Today in one of my classes we were having presentations and a lot of people brought in foods that had to do with the book, "The Bluest Eye." So there I was going up to get some cornbread, collard greens, sweet potatoes, and peach cobbler when PLOP. There is a piece of fried chicken on my plate. I looked at it a second and said, "No thank you I'm a vegetarian." The guy apologized, took the chicken back, and it was all okay except for the gross chicken fat on my plate... And then someone looks at me and says, "No you're not!" as if I would lie about being a vegetarian. Why would I do that??? I said I really was and he asked me if I would die if I ate meat. (He meant this literally, like if I had some sort of allergy or something.) I told him no... So he's like, "You do that by CHOICE!!! Man, I give you props, I could never do that!" It was as if he had never met a vegetarian before... maybe he hadn't.



Sorry, this was a bit of a rant. Also kind of a funny situation except for my yucky plate which I had to place the other food around the chicken spot as not to mix them. Yech.

That's really random that he would say that. Maybe it has to do with him knowing someone else who said that but wasn't. Or maybe you look so "normal" that he figured you ate meat.

Couldn't you get another plate ?



Sounds like an annoying event .. sigh,

I didn't get another plate cuz my old one was already filled with all my food and I didn't want to move it all over. Class was almost finished.

wow - yucko! they could have asked you first if you wanted chicken ...



it reminds me of last year on World Farm Animals Day in cambridge and this old man came up the table and said "you're not vegetarian" stating that there was no way i could be one and he told me to prove it! hahahahaha that was funny .....

a friend told him to check her feces! lol

I always surprise people when they find out I'm vegetarian. They never suspect it, because they always expect vegetarians to be freaks. They'd be surprised at the number of "normal" people they know but don't realize they're veg*n. Man, it sounds just like my gay friends used to talk before they came out. LOL.

On another note, The Bluest Eye is a wonderful book! Did your class have a good discussion despite the fried chicken mix up?

Well, everyone in the class is reading something different- we chose between Angela's Ashes (That's what I am reading.), The Bluest Eye, The Color of Water, The Teaching (or learning or something...) of Little Tree, ummm... that one about the four chinese women in america and their daughters.... anyway, there were seven choices. So I really don't know much about The Bluest Eye.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought the point of the exercise was to learn about each book through the traditional/cultural cuisines of the characters.

Well... yeah... but the class goes about as in depth as kindergarten and the people in it could BE in kindergarten so I don't learn much unless I do it on my own. One more week left... Then NO MORE HIGH SCHOOL ever again!!!

The Joy Luck Club? Haven't read the book but Loooove the movie.

Yeah that's it!

I have not read it either but I may just have to rent it.

Hmmm, this is similar to what happened to me last night. At a friend's for a "Japanese feast". She assured me that she had bought extra tofu so I would have enough to eat (I didn't even ask for this). Anyway, we're all banned from the kitchen, so we're sitting chatting and the first lot of food comes out. Beauty. Tofu, noodles, veges. Load up, start eating. Friend calls me into kitchen, asks if I want more tofu. Notice that she's not just cooking the tofu in the same pan as the meat (which honestly wouldn't have really bothered me), but that it's drowning in meat juices (which DID bother me, as the tofu was sucking up all the juices!)... not wanting to make a scene I just ate the damn stuff but really, I mean she even said "I wasn't sure if you'd have a problem with this" and of course I wasn't going to make a scene but if she wasn't sure why didn't she check beforehand? I also found a bit of meat in the noodle dish... ARGH! Kudos to her for trying but I felt quite nauseous later on that night... I don't know if it was psychological or not but the taste was pretty eck. So next time I think I might bring something even if she tells me not to...

Shewolf,

In that case, I might have feigned sickness. Or perhaps I would have gone to the bathroom, called a friend on a cellphone, asked them to call me back in two minutes (once I'd returned to the other people), I'd act like the call was a friend of mine in serious trouble, and I'd have to leave right away.



Ok. I wouldn't have lied to her. However, I almost always do have at least some other piece of food with me, be it an apple or a Luna bar or soy nuts. I'll have something, even if the other food is meatified. The sickness excuse, though, would work for me because the idea of me consuming meat makes me positively vomitous.



I'm sorry you went through that! Do you have a plan in place for the next time something like that happens?



ETA: I should have clarified: Do you have a plan for what to say the next time something like that happens? Bringing a dish of food to share is a great idea, but it doesn't often excuse you from the perceived "responsibility" of trying everything else.

Skylark, I couldn't do that because I was with my fiance and can't drive... it would've been really awkward! It was more a catch-up session than anything else but... and I'm a bad liar too! LOL



I was told NOT to bring food. She gets a little touchy about things like that... almost like she feels as though I'm implying she isn't a good enough cook or something! But next time I will say to her that I'm going to anyway just in case. I will also probably have a chat with her in the near future about it just to let her know that it was kinda gross for me and that I only ate it to not hurt her feelings and cause a scene(*sigh*) and that if it's all too much trouble next time then I WILL help her out (so she doesn't do the martyr thing on me). We do have good communication usually, which was why I was surprised she did that... so yes, I do, I'll have a chat to her about it before it can happen again! I'll also have to talk to my other friend who was there because she may now think it's okay for me to eat meat infested tofu too... ugh!



Thanks for understanding! I just couldn't get over the awful aftertaste!

Ew. You have my sympathies about the chicken grease.

It was like that on camp...I'm walking along the line getting lettuce and tomato and beetroot to go with my vegie burger and two of the camp counsellors start lunging towards me with beef patties and cheese. *Quick step backwards* lol

I work at a summer camp. Well, I am working at a different one this year, but long story...



Luckily though they are very conscious of different eating habits. I personally have not had a vegetarian summer yet as I've only been veggie for 4 months. All of the kids are asked before food is placed on their plate, "Would you like some of this?" and there is always a vegetarian option, PB&J, and a salad bar for those who choose not to eat whatever it is that's served. Hopefully at my new camp that will be the case but I think it will be since they are both Girl Scout camps and GS camps run similarly most of the time.

My situation is a little different. I have been occasionally offered noodles that have animal seasoning. Since there are no chunks of meat in the noodles, they think that there is absolutely no meat products inside the noodles.