Spare a thought for your food, take just a small moment of your time, say grace, give thanks to the spirit of the animal slain in the hunt, to the bounty of the earth. Take just a minute and think where did your last meal come from? My answer is the kitchen, lets eat!

I had originally planned to write about the moral and ethical aspects of eating, but that turned into a bit of a drag and has frankly given me a headache.

I have spent nearly all my adult life as a vegetarian in one form or another. I began as a fruitarian, limiting my diet to fruit, nuts and grain, things that did not involve killing the whole plant. This proved to be quite troublesome and I must have lasted all of a week. 

A progression to veganism followed, this was much easier as I could now eat whole plants (a quick prayer to the soul of the cabbage), after about a month of this I eased my restrictions even further, moving on to lacto-ovo vegetarianism. I could now partake in the delights of eggs and dairy products (soy milk just doesn't do it in coffee) and still claim to adhere to the basic tenets of ahimsa (yes I had long hair). 

I have always maintained an interest in food despite my dietary restrictions, and have given many a chef a headache over the years (sorry Brian).

One belief I still have is that a good cook can make almost anything taste good. Some of the best meals I've had have been the simplest, cooked by people who have the confidence to let the ingredients be themselves, of course this relies on quality produce, but standards in this area have been rising (apart from tomatoes).

The years went by and at some point I got fed up of ordering lasagne every time I went out for a meal and one day ordered the fish, my justification being that I could (possibly) bring myself to kill it. More prayers to the sole, cod, tuna, etc. 

Conscious Eating

Then not long ago, while on a restaurant review dinner with a friend I was coaxed into trying a small morsel of meat. Wagyu beef cheek, double cooked, given a modern Thai treatment, it was utterly divine. I felt a bit like Adam enlightened and guilty in unequal measures, I could always say, "she made me do it".

After my epiphany/fall from grace I shelved my concerns with factory farming methods reasoning that one person eating or not eating meat wouldn't make much difference to the state of the planet.

There are still things I do not eat, veal and whale are examples, though I have eaten both as a child. Live food (salads and fruit not withstanding) I have a problem with. I have yet to try dog, cat, mouse, hamster, and guinea pig, but at some time probably will - well, not cats. We are all guilty of speciesism to some degree.

Insects I have only eaten accidentally so far, tried deep-fried scorpion, can't recommend it, but there are those who swear by locust (comes from the same root word as lobster). I'm not a deluded head-in-the-sand type (ostrich sounds good) and know that there are things that shouldn't be eaten, orange roughy, and bluefin tuna are definitely off the menu for me, but eating is essential to life and eating meat does inevitably result in the ending of life. "By the same power that slays you, I to am slain; and I too shall be consumed..."* Long pig anyone? 

The Gastro0

*From The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

Mange Tout: French, meaning Eat All

Image credit: Final image Chris Huh