day 15 meatless

Review: Boca BlackBean Burgers

OK.
Edible.
Like really really dried out nachos.

FAKE MEAT REVIEW: the other other white non-meat

I had my first mock chicken encounter last Saturday.

There it sat, side-by-side with chicken, shrimp and pork on Chiang Mai Thai's menu. Acting as though it belonged there or something.

I've probably eaten at Chiang Mai Thai 30 times. Never once did I notice this offering, because before this experiment, I surely wouldn't have considered it.

It was good.

Surprisingly protein-esque in its texture, it tasted like, if not chicken, green curry goodness in a chickenicious package. The next day, it was actually even juicier, and therefore rendered more birdlike. I realized there is no real reason to order chicken in a dish like this again.

Hedonism & Health - tie.

The next day I tried some tofu in another thai dish and realized that straight-up, I'm not a fan.

Tofurkey and mock duck or mock pork certainly are more famous - I've tried none of them yet. have been googling mock chicken - I couldn't even find a package of it, just this mock pork below. What is it? Where does it come from? What has it come to teach us?

wisdom from the stars

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

In my dream, I was addressing a crowd of Sagittarians in a festively decorated hall. It was the first week of 2008. "You are not yet ready for the wonderful things you think you want," I told them. "To actually get them, you will have to change yourself in the coming months; you will have to shed some old conditioning that is interfering with your quest for success. Do you know what that old conditioning is? Find out NOW! Figure out how you need to transform yourself in order for the world to give you what you yearn for."

I hate it when horoscopes/psychics/fortune cookies/best friends tell you exactly what you already need to know.

Meatless day 7

I'm starting to wonder what my reliance on guacamole may do to the rest of my body.

Well, I guess I already know.

meatless day three

Vegetarian chili
bananas
three handful of rip-L chips
some world club cheese
a world club bloody mary
two glasses of wine on the plane (but it was red wine)

So I'm not healthy.
I'm meatless, but just not healthy.

chicken and egg

Do we drink because we are unbalanced?
or are we unbalanced because we drink?

a zen koan best suited for the bar stool. But unhealthy life situations seem to turn unhealthy escapism's whiskey breath into a magically delicious perfume.
If I had a different (job/relationship/workload/closet space) maybe the pinot grigio wouldn't look so refreshing.
If I didn't work quite so late maybe comfort foods would just look like junk food.
if i didn't fret, I wouldn't have insomnia.

but then, i'd have to get all new friends.

But, if I had all new friends.......

Temptation Island

Now in NYC, probably one of the worst places for me to try to be good.

Here's how the deck is stacked:
- here with mad-making colleague/friend who is NYC by way of LA by origins of TX. She can talk to anyone while drinking them under the table, smoke 'em if you got 'em, 115 lbs in Miu Miu heels who is impossible to resist. Probably Satan. If she lived in Mpls, I'd be in jail, dead or both.

- Expense acct, booze included

- Pack of ne'er drink wells from work just happened to be on our flight, in our hotel and well acquainted with the hotel bar.

I'm frontloading on green tea and raw almonds. No meat has touched these smeared-gloss lips yet.

Strength, strength, strength.

Vegetarian for a Month

So begins an experiment: one month of vegetarianism.

It's not because I don't love meat.
But I also love animals (yes, cue talk radio's "especially eating them")
I have an unhealthy--literally and figuratively--relationship with Buffalo wings. I order steaks on the rare side of medium rare. But Fast Food Nation, Omnivore's Dilemma, PETA, and my devotion to my pets are undeniable. Proof: I just got back from the dog park and it's 4 degrees.

I don't agree eating animals is immoral. I think factory farms are immoral.
We demand cruelty-free shampoo but still eat conventional cheeseburgers.
Yes, there's grass fed and free range. But I just want to see what it's like for one month.

Not forever.
31 days.
But damn it was hard to turn down that sausage this morning at the Egg & I.

Here it goes.