Three Kinds of Vegetarians in America
Wu Juan is a special contributor to the Financial Times Chinese website.
I don't know from which day, two sets of menus became popular for dinner in American universities: ordinary menu and vegetarian menu. At present, there are still a few people who use vegetarian menus, but they are very young and the ranks are getting bigger and bigger. It seems too "trendy" to see my colleagues go straight to the vegetarian menu without hesitation. Although I also have a small desire to keep up with the trend, I ask myself that my passion for prawns, crabs and all kinds of seafood can't be changed in a short time, so I always give up the vegetarian menu. Even if I eat at the same table as a vegetarian, I can eat meat under pressure.
Vegetarianism can be regarded as a branch of the general trend of "green food". Green food is, of course, a Jedi counterattack by Europeans and Americans against their fatter bodies. When dealing with American culture for the first time, it is easy to draw the conclusion that Americans don't pay attention to food: it seems that anything that can be fried can be stuffed into their stomachs; It seems that the task of eating is finished by stuffing it into your mouth. McDonald's and KFC each used a small menu to feed several generations in the United States, and the more they raised, the fatter they got. Introspection after obesity is that eating is not green enough. In recent years, the subway characterized by "green" has a great potential to catch up with the United States.
However, many vegetarians are not just starting from their own health. In the United States, vegetarians have several fields. The first one is like an American friend of mine. I have never been fat, and I like eating meat, but he is a staunch environmentalist. He doesn't eat meat for the environment. We only have one earth, so we must cherish it. The best way is to minimize your position in the food chain. For example, the total energy you need in a day is half a catty of beef, but it takes 10 catty of grass to grow half a catty of beef. If you eat grass directly, you only need to eat it for 2 A Jin days. In this way, you saved 8 Jin of grass for the earth. This is a simplified statement. But my friend's idea is not much different from this. Because it is not good for the environment, the car he bought is only for emergency use, and he usually goes to work by bus. Most people who need to take a bus in Seattle are poor and jingling. He is not poor. He is a software engineer in Seattle. He just loves the environment. But he is not a complete vegetarian. There is seafood on his menu.
Extreme environmental vegetarians don't even eat fresh vegetables. They want to eat completely dead food, that is, rotten food that people throw away. This is the highest level of vegetarianism. Their field is leaping forward. Not just eating, but the whole lifestyle is very green. In order not to waste the earth's water resources, they seldom take a bath. In their eyes, having children is also against the spirit of environmental protection. With so many homeless children born in the world, they would rather adopt children in order not to waste resources. Baby, the earth has reached this level, and it is estimated that even living on it will feel guilty. Really want to live on Mars, but also to raise earth babies, just like our human pets. ...
An intermediate state between the two, just like a colleague who teaches in a university in new york. He is a professor of food nutrition. I don't know if he is an environmentalist. But he is a very scientific vegetarian. He doesn't eat any meat. In his eyes, any food is not only a tasty thing, but also a quantitative calorie. Of course, his hamburger is not beef but a vegetable substitute. He may not remember what he ate that day, but he must know how many calories he ate every day. The health effects of vegetarianism should be common in the United States.
Looking at the dining table of ordinary American families, China gourmets will definitely make their taste buds more depressed and feel that heroes are useless. Don't say there are no rare birds and animals. It's best not to serve meat like meat, fish like fish, and even peel shrimp. In short, it is best not to remind them that the essence of eating animals is to kill animals. Rare delicacies in China's eyes, such as bear's paw and bird's nest, some Americans estimate that the first feeling is to find the physically injured bear and the psychologically injured swallow and how to heal their wounds. Therefore, anyone who has a record of eating dog hot pot in China must be careful to keep it secret when he arrives in the United States, so as not to be mistaken for a cruel faction.
The dinner in our college, with little meat, was fried beyond recognition, and it was impossible to tell whether it was chicken breast or chicken leg. The rest are vegetarian dishes. Lettuce, celery, cauliflower, carrots and tomatoes are all cut neatly and put on a big plate. Take a little salad dressing in your hand and eat it raw at home; Attention, just dip a fork in salad dressing and eat it raw. In short, every time I receive an invitation to eat, I have to cheer up my stomach: I can eat lettuce and carrots like rabbits again!