Fast Food

Hummus and fruit -- it's my go-to fast food...and some cheesy chips, salsa and guacamole.

I was not the vegan gourmet this weekend except for making my salad, and some oatmeal, and grilled some VBites breakfast sausage which was quite good, but I like the Sage and Marjoram better. But I was very surprised by the Vbites cheese. One of my quick, decadent snacks of old was chips (tortilla crisps my UK friends), melted cheddar cheese and salsa. Last night I got some organic chips, added slices of VBites cheddar "cheese" and popped it into the microwave. It melted, not as cheesy, and complete as regular cheese, but it melted, and tasted pretty damn good for being fake cheese. I had taken avocados, tomato, and onions and made some guacamole. A very tasty snack with no dairy, and a fresh dip without any preservatives.

Saturday night I picked my friend up for dinner and a show. Now, no where in "dinner," "show," and "NYC" does "vegan" rear its head. So, in order to keep a seamless evening I munched on some hummus and bread before I went out. The show was at 7:30, dinner was later, and since I had some different options in mind, I was not sure which way dinner was headed.

We saw Linda Purl at the Metropolitan Room. She sang cabaret, and was excellent. She is known as Pam's mother on "The Office" but my date and I were more impressed with her being Fonzi's fiance on "Happy Days." Linda is the wife of a friend and after congratulating her on an excellent show my friend and I walked out into the cold to find dinner. I knew Markt was down the street and that was one of my options. I wrote about Markt, the Belgian restaurant, back on November 16th.

Markt had on their menu a pasta and vegetable dish that was very good - a tad too much garlic, but very good. Interestingly, there was a note on the menu that stipulated *No dairy, no meat. I certainly don't remember that on the menu when I had lunch there back in November. In my fantasy world I imagine my conversation with the waiter back then resulted in this new vegan option at Markt. Again, my blog, my fantasy.

True to form, my friend was loathed to order what she wanted so as to be sensitive to my diet. Why? Again, if I may make large judgements about women; why are they so nice? A guy friend would not think twice about ordering a juicy steak and beer. I had to plead with her to order what she wanted - a bouillabaisse and glass of wine. Please, just hours earlier I was at Sutton Place with friends who just won their football game gorging themselves on chicken wings and buckets of beer. That didn't bother me, and neither would her bouillabaisse!

I want people to have fun around me, I want people to indulge, and over-indulge around me. It is a kick to fight off the personal urges, and I certainly do not want people to tip-toe around me because of my new lifestyle.