Today I celebrate my 30 years as a vegetarian. The last carnivorous meal I had included lamb chops. My impetus
for beginning was my health, not the welfare of animals. I began in a time
when we all read Diet for a Healthy Planet and The Moosewood Cookbook was
fresh off the presses. Growing your own sprouts was popular and I even bought
mesh lids and gave it a try. Mostly, I forgot they were around until it was too
late.
I have appreciated the reports that say the vegetarian diet
will save fuel, is cleaner and makes for a safer and more equitable food
supply. These are nice benefits to have for something I’m doing for my own
reasons. Believe me when I say, I don’t deny the claims that vegetarians are
better looking and look younger!
I have been macrobiotic, ovo, lacto, pesco or dietarily
vegan at different times during the years. I remember going to Whole Earth Expo
1982 in New York City and coming in contact with many different philosophies I
had never heard of before – Raw Foods, Sproutarians, and others. I remember how
surprised I was at the sweet taste of sprouted bread.
Some trends in vegetarian food have come and gone. Some remain
constant. I’m grateful that it is much easier to find vegetarian options and
the improved labeling.
If I had never become a vegetarian I would not have trod the
path I did. I would probably not have studied cooking at Lima Cooking School in
Tokyo nor the Kushi Institute in Becket, Massachusetts. I wouldn’t have learned
to cook from so many wonderful people including Wendy Esko, Sarah LaPenta,
Avelyn Kushi, Lima Osawa or Noa Otomo. I would not have spent hours making
Japanese sweets with my friend Atsuko Nagashima with the youmogi (mugwort) we
picked on a mountain hike earlier in the day. I’d have missed the joy of
growing food, buying from local farms and cooking fresh. In short, I became a
better cook.
As a vegetarian I have been adventurous in going to new
neighborhoods to find vegetarian friendly food. For a while, I wrote restaurant
reviews for an English language newsletter that catered to the natural foods
crowd in Tokyo. I never would have been asked to do this had my journey not
begun.
I traded lamb chops for chick peas, a trade I have never
regretted.
Today I had Chick Pea Salad, one of my favorite recipes from Madhur
Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian Cooking to celebrate 30 years of good,
vegetarian eating.