Dining decisions

Before choosing a vegetarian diet (let alone a vegan lifestyle), I never enjoyed eating out with the "high maintenance" foodie, the picky person, who won't eat this, or isn't in the mood for that, for whatever reason. Typically, the "high maintenance one" becomes the default, determining factor of where a group will eat as all attention is consumed by his or her dietary needs or concerns.

Personally, I never liked being the center of that much attention, especially when it comes to food, and for that reason I spent half a year as a "closet vegetarian". I would eat as a vegetarian on my own and would only cook veg meals, but when out with friends, whether in a home or at a restaurant, I would eat as a carnivore, if needed.

Though that is no longer the case since I "came out" of the vegetarian closet, I still do not like being the "high maintenance one" and the center of a group's restaurant decision. With the holidays upon us, friends wanting to eat out, and folks trying to understand vegan-me, more and more I am getting pigeon holed as the "high maintenance one" and I don't like it.

With my diet the center of the decision, I now hear deliberations like:
- "Wait, we can't go there. There may be no vegetarian options."
- "If we can go here, there may be nothing for you to eat."
- "Are you be OK with (fill in the blank)? We don't want you to starve."

My "broken record" response: "Don't worry about me. I can always find something to eat."

And thus far, that has been my reality. As a vegan or a vegetarian when dining out, I've learned that a combination of appetizers does make a very good meal, most anywhere you may go.

This week, for example, Japanese was the plan, as the conclusion of my friends was: "You should be able to find a vegetarian entrée there." The sad reality: No. Other than vegetable tempura (which is too fried for my healthy taste buds), there were no other vegetarian entrees. But appetizers do make a good meal, as I enjoyed Oshitashi (cold Japanese spinach salad), edamame, and a garden sushi roll with mango, avocado, radish. Pretty yummy, especially with my "heavy on the wasabe, light on the soy sauce" mixture.

When creating a meal out of appetizers, knowing what your body needs for a healthy diet is the simple key. For me, it is typically a ring of 3: a vegetable, a carb, and a protein. And at most restaurants, I can usually find appetizers that have what I need to make a meal, even at a Texas Barbecue!

To celebrate my dad's birthday, my family wanted to celebrate his 70th at a restaurant we knew he would enjoy. My mom's recommendation and thus our choice: the newly remodeled Back Forty Texas BBQ restaurant in Pleasant Hill.

I checked out the on-line menu and knew what I would order even before we arrived at the restaurant and were seated in our own little private room for this special occasion. My family was happy as they enjoyed an assortment of barbecued dead animal flesh, and I was happy with my appetizer meal of vegetable soup, BBQ beans, and sweet potato fries.

I am learning that appetizers can and do make a yummy meal when eating out with non-vegetarian friends at MOST restaurants. But sometimes, when the crowd is craving L & L Hawaiian Barbecue (like my friends were on Thursday), thank God that there was a Chipotle and a vegetarian burrito next door!