And then the pity set in. I feel sorry for vegetarians; they must spend far more time purchasing and preparing food than eating it.
Day 4 (Thursday): A Taiwanese friend took me to a vegetarian hot pot restaurant. Vegetarian restaurants suffer from an identity crisis. The abundance of faux seafood and fake meat found at these restaurants, and indeed the tofu burgers and bacon to be found in supermarkets, leads me to think that becoming a vegetarian is simply a matter of fooling yourself that you’re still eating meat. Poor deluded souls.
Day 5 (Friday): Got up early and feel great. The hunger pangs persist but, thanks to some forethought, I have a variety of “convenient foods” at hand.
Recently, however, my morning forays to the bathroom are less frequent and, I add regretfully, significantly less satisfying. This is odd, really, because my consumption of roughage and whole wheat bread has increased dramatically.
The same friend that provided advice on Day 3 invites me to an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant. Even though he spent considerable time explaining the best way to suppress hunger a few days ago, it only took one day for him to forget that seafood is off the menu.
Day 6 (Saturday): Today I became a pescatarian, or a person who finds fish an acceptable part of a vegetarian diet.
It wasn’t intentional. Or a cop-out.
My partner made her famous, in our household at least, kimchi soup with tofu. But an argument ensued when I noticed dried fish floating in the fiery soup. “It’s necessary to bring out the correct flavors,” she said in defense. “Just don’t eat the fish.” So I guess I was a pseudo-seafood eater or a vegetarian with pescatarian tendencies.
Day 7 (Sunday): The final day of my vegetarian sojourn. I reflect on my meat-free week and realize it wasn’t so difficult after all. Although the cost of cooking at home is significantly more expensive than picking up a lunch box daily, I feel healthier, lost three kilograms and found a new topic of conversation.
Will I remain a vegetarian? I have little intention to return to a meat diet and even if I do I’ll stick to chicken or fish.
Postscript: Several days after completing the diet, some friends invited me to the Lai Lai Sheraton — renowned amongst avid carnivores — for a buffet dinner. It was a ploy to put me in temptation’s way.
There was prime rib, roast chicken, a variety of Indian curries and a huge mouth-watering variety of seafood and sashimi. Having gone, by that time, over 10 days without eating meat, wolfing down a few of these dishes was a pleasant surprise to the taste buds. Less pleasant, however, was the shock to my system the next day.
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