My non-meat eating journey began at age four. Conflicting reports from me and my mother point to two motivations: I think I just don't like the taste but my mother remembers a teacher who told me meat came from animals and that was why I denounced it. But nevertheless, at age four I stopped eating all red meat (except a single dish called galupchiki in Russian which I ate until age 8 and Israeli salami that was the bomb) and chicken, except for Israeli chicken nuggets that had corn in them (a surprisingly amazing combination).
The more years that past the less meat I ate. When I moved to America I denounced salmon as well as caviar, I stopped eating galupchiki and started calling myself a "junkfoodertarian."
By sophomore year I hadn't eaten even a piece of chicken for a year. But I realized that it was really silly, because (with all due respect for animal activists) at this point I was only refusing chicken based on my own psychological weirdness. So I decided to try and eat chicken.
I started with a mango-chili chicken breast from Chilis, and it was really good. I started building up my chicken dishes. By junior year I would devour any grilled chicken breast in sight, and I even started eating shawarma again, which is a middle eastern sandwich with grilled chicken thighs.
Now, even though I still only eat chicken breast (with the exception of shawarma), I seek out chicken. I get double meat in burritos and anytime there is shwarma in my vicinity you can bet I'm eating it at least once a week. So yes, I do eat chicken, and yes I do call myself a vegetarian, but what else should I called myself, a "grilledchickenbreastatarian?" I'm open to suggestions.
This is a really funny post! I love how you embrace your contradictions with what you will eat and don't care what other people think. You've got a quirky voice and your anecdotes come through very strongly. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHaving witnessed you have this conversation so many times with so many people, it was interesting to hear the story behind it all. I really like your exploration of new labels that better fit you.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! The details you include really make the story feel real to the reader. It's cool how you pull together all these individual experiences that contributed to your final decision and make them into a good story.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post about your diet and how you categorize yourself as a vegetarian. I enjoyed reading about your non-meat eating journey with the detailed descriptions of all the dishes. I am curious as to how you chose chicken as the one meat you eat rather than others.
ReplyDeleteOh Sarah, we've had so many discussions about this very topic. I'm sure you'll find more people just like you in college and after. I find it funny because you choose chicken but decide to exclude all other meats. Why??
ReplyDeleteMy reasons for not eating meat more often than not include the words, "just 'cause," the ambiguity of which sums up my relationship towards my identity as a vegetarian perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI also am a self-proclaimed not-really-vegetarian. I also eat no red meat and I randomly choose other types of meat (including grilled chicken breast) that I refuse to consume. I think it's the texture of most meat I don't like? For seafood in general it's the smell, and for fish it's been the mental image of the fish when it was previously alive. I'm not really sure. Anyway, I think that this is a really interesting topic for you to talk about because it has fluctuated through your life and it is so unique to you.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I admire your dedication to your meal plan (and I like chicken as well). Whenever I go out with people I'm surprised to find out their vegan, but just go about my day, which brings me to another question, aside from chicken, what do you eat? Also do you know any good chicken places? Whenever I go out I don't go anywhere fancy, just Panda Express and Mcdonalds.
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