A confession

People often ask me – “why are you vegetarian?”

And the answer is simple – years ago I had an ethical crisis about eating poor wee defenceless animals – it was just cruel grrrrrr! As the years flash by its in fairness become a matter of habit. I still think there is much to be said for an absolute awareness of the origin of meat on your plate, what ever form it comes in, but equally I do not think the world should become vegetarian – what would happen to the cows, pigs and chickens etc? We’d see them in zoos I guess.

So to my next question – which I put to Ranj today. How long do you think I have been vegetarian. He said 4 years. Actually it’s about 13 years. That is until today were I have, at the time of writing, been vegetarian for approximately 22 hours. The SHAME!!!!

My downfall – a tempting juicy stake? An English fry up? A sneaky big mac? No, nothing so exciting or intentional. Perhaps I should go the beginning of the story…..

Helen and I are fairly famous for stealing friends, Steph would be an example as would Thea who we met last night for dinner at Ping Pong a newly opened dim sun restaurant on South Bank. The restaurant, newly open and subject to a Metro review was heaving and as we were being sat on a large round table, no sooner as I said “they will put another party on this table” they did. We both ordered which meant filling out a form allotting numbers to the dishes we wanted. One of the things I ordered was spinach and mushroom steamed wraps. Our fellow diners also ordered and the food started to arrive and was placed ad hoc on the table which then ensured a polite territorial exchange as to who’s was what’s. The spinach wraps arrived and started to chill untouched by our fellow diners. They eventually asked were they ours (nothing veggie had arrived at this point) so will eagerly said yes. There was also another platter beneath (they were served in bamboo stem baskets) which was something we definitely didn’t order, but we went with it anyway. To describe them – they were like spring rolls, but instead of the usual ‘pasty’ style wrap, were wrapped in spinach. I took a bite and swallowed and turned to Helen. “can you try this – it tastes odd”. While Helen tried it, Thea and I checked the label – organic spinach with white sauce. I remembered the organic bit so that made some sense. Helen said it was fine and probably oyster mushrooms. I had another one and then asked Thea to try the remaining one, as I still was not sure. “Prawns” was definitive answer. Short while later the remaining parts of meal arrived including our spinach and mushroom wraps that looked nothing like a wrap but were definitely mushroom. I felt like a fake when either Thea or Helen passed me something vegetarian…. And to be fair, the meal was ok, but not great – and not because it is the house of downfall – just a bit tasteless and unforgettable.

Hope all are well. We are off to Portsmouth this weekend.

Love Kat x