food...ah, food

Empanadas, my friends. Empanadas con carne. Three words I love saying in Spanish.

So here’s the thing. I have been a steady vegetarian for almost ten years. Ten years. And I love being a vegetarian. This diet has taught me to enjoy the vegetables I didn’t grow up enjoying and made me slightly more adventurous in the meal department. And Greg’s cooking has grown with the challenge of cooking vegetarian-style!

But something is going on with me. This summer, I really got into eating the fish in Alaska—something I felt good about, in part because it was fish Greg caught within a mile of our house in some of the cleanest waters in the U.S.

For some reason, being in meat-loving Western Argentina has re-introduced me to meat. My first foray was when our landlord offered us some empanadas con carne. Oh, friends, these are DELICIOUS. I’ve tried ham & cheese ones and even the vegetarian version. But nothing even compares to the hamburger ones.

Oh, they’re the junk food of Argentina, so it shouldn’t be surprising at all that I love them.

But last night I crossed a different threshold. New friends invited us to an asado—a uniquely fantastic barbecue (slightly remniscent of those grand barbecues in South Africa [sidebar: what were those called?]). The guy was excited about this piece of beef he bought at the local butcher and I sort of went along with it, assuming they’d have a little something on the side for a vegetarian. But! When it came time to eat, I helped myself to a piece of the meat. And, friends, I really enjoyed. Even had a little second helping.

David Sedaris recently wrote a book about moving to Japan in order to help himself stop smoking. His rationale was simple: new patterns, new country means old habits will be easier to kick. Now, I’m in no way interesting in “kicking” my vegetarian habit, but I am startled to realize how easy it has been to fall into an occassional meat-eating habit.