Ignoring Eric ….

It does seem pretty much a given that any conversation about vegetarian food draws down a torrent of unsolicited, banal, and even hostile comments.

As if the very act of eschewing meat and fish is a threat to civilization and a direct affront to bacon lovers everywhere.

At its mildest it focuses on flatulence but ascends though the assertion that “it isn’t natural”, to visions of Armageddon with the end of all cows, pigs, and chickens from the face of the earth, and the collapse of  the entire world economy .

Nor does this wail of abuse have to be precipitated by the debate.  

It is enough on a slow news day for someone to launch into a diatribe, usually at the end of a day cataloguing their dried worm collection.

Now do they feel threatened, embarrassed or just have not thought much beyond their plate of meat and two veg?

On my part I don’t evangelise I just prefer not to eat something that had a face, and so if Eric wants to enjoy a steak, preceded by a prawn cocktail with a little side dish of fried sweet bread and black pudding that’s his choice.  Trouble is Eric and his pals won’t leave me to make my own choice.

And here I have to say this isn’t a crusade, it’s just another history post, and with that in mind it is worth remembering that all through history humanity has not eaten that much meat, which in most cases was not by choice, but was restrained by lack of money and the cost of meat.  Afterall then and now it takes a considerable amount of grass, and cereal to feed an animal.

So while aristocrats might employ chefs to come up with ever more sophisticated plates of meat and fish, the men and women who grew the food in the fields ate variations of porridge, and veg.

Always remember while the Norman overlords ate pork, their English serfs raised pig.

As a result, most of the world’s cuisines were heavily orientated toward meatless dishes and reflected a more imaginative approach to what makes a meal.

Yesterday with some fine-looking tomatoes and green beans which had to be used up I cooked a simple starter.

And varied the meal the following day by leaving out the green beans but adding olives, capers and bit of garlic to a plate of linguine.  Pretty much made in the time it took the pasta to cook.

Simple and quick.

And so, starts a series on historic meals without meat.

Pictures;  Dishes to brass off Eric, 2026 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

When me and Leonardo da Vinci walked the same way

Yep ….. it is a little-known fact that me and that Italian master of all things were vegetarians. *

Roast peppers

That said some clever traveller of obscure knowledge will correct me with arguing he merely advocated it.

Either way it got me reflecting on my choice which I took over four decades ago.

There wasn’t one burning reason for giving up meat it just happened and I have never missed meat or fish nor regretted the decision.

And in so doing I have discovered those great meatless cuisines of the world which have their roots in an abhorrence to eating living things and the more basic one that in most peasant communities’ meat was a very expensive item, and almost out of reach of many.

I can’t say I have been a vociferous advocate but when challenged I have stepped up to the mark.

And of challenges there have been many.  Most are cheap jibes thrown out in expectation that they are witty and clever comments but are in fact banal uttered by people who would be better employed cataloguing their collection of dried worms.

Moreover, they miss the rich variety of dishes that are out there.

Pasta, garlic and chilli

My favourites are invariably those from southern Italy an area which as late as the 1960s was far poorer than the northern regions of the country.

Pasta and beans

Roasted peppers, aubergines cooked in a heap of different ways and those old staples of pasta, beans and chickpeas.

Of all these my go to choice is simply pasta and olive oil with perhaps a bit of garlic and chilli thrown in and sometimes some homemade tomato sauce.

And what I find amusing is that it is often the deriding meat eaters who fall on these dishes.  Which takes me back to an event many years ago.  

We were in the Sangam in Didsbury and sharing our table were a mix of meat eaters and vegetarians, and by bad luck the vegetarian starters came first, which everyone fell upon and all pronounced excellent.  

Sadly, the arrival of the meat starters left some of us with nothing more to eat and reduced to watching.  The added insult was the comment from one meat eater that she was finding it difficult to finish her starters because of the number of our dishes she had already consumed.

                                                             Green beans

At which point I should really launch into a description of the history of vegetarianism but it is out there for all to read.*

Instead, I will venture into that dark area of convenience foods and share my own non animal convenience.  I don’t eat many but will when lazy fall on those alternative sausage and burgers.  It’s not that I am wanting pretend meat it’s just simply that they are quick.

It was as George who ran Sunflowers on Beech Road once said to me, “why should meat eaters have all the convenience foods”.

Tivall convenience

Location; where ever there are vegetarians

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*History of vegetarianism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_vegetarianism