Road Kill Blues

[Guest guest]

We face this all the time. One trick is to stop thinking of food time as

fast food time. Instead, find a grocery store -- there is usually one

along those strips where one finds the BK and KFC and so on -- and buy

some healthy fresh alternatives.

 

One great veggie lunch we used on the road, usually on the first day out,

is to make the Morningstar Farm bacon stuff up ahead of time and put it

into a plastic bag. The lunch was a pita bread stuffed with fake bacon,

cheddar cheese, salad, and some picante. Simple, tasty, and didn't take

up a lot of room in the cooler.

 

We are often grateful for Subway, and of course in most grocery stores one

can buy a baguette and many other yummy, fresh things.

 

We also started taking along an electric wok, in which we've successfully

made spaghetti, stir-fry, and soups -- amazingly versatile, just plug in

on the bathroom counter. (This is for when you don't spring for hotel

rooms with kitchenettes, which usually means a microwave.)

 

If you do get a room with a wave, you can eat all sorts of yummy frozen

entrees. We enjoyed the Linda McCartney brands when traveling in CA, for

instance.

 

There is Taco Bell for bean burritos and bean tacos, there is Wednesdays

for Spring Salads, and there is now BK for veggie burgers which, as you

mentioned, get old fast. Fries are to gag for no matter where. Wednesday'

s also sells wonderful baked potatoes if you're not on a low-glycemic diet.

 

We boycott McDonald's and see no point to Arby's or Bonanza or Ruby

Tuesday's or Bennigan's or Carlos O'Kelly's or any of those cutesy kitsch

crap places. IHOP can work, but is pricey and high-caloric. Fazoli's is

a fast-food Italian chain but rumor has it it's McDonald's who owns it.

Then there is Olive Garden for the once in a while splurge, which for road

food isn't bad.

 

Finally, let us address the topic of road-kill. Basically there are two

types, animal and vegetable. The animal kind is to be avoided by all but

the most ardent taxidermy amateurs and back-roads gourmands, while the

veggie kind are indeed suitable for consumption by the average lacto-ovo

as long as there are fewer than three tread-marks, no part of the bumper

or grill remains embedded in the product, (this includes chips of glass

from headlights, a hazard encountered surprisingly often in dark

communities), and most importantly as long as the product has been mowed

down in a fair and reasonable manner by a relatively sober primate.

 

Beyond that you're on your own.

 

On Monday, April 28, 2003, at 03:15 PM,

wrote:

 

> Hard to Eat Well While Traveling

>

> Hi all! Just got back from a week of travel (my first since becoming a

> vegetarian a month ago) and boy is it difficult to eat healthy on the

> road! The only vegetarian options I could find at most of the places I

> went were veggie burgers or plain salads. That got old fast, and then I

> was left with deep fried vegetables or other grease-loaded stuff which I'

> m sure were fried in the same oil as the meats. I guess next time I need

> to plan better, take more of my own food, and call ahead to find out

> where to eat! Hugs, Ronda in Oregon

>

" We are dark thoughts in shadow lost at night in a brain development gone

wild. "

--Diogenes Trannell, keyboards