Being vegan can sometimes end up being a state of mind more than a state of body. Last night, I went to great pizza place that is making a name for itself by serving Vegan Pizza! Well, at least in my own vegefied mind it is making a name for itself, I mean c'mon, vegan pizza... dining out! Full of anticipation, a Teeze cheese pizza with pineapples & basil, on one half and portabella mushrooms & caramelized onions - if given the opportunity you just gotta maximize the variety, you know? The pizza came to the table with smiles and looked simply delicious. The first bite was to die for as my captivating dinner companion and I smiled at each other and mmmed and ahhed over it. And it did taste great, cheese substitutes have come a long way in the past couple of years and I thought man, being vegan has never been easier! I did note how sharp the cheese flavor was, so much so, it seemed to me like Teeze was overdoing it, so strong in fact that it tasted too "fake" to me!
I had eaten the piece almost to it's crispy crust when the waitress arrived back at the table with an apologetically horrified look on her face - "I'm so sorry, this is real cheese!" she said with such remorse in her eyes. What could I do, I already ate almost a whole piece, I couldn't regurgitate it! We all looked back and forth at each other, such a breach of customer/restauranteur trust! My whole ethos had been shattered, what was to become of me and my diet? She immediately took it away and had it boxed, then had a real vegan pizza whipped up and quickly brought out to us. To the establishments credit they didn't charge us for either pizza and the waitress was beyond accommodating. I thought the vegan pizza tasted just as good, just less, well... cheesy. I was surprised that I really couldn't taste the difference immediately, had it been so long since I had real cheese that I just didn't know anymore?
Anyway, this got me thinking on how hard it is just to be vegan, especially when dining out. How often do things get slipped by us and into our prepared foods? It takes constant vigilance, and let's face it, some of us just aren't that vigilant! Did this dietary slip up mean I wasn't vegan anymore? Do I no longer care about the welfare of animals, or the sustainability of the environment? What of my own health... will that cheese wreak havoc upon my digestive system? What would the United Federation of Vegan Peoples think? Would they revoke my membership and cast me down among the merely vegetarian? How would I ever get to sleep that night? Well, I slept just fine, perhaps it just means that being vegan is a lifestyle that sometimes needs to flexible and tolerant. Perhaps the best one can really hope to be over the course of a lifetime is vegan...ish.
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