Apparently being veggie, or at least pretending to be veggie, or at least talking about being veggie, is back in vogue. I just got this month's Sunset Magazine and half the recipes in there were vegetarian -- and the food focus of the issue was food for camping. Even the recipes which were meat had "or tofu" in the ingredients, although how one would "shred" cooked tofu for taco salad is beyond me.
Celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon, too.
Having been around a bit, this feels really familiar. Kinda like 1993. We were in a recession then, too, weren't we? Makes me think that, if the economy ever recovers, everyone who's a 25-year-old vegan now will be all steak and "new comfort food" in 2015.
Of course, since we are talking about a lot of newly
minted vegetarians, there's the usual dietary flailing about. Meat substitutes, tons of
tofu and pasta, unsustainable combination diets, and mostly not knowing how to cook. This is another repeat of the 90's; if you don't like to cook, you're not going to stay a veg. It requires too much thought and time in the kitchen.
Nowhere is this more in evidence than Portland, Oregon, the nation's City of Vegetarians (not the Vegetarian Capitol, which for historical reasons is Ithaca, New York). With the rest of us squares eating meatless meals, Portland has to do one better, and now every restaurant in Stumptown has a vegan section on the menu. Alongside the "gluten-free" section. It's surreal; nowhere on Earth has so many special diets which don't involve ordained religious leaders.
It's also the only place where someone will call me a caveman for eating eggs. Anne Hathaway would fit right in.
As a non-meat-eater myself, this swing toward the herbivorous pole is certainly convenient. I don't have to check restaurant menus in advance to make sure I can eat something, except for a few ethnicities. Even the French Laundry now has a vegetarian option. But I can't get too comfortable, since I know it'll swing back with a vengeance once people can afford more meat again, or when a new diet fad hits.
Besides, you know what? The vegan cupcakes are surprisingly good.
