Tag: Recipes

Sitting at the Local Burger, across from my brother, he and everyone else enjoying some sloppy, tasty, aesthetically pleasing, 100% real beef burgers. Me, I’m eating a not-so-sloppy or -tasty, poor imitation veggie burger (there are better options now!).

“Why,” the chorus asks again, beef juice running down their collective chins, my brother’s being saved in his flavorful bushy beard, “did you become VEGAN?”

Interesting question, about a pursuit that is out of the ordinary, especially in my meat ‘n’ potatoes, third generation Jewish bakery and deli owners. I have many clear memories of my Dad walking behind the deli counter with a hot fresh bagel and slicing what looked like a pound of hot, amazing pastrami as a snack before going back to the ovens to bake! Yes, he did have a history of heart problems…

I had watched Forks Over Knives and thought it was pretty cool that diet could have such a profound impact on health and especially the medicine prescribed to us. I knew about marketers at Got Milk, coercing generations to drink that bovine concoction meant for baby cows. I had read many articles and books about sustainability and the deleterious environmental effects of raising cattle. I had once before, years ago, stopped eating meat for a short period after reading The Face on Your Plate. The guilt and deniability did not last.

All of this swirled in my head. I opened my mouth, ate my bowl of quinoa and said the truth, the answer any red blooded man (or woman) in love would say: I guess I was just trying to impress my girlfriend! She stopped being a vegan after month. I, on the other hand, am still going. We are still together, and my heart is healthy in so many ways.

 

                  -Vegan Dad 2019