coofcafé
Vegetarianism: Day seven and counting
by Peter B. Brace

Brace, with just about all the antioxidants he can handle.

Coof Café is a bi-weekly column that forces

Independent staffers to lurch blindly from their comfort zones into island encounters that they have never tried before.We welcome suggestions for new experiences. Email: don@nantucketindependent.com. On Thursday evening, I got meat separation anxiety walking through town to the Even Keel for a birthday dinner.

My route took me within a block of Cambridge Street Victuals, that on this particular night each week during the fall, sells its delicious ribs for a buck apiece. I can usually eat about 15 of them, though lack of cash, not space, frequently prevents me from eating more.

A light breeze that night put up a dense, smoky wall of that sweet flavor of these delectable ribs in between me and what was to be whatever herbivore meal the Even Keel had on its menu.

You see, I went vegetarian Nov. 5-12 to experience life without meat. So, an evening watching others gorge themselves on entrées on the hoof, I thought, would be the ultimate test of my resolve. my nose and trying not to breathe in what I told myself over and over were the noxious fumes of the animal-eaters' fare blanketing town, I made it to the Even Keel without giving in. The vegetarian curry was scrumptious and the torture of watching two of my friends eat hanger steak only made me stronger.

I have to say that I don't eat meat every day. Breakfast is easy. It's either oatmeal or homemade granola, yogurt, fruit, a glass of OJ and a glass of soymilk. Pretty healthy, huh?

For lunch, I alternate between chicken, turkey and vegetarian Lean Cuisines, a brown rice, a flavored tofu mixture and the occasional Turkey Terrific from Provisions or a Tex Mex Wrap from Cook's Café.

But, dinner is where it gets dangerous.

Although I am not grilling a steak every night, nor heading down to Stubby's for waffle fries and one of their amazing cheeseburgers all the time, I do enjoy plenty of stir fries with turkey. I eat turkey tacos and I love those DiGiorno self-rising pepperoni pizzas, turkey hotdogs and the occasional chicken steamed in a clay cooker.

So, going vegetarian sounded a little daunting to me because, people say, I am (so they surmise) kind of big and tall - even though I don't feel it - and that I must have this varacious appetite to fill two very long hollow legs.

Yes, I love to eat, but I had this vision of vegetarian meals never being able to fill me up and worried that I would have to go vegan to truly experience eating leaves instead of muscles.

On the bright side, while envisioning levitation through rich fields of chi (universal energy) spawned by a veggie diet and my yoga practice, I pictured a spiritual transcendence. I would enlighten my mind, charge up my body with a healthier diet and in the long-term, if I stuck with it, alleviate stress on my joints and heart with all the weight I would be losing.

My saviors were Annye Camara and her crew at Annye's Whole Foods, and my close friend Annie Jarman who spent the last two weeks at my house. They shed light on a food world I had heard of but never took the time to explore.

Annye sent me home with a stack of books on becoming a vegetarian and packed with recipes. She assured me that I would not die and my intestines would not explode.

First of all, I did not go vegan. There is a huge difference between this most committed of dietary regimes and being a vegetarian.

Vegans, Annye explained, do not eat, wear or use any product made from anything with a face. Plants define their lives on many levels. Vegetarians can eat dairy and eggs, and, thank goodness, chocolate. Some people say they're vegetarian but eat fish or poultry, or both, but to truly be a veggie, you can't eat any meat, which is a challenge I overcame last week.

Like I said, dinners are an obstacle, so I Chickpeas from the cookbook, "Vegetarian Suppers" for Sunday night's meal. I brought the rest to work with me the next day. And that night, my friend Annie made a marinara sauce with meatless chorizo that she spread over chicken tofu patties and served with a salad and a sweet potato sliced and roasted in olive oil.

For lunch on Wednesday, I had the sesame tofu patties over a bed of zucchini and seaweed from the health food store and Smart Dogs (tofu hot dogs) that night. By Thursday night's dinner I was in a rhythm, though I did fill some of the gaps during the week with organic Oreotype cookies containing filling without trans or animal fats, a guilty pleasure I'll never give up.

What I learned is that I can live without meat quite well. Do I want to forever?

Well, I'm going to try to stay vegetarian at least until Thanksgiving at my father's place knowing that he'll be roasting an abomination of nature known as a turducken - a chicken crammed into a duck stuffed into a turkey, each de-boned and filled with stuffing. It's a gastronomical delight of poultry flavors that only a carnivore can enjoy. It will be complemented with the bay scallops I caught in October. So, yes, I'll probably be one of those vegetarians who occasionally jumps off the turnip wagon.

However, I do fear the temptations of the holiday eating season, like walking into Stop & Shop hungry after yoga and smelling their fried chicken. But I know this: If I can hang in there, I'm going to be a lot lighter if I can manage to keep this new diet going beyond Jan. 1.

'Nother plate of tofu ribs, Mr. Brace? Yes, please, but can I also have Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts for dessert?

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