Monday, January 21, 2008

Friday Past

Friday night Chris and I went out looking for a restaurant to eat dinner. Our restaurant choices have been pretty limited to those where I see some picture or plastic food* outside the restaurant window that contains something with no meat and no seafood. (*many restaurants in Japan display their menu items in a display window outside their restaurant in plastic food form) Chris has been very accommodating to my vegetarian food needs, but lately I can tell he has gotten very frustrated because we pass by all these really good looking restaurants that he would love to try, but I shy away from because I can't find anything to eat without some meat or seafood in the dishes.

Many ask why I'm vegetarian in the first place... It's not about cruelty to animals or even not liking the taste. Meat tastes good to me. Easiest way of saying it bluntly is, I can't digest meat and fish. Not digesting it equals to some serious pain which I've been able to completely avoid going vegetarian. And also I've noticed I feel even better, and have way more energy as a vegetarian. Unfortunately, in social situations and in everyday life, being vegetarian is not easy, especially being surrounding by a culture and people that aren't vegetarian.

I would love to just eat anything. I always prided myself on being able to eat almost anything before. I would still love to be able to feel as great as I feel as a vegetarian, but still eat meat and seafood. Or at least seafood! I made a deal with Chris that I would be more adventurous with our restaurants from now on. I've decided myself that I am also going to slowly introduce seafood into my diet, as it doesn't have as bad of an effect on me as meat does. Eating out will be much more fun for both of us if I didn't have to feel so limited by food choices.

Friday night we ended up picking an Italian restaurant. The food tasted good, but we had some individual pizzas which (we think) caused Chris' stomach to hurt all Saturday :(