatoes everyone else would eat. AA apparently drew some Venn diagrams, however, and collapsed all three into a simple vegan meal that I’ve never found particularly exciting. Too bad! [↩]
- The fact that during the epoch the restaurant celebrates pretty much no one on Earth ate meat with any regularity causes the vegetarian option to serve as a complete insult. [↩]
Tags: vegetarianism, Vilnius
January 5th, 2011 at 9:49
Cheese omelets? I thought you don’t eat eggs. Or was that last chat on the subject we had at Vygantų place during one of your vegan stretches?
It is obvious, when you think about it, that a German beer hall is the last place to expect alot of vegetarian options, but I wasn’t thinking about that; I wanted someplace with lots of room and cheap good beer for a party. It slipped my mind, as I’m sure it wouldn’t if it were my lifestyle and not just an experiment, as you said.
I’m surprised that French cuisine is so meaty, especially so much more so than Lithuanian: off the top of my head, French food means cheese and wine, Lithuanian food means cepelinai, kugelis, and koldūnai. It’s possible to make vegetarian versions of each, but the only one of those I think tastes good is koldūnai with wild mushrooms (delicious).
I don’t mind vegetarian dinner guests, as long as I know about it ahead of time. I enjoy cooking new things. And for my next trick…kosher food! But I’m sure there are many hosts who do mind either way. And I guess when I say “know,” what I actually mean is “am reminded,” especially if it is not that memorable. I have one friend who doesn’t eat red meat: half the time she’s over I make chicken, so it’s a non-issue, and becomes easy to forget. I am sure it’s not fun reminding people over and over, though as you mentioned with the shellfish, it may be necessary.
I enjoyed my experiment, even though there were many moments when I wished I could eat a certain something. I expect to repeat it more seriously, perhaps one month more strictly vegetarian and maybe one month vegan. But as far as this time goes, it’s lucky I made the frozen food exception, because mid December our fridge busted and there was more frozen meat in it than my ladies would have managed without me.
January 5th, 2011 at 10:08
No, I’ve not done a vegan stretch in a few years now.
Just wait until you see your meat options here. Or start googling “charcuterie.”
Lithuanian food also means bulviniai blynai, barsciai, grybiene, voveraites su padazu, every misraine ever, nasliesninkai, varskieciai, eziukai, etc., etc. Lithuanian cuisine is nearly impossible for a vegan, because of its heavy reliance on dairy, but not for a vegetarian. Like I said, at a place like Amatininku, I have *options*!
January 13th, 2011 at 23:47
On the French and the animal flesh in their cuisine, keep in mind that just about every savory French dish has at its base an animal broth. At least, if “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” is to offer any indication.
Hey Mo’, I was hoping to hear more about “the main thrust of my not eating meat has to do with reducing consumption.” I mean, from the post it sounds like, as regards your eating practices, the idea is to bring consumption to a neglible degree–vs., say, limiting the amount of meat you consume to a level that is sustainable with regards to animal agriculture. What exactly *are* your reasons for avoiding meat?
As I see it, we in the Western (and generally, the more affluent world) eat meat at such gargantuan levels, it’s difficult to imagine a production method capable of filling our gaping mouths that does not resort to entirely unhealthy practices, with regards to the animals involved, the environment, and us the meat consumers. However, one of the central tenets of any honorable (in my estimation), sustainable diet is not only humane treatment of animals, but an agriculture that lessens its impact on the environment, as well as a balanced diet of meats, fruits and veggies. Do these types of questions enter your considerations as a vegetarian? Or are they irrelevant to you?
January 13th, 2011 at 23:53
I retract my comments and questions about your reasons–just read your anniversary post! Unless, of course, you should feel inclined to address them
.
January 19th, 2011 at 13:57
With regard to the specific comment I made in the post, what I mean is simply that there are different ways to approach one’s relationship with meat when it’s something they actively don’t eat. To me, it teeters along a continuum of contamination. At 0 concern for contamination, a person doesn’t eat meat simply to not eat meat. This reduces the consumption of meat worldwide.
At 1 concern for contamination, a person does not eat meat since there is something about meat that is transferred to other foods, silverware, etc. Thereby, one can’t claim that one doesn’t eat meat in order to reduce the amount of meat in the world if there is also an issue of contamination.
The continuum is not between the two poles, as I think reducing consumption is an implicit goal of anyone who chooses not to eat meat. So it’s either just reducing consumption, or reducing consumption plus avoiding contamination.
I imagine myself as about a .1 or .2 on the scale.
As for the other questions, I reckon they’re covered in the previous post. I’m mostly in line with Pollan on these issues.
January 19th, 2011 at 18:04
Got it–mostly. As regards avoiding meat at all costs (i.e., no contamination), do you mean to say that if your concern as a meat-avoider is to dodge it and any modicum of it at all costs, then essentially the world to you is formed by those that eat meat and those that don’t, with no accommodation for the practices of the former camp? I do think I get the continuum caveat–essentially, that if you’re not a 1 then you’re not concerned at all about contamination, that being a binary yes/no question. Then again, Jainism might object that simply avoiding meat at the dinner table and kitchen, as it were, is not sufficient.
I guess as far as any other questions, I’ll have to read the book
. Otherwise, I’d say that there is something to be said for alternative models of meat consumption–vs. simply leaving it as a question of absolutes. For those meat-eaters who subscribe to the project of reducing worldwide meat consumption, there are ways to make that more accessible to folks who eat meat unscrupulously. After all, the shibboleths of meat consumption (and non-meat consumption) will always exist, so long as there are meat eaters and non-meat eaters, or more specifically, so long as there are meat sources and non-meat sources available to us.
January 23rd, 2011 at 10:33
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Hi! my name is Monika, Im 22, from Chile, and Im staying in Vilnius for a month, for a clinical exchange (medicine student). Im vegetarian since 6 years ago, and I was wondering how is it that a vegetarian should manage it to ‘survive’ in this big city. I arrived on fridday night so I have not even taken a look around to the city, as I had been alone and I didnt dare, haha. For any tip about restaurant or anything (for example, I need a pair of boots but I also need them not to be of leather!) my email is anfi...@vegetarianmail.com
(:
January 23rd, 2011 at 10:35
I dont know why appeared that long text like a warning -dont know about what :s – before mine…. I hope you read mine!
January 23rd, 2011 at 11:04
@vergueishon:
Pollan’s book is about (among other things) what a responsible means of eating meat might look like. For me it’s not an option (anymore), and I suppose I’d prefer it if the whole world were vegetarian, but I’m not terribly invested in all of this.
@Monika:
In addition to the restaurants mentioned in this piece (Tres mexicanos, Briusly, Beirut, Balti drambliai, Sue’s) and the ability to get something vegetarian at most Lithuanian cuisine restaurants–like the chanterelles with potatoes at Užupio kavinė–there’s also a possibility for you at the restaurant Kalvarijų 1 (at the southern end of Kalvarijų g.). The chef there, Renato, is Brazilian and prides himself on his paella, including a vegetarian option. I didn’t know about this until I left Lithuania, but I’d like to know how that works out.
If you go to Tres Mexicanos, and one of the two owners is there, introduce yourself and tell them you’re from Chile. They’re very welcoming.