The First Test- Day 7, 6/4/11

I recently received some encouragement from an old high school friend telling me she's been a vegetarian for 20 years now.  In response to my previous comments about McDonald's and Panda Express, she told me that she never eats out but has never gone hungry either.  That concerned me a little, because that's just not how I live.  I enjoy meeting friends out for a meal and drinks and I'm just not willing to skip these gatherings or eat at home first and always watch my friends eat.

I knew I would be eating out with some friends this evening to celebrate a birthday.  Now, I have to thank Susan and Tracy on this one.  Susan suggested a Greek restaurant and Tracy agreed to it.  Even though I love Gyros and the last lamb chops I had were delicious, Greek cuisine lends itsself nicely to vegetarian eating so this shouldn't be a terribly difficult test of my will.  But it did start me thinking.  The last Greek restaurant I ate at had sides that were rice and potatoes and some veggies.  All seemingly vegetarian items at first glance, but these are all things that are often cooked with or in chicken stock.  What do I do here? 

I started by looking up their menu online.  Yep, sides seem to be about the same here.  They have a Vegetarian Kabob that sounds good but it comes with rice, veggies, and a Greek Salad.  So, I could ask the waiter (who ended up being a very attractive guy named, Rob, fyi) how everything is prepared, but I'm usually a pretty low maintenance person and I didn't really want to play 20 questions prior to ordering.  And what if it is all prepared with chicken stock?  I'd still have to decide how big of a deal that is to me?  I mean, the vegetarian and vegan that I know the best both eat seafood.  Which I don't understand and I'm hoping someone can explain to me at some point, but if they think it's okay to eat small animals from the sea, a little chicken juice on my veggies probably isn't the end of the world, right??  Or I could just skip the sides issue all together and order a large Greek salad sans the gyro meat or the appetizer sampler that has several dips with pita bread.  Decisions, decisions.

I did a lot of thinking and my reflections throughout the day lead me to this conclusion:  I'm just not going to be that much of a purist.  Will I cook my rice in chicken broth at home?  No, I'll use vegetable broth, but I am going to eat in restaurants with family and friends without sweating the small stuff.

So, I guess McDonald's fries are back on the table!  :-)