Imagine the best taco ever... what would it look like to you? For me, the best taco ever was a Fried avocado taco. It was sublime, and for a vegan, it was a savory, satisfying meal in itself. The only place this delicacy could be found was at the Howling Wolf Taqueria in Salem, MA. However, this taco came with a jalapeno sauce that was dairy based, but when I talked to the servers about my diet and asked them about the “veganic” state of the taco, they were knowledgeable and articulate on the subject and made me feel completely safe about ordering this item without the sauce... until yesterday.
Yesterday, a new, more knowledgeable, the articulate server explained that the breading the avocado was deep fried in was milk based... I hung my head in shame and frustration. I had been enjoying these tacos since the last summer, fully secure in the fact that this was one restaurant I did not have to worry about the food I was putting into my body. Oh, how wrong I was. And once again the question came up, am I really vegan?
How did this make me feel? Outraged? Well no, I'm more of the in-raged type. I was with a friend and we exchanged a helplessly disgusted look that only vegans can give each other. "Duped again!" that look said. And this seems to be a recurring theme. I've said it before, if you want to enjoy being part of our society, and do the things the average, everyday American does, you need to be prepared to make certain allowances without letting them be setbacks. This doesn't mean that it's over, that I should just order the curly fries & queso. It just proves that being vegan...ish is the reality of the ideal. Keep calm and carry on.
Instead, I ordered the tofu burrito and it was great, no, actually it was awesome!
So, how vigilant do I need to be to call myself vegan? It appears that unless I prepare everything I eat for myself, the vegan road is full of pitfalls. But I believe that being vegan is a state of mind, not a state of the stomach and what was unintentionally put into it.
Now, I think question I ask myself today shouldn't be "Am I really vegan?" but rather "Am I living in alignment with my value system?" and when I am presented with a choice, am I making the right choice? Because making the wrong choice diminishes whom I am, how I live my life, and ultimately leads me away from the path I am traveling on. And making that choice is the best any vegan, or anyone, can do. But be wary, it could happen to any of us, in any restaurant, where in a moment of non-vigilance, we get duped again.
