What makes a meal

[Guest guest]

> What I meant is, that quite often, people who start being

> vegetarians, don't really know yet how to compose a meal.

> It is actually taking the meat off the plate and replacing it with

> something before they realize, that an entire meal based on

> vegetables is a main course and not a side dish.

> And there is a tendency to use meat substitutes more often in order

> to make up for the empty place on the plate.

 

 

Yep, as the _Vegetarian Times Cookbook_ says, most Americans grow

up on meals that look like the Mercedes logo: meat and two veg sitting

separate on a round plate. In fact, one famous modern Japanese haiku

translates as:

" Western cooking:

every damned plate

is round. "

 

I take their point. :-)

 

I think what made it easier for me to become vegetarian than it is for

some was that, even as an omnivore, I hadn't eaten the Mercedes-logo

way very much for a long time. When cooking just for me, I've always

loved one-dish meals; instead of a hunk of roast beef with cooked

cabbage and stewed tomatoes on the side, for instance, I'd usually

put the meat-and-two-veg together and make a lasagna with cabbage

in place of the noodles. . .and the next day I'd put the leftovers in the

 

soup pot with some potatoes for a ground beef/cabbage/tomato/

potato/cheese soup that was another one-dish meal.

 

Also, when I was a kid, my family did all-veggie meals sometimes as a

treat when the garden or the good local produce came in. Thick

slices of Big Boy tomato, green onions, lightly fried fresh white corn

with lots of pepper (fabulous!!), Kentucky Wonder polebeans,

yellow squash sauteed with herbs and onion, buttered cornbread (the

unsweetened Kentucky kind made in an iron skillet from white

cornmeal) and buttermilk or iced tea. Homemade Yellow Transparent

applesauce to follow, or, once a year. . . <drool!>. . . .homemade

white-peach ice cream from a crank freezer. Awesome.

 

And Mom's and my favorite lunch since I was a small child was/is

plenty of frozen (not canned!) limas cooked up with butter and

black pepper. . .period. Iced tea on the side.

 

As you can see, my family never met a veggie it didn't like. Some

of that came from my grandmother, who was a genius gardener and

had a huge veggie garden; really more of a small truck-patch, truth

be told. When you grow up on veggies that good, it's hard not to

love 'em. I only have a 10x25' community-garden plot and quite

limited stamina due to illness, but I usually still grow a decent amount

of what I eat in summertime; enough so that in good years (which

so far this isn't--been too sick and had too much going on), my

grocery bill drops to maybe $20-30 a month from June through

September.

 

Man, this is makin' me hungry. I gotta go pick some greens, folks. :-)

 

Rain

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[Guest guest]

, raincrone@j...

wrote:

 

> Yep, as the _Vegetarian Times Cookbook_ says, most Americans grow

> up on meals that look like the Mercedes logo: meat and two veg

sitting

> separate on a round plate. In fact, one famous modern Japanese

haiku

> translates as:

> " Western cooking:

> every damned plate

> is round

 

 

Thank you Rain! You see, it depends a lot on your parents what you

eat later on. I have often heard this: " ..ah, my kids don't eat any

vegetables " which is probably due to the fact, that vegetables are

presented as a necessary and nasty medicine on the plate, often

followed by a " treat " to wash down the " nasty taste " .

Although I have to admit, that my mother had the terrible habbit of

not only over-cooking all vegetables, she also drowned and suffocated

what was still half-edible in a bechamel and it took me years of

complaining...

And I agree - there is nothing like growing your own vegetables!

Unfortunately we do not have a garden where we live right now, so I'm

doing some container-gardening on the porch, hoping our tomatoes will

grow (these British tomatoes are an insult to everyone who has eaten

these ripe, red and juicy Greek tomatoes..sigh!)

 

I like very much the Haiuku!

It is certainly due to the growing influence of Eastern food, that

vegetables are treated more kindly and presented more lovingly.

(Personally I am addicted to Japanese food, all these low tone,

subtle combinations)

 

 

 

>> Man, this is makin' me hungry. I gotta go pick some greens,

folks. :-)

 

 

You should hear my stomach commenting on that...

 

 

Cheers!

Gabriella

[Guest guest]

> (Personally I am addicted to Japanese food, all these low tone,

> subtle combinations)

 

 

YES!!! Preach it, sister. Hmmm, where are my soba recipes?

 

Rain

@@@@

\\\\\\

 

______________

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