My most recent visit to my dad's house was another "clear out dead mom's stuff" weekend. I went through the cookbooks and found one that I took home with me. I was a vegetarian for a very short period of time (less than two years) when I was in my 20's. I also followed a macrobiotic diet for around a minute during the same decade. I like red meat, fish, poultry, and bacon. I do not like eggplant, avocado, artichoke, or tofu and the idea of "meat analogue" makes me want to blow chunks.
The cookbook was recipes for dishes made by Claire Criscuolo, who is well known in New Haven for founding Claire's CornerCopia vegetarian restaurant. The recipes are all vegetarian, many are vegan. Claire's was one of the restaurants I loved, when I lived up there. A top two place to go whenever I was downtown. The other was Mamoun's Falafel Restaurant, a few blocks away from Claire's.
Claire's had people coming from all over New Haven county, and people who visited from out of town, out of state, and even out of the country, would make sure to stop in for a meal as well. Sometimes the line would be out the door onto the sidewalk, just to get to the counter to place an order. The individual-sized loaves of bread are always served still warm (sometimes hot) from the oven, and comes with any salad ordered by the customer. The Lithuanian Coffee Cake is amazing, as good as my mom's. She made a mouth-watering Spinach Fettuccine Alfredo at one point, that was made with her own hand-made spinach noodles. People run her clear out of her eggplant rollups (again - not something I'd ever eat but it's a hugely popular dish). She works magic with stuffed grapeleaves and her carrot cake is to die for.
Vegetarian food can be healthy, hearty, delicious. In fact, most people eat vegetarian food. They just don't call it that. It's food that doesn't contain meat, and in many cases, that includes not containing fish or poultry. Do you like cole slaw? That's vegetarian. How about string bean casserole, without any bacon in it? That's vegetarian. Have you enjoyed a nice fat slice of key lime pie with a graham cracker crust lately? Vegetarian. Ever eat a plain normal salad? Vegetarian. Eggplant Parm? Vegetarian. Avocado toast? Vegetarian. A toasted garlic bagel with cream cheese? Vegetarian. Peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches? Vegetarian.
I think some people just have some really weird fear of the word itself, but they eat the food all the time without even giving it a second thought.
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