meat's slippery slope

[Milo]

Last night a bunch of us went out to a Moroccan restaurant for my roommate's birthday. We ordered the "feast" in vegetarian and non-vegetarian versions. Both groups were presented with 7 courses to share. While they got a roast chicken, we were presented with falafel. While they got lamb, we were presented with hummus. I thought these were unfair comparisons, especially since we both paid the same amount of money per person. I pointed this inequality out to my meat-eating friends, and they were like "you should have gotten our version! Oh man, this lamb is sooo good."

I've never had lamb before. I asked what it tasted like, and they said that you can't really compare it to anything.

Now I'm considering trying lamb, just so I can say that I've had it. Problem is, I've been vegetarian for the past 7 years. I said I'd consider trying 1 bite, and ex-BoyMilo said that it's a slippery slope.

I think it's worthwhile to try new foods. I had been vegetarian for a couple of months when I decided I should try sashimi at least once so I could get that experience out of the way. I haven't felt the desire to eat meat since then, so it's strange that I feel like I should interrupt my 7 years of vegetarianism with a bite of lamb. I was vegan for 4 years, and when I started eating dairy again, I felt so guilty about it. But then it just became natural. I'm worried that if I eat a bite of lamb, it will open the floodgates, that I'll want to try other types of meat that I've never had, and after I do that, I don't think I can be considered vegetarian any more.

Your thoughts?

[anniebeegoode]

lamb? yuck!
now bacon... that would be a slippery slope!
i heart bacon.

seriously,
i guess it depends on your reasons for being vegetarian and how important it is for you.

i was vegetarian for 12 years and it was honestly motivated by the fact that i just plain don't like most meats. some people are picky eaters and don't like veggies. i don't like meat all that much. i'm no longer officially a vegetarian for a number of reasons, but i think that hummus is much much yummier than lamb. you're really not missing much. i don't think it would hurt to try a bite or two and find out.

this is not quite the same, but i started weight watchers last june. i had not had a muffin from this bakery that i used to love since then. last week, i decided that i should have a muffin. i got one. guess what? it really wasn't that great. disappointing. but i won't be getting one again. maybe you'll try lamb and your experience will be similar...
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[arabella]

maybe you already don't want to be vegetarian?

For me, the thought of lamb in my mouth is absolutely appalling. (and that's an understatement) if you are keen to try it, I say give it a try. I don't think anyone should feel deprived as a vegetarian. If you have to deny yourself things, maybe you don't really want to continue.

you could be a person who only rarely eats meat.

I started being vegetarian when I was 11 - 22 years ago. It wasn't so normal and common back then, especially for kids/teenagers. As a teenager, I was always eating at someone else's house, picking the pepperoni off pizza (something I would never do now, btw, I'd avoid it altogether), etc. One day I grew extremely tired of picking the meat out of eggrolls and just said, ah, the heck with it. It wasn't so much a slippery slope as a cliff. I started eating meat immediately. But 2 years later went I went off to college, where there were vegetarian options, I went back to veg within 3 days and never looked back.

ETA - I did have occasional forays (usually out of convenience or politeness) out of veganism when I was vegan, and that didn't stop me from continuing to be vegan. Although once I had the forays, I didn't refer to myself as a vegan but as a "95% vegan".

[highlow kitty]

[knittykat]

I agree with arabella. If you want to try it, then maybe being a vegetarian is no longer right for you. Or maybe you'll try it and then you'll hate it and it will confirm your vegetarianism, as highlow kitty says.
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"Fun is where you find it" - jackierocket

[anniebeegoode]

[irish*eyes]

The day I ate my first steak was the day I could no longer call myself a vegetarian. I was 24. I had not eaten meat since I was 6 years old.

After that steak at age 24, I ate meat for about three weeks and my body was all like "WTF is this?!" and my mind went over all the reasons I had been a vegetarian for my entire life, both ethically and physically, how I had been the black sheep of my family for always being the difficult eater and how, in the south, there was literally nothing I could eat except bread and cheese for twenty years. I thought, "I am in New York City. There is vegetarian food everywhere, it is good, and I eat it regularly... why am I doing this?" I wanted to try it, and I did, and I'm glad I did. But then I went back to not eating meat. I don't like the taste of meat, so I don't eat fake/soy meats either. But I can cook a mean "tofu steak". :)

I suppose it is really about how strongly you feel about it, and if you want to try it. That was my reason for trying that fillet for the first time. My desire to know what it tasted like superseded my reasons for not eating it all those years. I won't do it again, but now I know why I did it and I know what it tastes like and how my body reacted to it.
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I'm growing dildos in my garden. My man thinks they're called cucumbers, but what does he know? It's my garden.
~Amanda J.

[arabella]

[chairs]

I agree that you need to figure out why you're vegetarian. I went vegan for ethical reasons so even though I used to eat many different types of meat and enjoyed them, the thought of eating meat of any kind now, knowing what I know, is appalling to me.

If you're veg for health reasons, then it seems like it might not "stick" as much as if it's for ethical or environmental reason s or whatever.
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be good to yourself.

[irish*eyes]

[scg]

i've thought about your dilemma a lot, actually. i have an insatiable desire to try all kinds of different foods from across many cuisines. i love [this is an understatement] culinary discovery. i generally eat vegan food but if i find something i haven't tried before--like mochi ice cream--i WILL try the mochi ice cream (AND FLOVE IT!). i decided that i value expansion of my culinary horizons more than clinging dogmatically to the vegan construct i'd adopted. i don't think i could *ever* expand it, though, to meat. i am not interested in meat for human consumption at all [another understatement], but you might be. and i think if you are curious there is nothing wrong with satisfying that curiosity.

now, as far as labels go, i don't call myself a vegan because i am willing to sometimes eat dairy (not eggs :GAG:) in novel foods. i don't really care about labels, though, so YMMV. for me, there has never been a "slippery slope" for dairy. after i ate the mochi ice cream i had satisfied my curiosity. i didn't start eating cheese and yogurt and drinking milk. i tried it, i liked it, i moved on.
--scg
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People of small caliber like to sit on high horses. -Magdalena Samozwaniec

[mooninthetrees]

I think your non-veg friends were just being mean!! Actually, I think lamb tastes a lot like a pork/steak cross, but with the richness of something like salmon or crab. I loved it, but only at my local Greek place in gyros. It's one of the few things I miss about eating meat, but I've been a vegetarian for over 7years, and I can usually find a vegetarian option that looks as good or better than the meat options.

I agree, though, that if you really want to try it, maybe you should. It's not like the meat police are going to come and arrest you if you have a bite. You make your own rules about what you eat and what you want to.
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You can't change the world while you're standing outside of it.

[DrBuddha]

Hijack?

I get so mad when the vegetarian option (especially at nicer restaurants!) is not as "nice" or "fancy" as the meat-eating option. Dude, just because I don't feel like steak today doesn't mean I don't want good food!! And in interest of full disclosure, I am not vegetarian, I am just a fickle eater. But I feel for you guys. Please imagine me giving you a Barry-Bonds-style salute.
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The more things change...

[fortunate]

I think if you want to try lamb, go for it. It provides a unique opportunity to reevaluate your eating habits and see how you feel about the new experience. Maybe you will really like it and decide that you want to have it in your diet. Or maybe you'll freak out because you ate a lamb and it will reaffirm your vegetarianism. Or maybe you'll try it and move on.
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I wanna hear a poem where ideas kiss similes so deeply that metaphors get jealous.

[moonunit55]

I can identify, Milo. I haven't outed myself here yet but I stopped eating meat this December right after my big breakup. I came to the realization that vegetarianism (really pescetarianism to be fair) had become more about deprivation and control than about not wanting to eat meat. In fact, I was realizing that I was sorely tempted to eat meat all the time and that it had become a game of control about what I could deny myself and how much I could hold out and resist not eating meat. I realized that this was playing into my other mental issues and that this mindset was not healthy in the least and that it was a covert way to be mean to myself in denying myself what I wanted.

I decided that since I had always subscribed to the doctrine that people should be able to eat what they wanted and not eat what they wanted that I was going to loosen my strictures and eat meat if I really wanted to. The first thing I ate was to share a HUGE steak at a tiny little restaurant in Brooklyn with a friend and I enjoyed it and had absolutely no digestive issues. I've since decided that until I can get in a better mental place, I am going to let myself eat whatever I want including meat since I don't want my eating habits to mess up my mental state but to enhance it.

I don't eat a ton of meat still but if I really want something I let myself have it. I also am a little relieved since I love ethnic food and cooking and I feel like I have been constrained as a chef and in being a gastronome because I had eliminated some of the palette I could use to create in the kitchen. Anyway, this is just where I am coming from right now. If, in the future I feel like I can eliminate meat from my life again in a mentally healthy manner I probably will but for the time being I think I just have to be good to myself and let myself eat what I want.