Do You Miss Meat?
Print This Post
The Washington Post did an interview with a couple high profile vegans, Isa Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, regarding Thanksgiving. One question:
EXPRESS:Any dish you miss at the holidays?
MOSCOWITZ: I never miss meat. It’s funny when people think that vegans are deprived. I don’t like the look of a big bird on a table, and I wouldn’t think of adding cream to my potatoes. I make mashed potatoes with olive oil and roasted garlic.
I grew up vegetarian so I really hate that question, “Do you miss meat?” No, I don’t miss what I barely had. I can’t even remember the taste of meat. I was SIX! Not every vegetarian is a convert. That said, when I first went vegan I missed a few things like crackers and cheese and ice cream. But now that I’ve been vegan a few years I have found good substitutes like So Delicious and Teese. And lucky for me, meat substitutes are *new* products for me that I can taste without bias and expectation. To me, they aren’t replacements at all; they’re totally new and different foods that enrich my food enjoyment.
Not every vegan loved meat at one time. Hello? We’re all individuals and we have personal stories, unique tastes, and different points of view.
I’ve asked my husband if he misses meat since he ate animals for the majority of his lifetime. He says he is repulsed by meat now that he knows the cruelty and health problems associated with it, though he sometimes misses the buttery flavor of salmon and he sometimes misses cheese pizza. When he went vegan he gave himself permission to “slip up” a few times in the cheese pizza department. It helped ease the transition and now he says he’s perfectly satisfied as a vegan.
Another vegan I know went vegan virtually instantaneously after watching Meet Your Meat. She now says she thinks she was meant to be vegan her whole life. However, she said there were a few moments when she realized certain foods contained animal products and she felt a small sadness in their loss. Things like cheesy, meaty lasagna. But she’s kept her resolve and she’s found new and different foods to try now that she’s vegan. She’s the kind of person would would probably say, ‘compassion tastes better than meat.’
So, what’s your perspective? Do you miss meat?
Once I committed to going vegetarian, it was pretty much instantaneous for me – overnight, I became repulsed by the smell, the look, even the thought of meat. The few times I’ve accidentally eaten it, I’ve practically vomited from the thought.
The only food I miss now is fried eggs, probably because there’s not yet a vegan substitute for them. But it’s really a small “sacrifice” when you consider all the suffering that goes into egg production. (Scare quotes because I don’t really think of it in those terms – how can you sacrifice something that was never your right to begin with?)
My husband, on the other had, does miss cheese pizza.
~ Recent blog post: elsewhere, other things ~
I occasionally miss cheese and milk chocolate. And I do NOT want to pay 5 bucks for a chocolate bar made with rice milk. Unless, of course, it’s a 5 lb. chocolate bar, which I’m sure it’s not.
But you know what I really miss? The ability to walk into any grocery store, any restaurant, any fast food place, etc. and buy anything and not have to worry about it, or read labels, or have to leave in disgust because there is nothing I can eat on the menu.
There is one entirely vegan restaurant in town (chinese food), and it’s awesome to go there. I don’t have to pick and choose from a few entrees. I can order anything on the menu. They use faux meat for some of the dishes, so they have pretty much everything a standard chinese restaurant would have (i.e. sweet and sour chicken, beef and broccoli, etc.), but it’s so great to just sit down and order whatever I want from the menu without asking, “Is there meat or dairy in this?”
Regarding the pizza, I found this great website for vegan pizzas of all kinds: http://www.ethicalpizza.com/
And for those people lucky enough to live in certain veg-friendly cities, there are vegan pizza joints and vegan-frienly pizza places popping up like: http://www.pizzafusion.com/
I loved Isa’s answer to that question & feel the same – I don’t miss meat at all. The thought of chewing beef or chicken makes me want to gag.
~ Recent blog post: Cheesecake success: a review ~
I NEVER miss meat. In fact, the longer I’ve been vegan, the more meat repulses me …. it’s gotten to a point where I have a hard time being around people when they’re eating a big steak or something. Blech! On rare occasions, I do miss cheese, but when I really think of what eating that cheese would mean (supporting cruelty) I come back to reality and decide that I don’t miss it after all.
~ Recent blog post: Sarah Palin “pardons” a turkey…Sort of. ~