Is there meat in that?

In my French class today we were learning about the typical French meal and its corresponding vocabulary. Normally in French, I do not pay much attention; needless to say that if a subject doesn’t involve some sort of culinary undertone, my interest fades. However, this lesson caught my interest and because my professor spoke in English this time, I actually understood what was going on.
Though I can write numerous food blogs about the various differences between French and American food systems, what interested me most about the class was the discussion that preceded the initial lecture. One of my classmates grumbled that she couldn’t eat anything in France because she was vegetarian and many meals centered on meat (I would disagree with this point). My native Parisian professor inquired as to how many people were vegetarian in the class. Three people (including myself) raised their hands out of a class of twelve. My professor was starkly astonished as were many students in my class. The rest of the class was an aggravated assault as to why we had chose to be vegetarians.

After the class, I walked to lunch with my other vegetarian friend. As I was relaying the story to her, a passing by friend also exclaimed how shocked he was how many vegetarians they were on campus. He then muttered a combination of “strange” and “hippy” under his breath and went off to wait in line for a hamburger.
I began to think about why vegetarians tend to provoke a confused and sometimes angry retort. Vegetarianism is nothing new, but perhaps the growing vegetarianism rather than the form of eating itself is the reason.

The number of vegetarians and vegans are growing rapidly and many associate this movement with the wealthy. It is a knee-jerk reaction to correlate this eating style with the elite and many believe it is just another avenue for the rich to distance themselves more from the poor. (For more information see the book "Near a Thousand Tables")

However, for me vegetarianism arose more out of my own disdain for meat than anything else. I still eat meat on occasion and have found that meat has its place in certain outlets. A good roué is thickened with beef stock and a fabulous sauce usually has its origins from browned and reduced chicken stock. The underlying tones of many dishes are found through deglazing a pan; picking up any brown bits of meat from the bottom of a pan.

Though several of my friends still are aghast about my eating habits (“Why are you eating peanut butter and jelly on carrot sticks for dinner?”), I have tried to abstain from meat. Though I have created some enemies from this habit, I have found many people that too share in my desire to eat from origins of leaves not seeds (thanks Michael Pollan for the catch phrase!)

Today for lunch I had a vege burger, roasted fall vegetables, and steamed cauliflower and not for one moment did I become jealous sitting next to my friend eating a double pattie hamburger with a side of pasta and beef casserole. Food is after all an outlet for cultural identity and respect is key ingredient to the recipe of harmony (wow, that sounds really corny!-or should I say meaty perhaps?)

Note: The following pictures are from yesterday when I prepared 21 turnovers for my college’s café. As you can assume, I was very excited.