Meatless, Not Joyless

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/dining/19MINI.html?th

 

Meatless, Not JoylessBy MARK BITTMAN

 

Published: May 19, 2004

 

 

I MADE dinner the other night for five, two of them vegetarians, and while

shopping I realized how often such a situation now arises. Vegetarianism, common

to most of the world but still regarded skeptically by staunchly carnivorous

Americans, has made significant inroads into the national culture, and it is

increasingly making itself felt at American tables.

 

 

Vegetarians coming to dinner? I complained about this prospect for nearly 30

years. Now I was champing at the bit of opportunity.

 

What changed? Thirty years ago vegetarian food in America meant either brown

rice and vegetables stir-fried until lifeless or something cooked in the style

of the original Moosewood Cookbook — heavily laden with cheese and cream. Now

vegetarian food draws from the traditions of the entire world, traditions that,

in the form of ingredients, spices and cooking tools, are now available to

everyone, at least those with access to good supermarkets or the Internet.

 

A generation ago, you had to travel all over town — yes, even in New York — to

find real Parmesan and naturally brewed soy sauce, let alone jasmine rice or

aceto balsamico tradizionale. All four are now available at most supermarkets,

along with everything else necessary for the two meals that follow — two menus,

one Italian and one Chinese.

 

It is amazing that people talk about the Mediterranean tradition of

vegetable-dominated meals and the fact that Chinese cooking is largely composed

of vegetables accented by bits of meat, while continually cooking Italian and

Chinese meals centered around meat. The menus here take another approach, and

retain their distinctive national characters and flavors while doing away with

meat entirely. Together, I think, they prove that meatless menus built from

traditional foods can be not only satisfying but also enticing. And easy.

 

When I hear the term " vegetarian lifestyle, " I reach for my skirt steak. But the

arguments for eating vegetarian food, if not daily then at least regularly, are

quite compelling, even to lifelong omnivores like myself. I am no preacher, and

I will be grilling meat tonight, but consider the following:

 

• The livestock population of the United States eats well enough to feed the

world's human population several times over.

 

• Raising animals for food has caused extensive environmental damage not only to

equatorial rain forests but to North American prairies.

 

• Using increasingly limited resources to produce meat sometimes sounds just

dumb. (My favorite statistic: it takes dozens of gallons of water to grow a

pound of wheat and thousands to raise a pound of meat.)

 

• And finally, a terrifying little fact: 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in

the United States are used to treat healthy livestock. I won't even mention mad

cow disease.

 

All of the above makes me ambivalent, but none of it has converted me. Nor too

many other Americans: most surveys find that less than 3 percent are

vegetarians. But there are additional reasons, not much discussed, to consider a

vegetarian diet at least part-time, and to introduce a meatless take on the

Minimalist that will run regularly.

 

No one, after all, says you have to be a committed, converted, proselytizing

vegetarian to eat a diet less oriented to meat. Besides, many self-described

vegetarians are not, strictly speaking, vegetarians. Today's rules seem pretty

flexible, sometimes to the point where there is not much difference between

vegetarians and people who eat moderate amounts of meat.

 

Furthermore, almost everyone eats vegetarian meals from time to time, whether by

choice or because peers, friends or, increasingly, the children do. (It appears,

though the statistics vary wildly, that somewhere between 10 and 25 percent of

Americans under 30 eschew meat.)

 

And though elitist food enthusiasts rarely talk about it, from a epicurean

perspective, vegetarian cuisine has become far more appealing, thanks largely to

the growing influence of Asian vegetarian traditions. (We do not hear, either,

that a vegetarian diet promotes weight loss, probably because studies have not

been done. But I don't know any overweight vegetarians, though maybe they are

walking around hungry.)

 

 

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