Vegetarian

As I hope most guests of Evins Mill would agree, cuisine is nuclear to the experience of staying at the Inn. And since we serve from a limited menu, we take great pains to uncover special dietary needs, or SDNs, which fall into three distinct categories: personal preference - "I don't like...", medical necessity - "I'm allergic to...", and principled choice - “I won’t eat...."

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After diabetics, vegetarians constitute the most common SDN group and occupy a singular place in our pantheon of SDNs, for in most cases their requests seem driven not so much by preference or need as by studied decision. Initially I recorded such requests with bewilderment or rolled eyes. Why would anyone voluntarily forgo such delicacies as bacon or a choice steak?
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Until twelve years ago, I hadn't a clue, for through my early adulthood, I knew of no one who would shun a succulent slab of flesh. Consequently, I associated vegetarians with a mélange of not entirely fair stereotypes – bohemian, tree-hugging, free-thinking, pot-smoking, yoga-loving beatniks. You get it - the kind of stereotype born of ignorance or fear that one can easily drape over anything foreign or threatening.
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Then in 1997 I met, promptly fell in love with and eventually married one of these nuts. Eden lived up to a few of the stereotypes, prompting endless references among friends to Dharma & Greg, the 90s sitcom about a traditionalist and his “new age” wife. While Eden dispelled more vegetarian cliches than she confirmed, it was only a matter of time before my carnivorous background collided with her plant-based diet.
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Our first argument was sparked when she refused to taste my shrimp etouffee. So irked, I insisted all the more. The more I inveighed, the more she pushed back. Needless to say, I didn't get lucky that night. If she were allergic to shellfish, that would have been one thing, but she rejected my offer on principle. And there is something about a principle when it comes to our ingestion, akin to matters of politics and religion, that elicits from many, myself included at the time, a visceral reaction.
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Maybe it’s how a wine lover might feel at a party she’s hosting when serving her cherished Pinot Noir - and a guest refuses on grounds he doesn’t drink. If the guest simply doesn’t like the taste of alcoholic beverages, it’s copacetic, but if the refrain is predicated on moral principle, drinkers may feel a twinge of judgment, which may be one reason I was so incensed by my date. As an aside, I would have rejected the host’s kind offer too - and in the next breath requested a G&T.
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But back on point. I’m not the only one who gave Eden a hard time. Over the years, I’ve watched many others poke and prod her vegetarianism, and not from a genuinely curious place either but with veiled derision. Whatever the provenance of these jibes, my own dim view of vegetarians was naturally attenuated by the mere fact I was married to one – turns out we have more pressing issues about which to disagree.
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Five years ago my views softened further after reading a book titled Eat, Drink and Be Healthy penned by a Harvard nutrionist, which makes a compelling case, backed by mounds of scientific evidence, that our bodies are better served by abstaining from most flesh. My discomfort with vegetarians wilted further as I read article after article about the gross inefficiencies of generating one unit of protein through raising an animal compared to growing a bean or nut - and the concomitant havoc these inefficiencies wreck on the environment.
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Along the way I read other books, including one titled Fast Food Nation, graphically describing the food processing industry, which actually made me sympathetic to the vegetarian perspective – though not so much to become one yet. Then last month, I had occasion to watch video footage of the same industry in action - the piece de resistance as it were, inspiring me to give vegetarianism a try.

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I should stress to our clientele that when it comes to matters of business, I am if nothing else a pragmatist and would never steer our culinary juggernaut in a vegetarian direction unless the market asked for it, which is to say, not in my lifetime – it is my livelihood after all. But to our vegetarian and vegan guests, you are in empathetic hands regarding our own SDN, which based on the evidence at hand seems as much a logical choice as a special need.
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And to friends confounded by my new gastric status - as I originally was with Eden's, I appreciate your dubiety as much as I am nonplussed by it, for I am growing as pragmatic about my body as I am about my business - G&Ts aside. If the decision behooves not only my health but also the environment and other creatures populating the planet, then all the better. Peace out.