Ah yes, pescatarians - the bastard step-child of the vegetarian world. I can already hear all the 'real' vegetarians out there groaning, because there is no one they love to hate more than the I'm-vegetarian-but-I-eat-fish set. I get it. I know that fish is not a vegetable. But let me take a moment to defend the pescatarians.
First of all, pescatarian is a really terrible word. It's ugly, and outside of veggie/foodie circles, not everyone knows what it means. So, as a pescatarian, you often have to default to calling yourself vegetarian. It's just easier. If you are going to a wedding or you're traveling in a foreign country or going to someone's house for dinner, you can just say you are vegetarian and you get to have something to eat that won't have bacon in it. Simple.
Second, I believe, as most pescatarians do, that there are higher and lower life forms. If I remember correctly from 5th grade biology class, it goes something like this ... algae-plants-mollusks-crustaceans-fish-reptiles-birds-mammals. I do not for a moment believe that a clam is anywhere near the equivalent of a dog/cow/pig/human on the life form chain and while I did feel the slightest twinge of guilt the first time I steamed up a batch of live clams for linguine, I got over it really really fast.
Anyway, if I should accidentally refer to myself as 'vegetarian' at some point in this blog, I do apologize to all the real vegetarians out there.
Showing posts with label pescatarian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pescatarian. Show all posts
Friday, August 17, 2007
Going Cold Tofurky
All through high school, I flirted with vegetarianism, like a good little punky-goth girl should. Notably for a few months after skipping school to watch 'Faces of Death' with my friends, and then again when I got the Smiths 'Meat is Murder' for Christmas in 1985. I couldn't even listen to the title track.
But it never really stuck, until one day in college, when I was eating a bean and beef combo burrito from Burrito Brothers. That was it... the last piece of cow I would eat until well into my 30's.
What was my motivation for giving up meat? This is a question I had to answer a lot in 17 years. But mostly, it was just the realization that meat eating, for most people in the USA, is totally hypocritical. Sure, I'll eat meat if I can walk into a grocery store and buy a slice neatly wrapped in plastic. Just don't remind me that it ever used to be a living breathing creature not unlike my pet dog. And I thought that was wrong. I still do.
But then I started feeling a bit unhealthy. Oh, and I was craving shrimp. So, I started thinking - If I were left to my own devices, and I were hungry, and there were no supermarkets around, what would I eat? I definitely wouldn't kill a cow, or a pig, or really any mammal. I might kill a chicken because I don't really like birds, but that would still be a stretch. But hell yes, I would kill me some shrimp. I killed cockroaches all the time just for coming in my house and a shrimp is really just an aquatic cockroach, right? And fish, well, they're bigger but still, I could kill one if I had do.
And so, one day in 1989, I became a pescatarian.
But it never really stuck, until one day in college, when I was eating a bean and beef combo burrito from Burrito Brothers. That was it... the last piece of cow I would eat until well into my 30's.
What was my motivation for giving up meat? This is a question I had to answer a lot in 17 years. But mostly, it was just the realization that meat eating, for most people in the USA, is totally hypocritical. Sure, I'll eat meat if I can walk into a grocery store and buy a slice neatly wrapped in plastic. Just don't remind me that it ever used to be a living breathing creature not unlike my pet dog. And I thought that was wrong. I still do.
But then I started feeling a bit unhealthy. Oh, and I was craving shrimp. So, I started thinking - If I were left to my own devices, and I were hungry, and there were no supermarkets around, what would I eat? I definitely wouldn't kill a cow, or a pig, or really any mammal. I might kill a chicken because I don't really like birds, but that would still be a stretch. But hell yes, I would kill me some shrimp. I killed cockroaches all the time just for coming in my house and a shrimp is really just an aquatic cockroach, right? And fish, well, they're bigger but still, I could kill one if I had do.
And so, one day in 1989, I became a pescatarian.
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