Friday, March 17, 2006

I'm not sure how that happened

So, to preface this post, Paul and I have been vegetarian for almost 5 1/2 years. Plus it's Lent when Orthodox Christians don't eat meat or dairy products.

Today was Paul's day off and we started it off by having Lemon, Orange, Almond, and Olive Oil cake, found on Jess' blog, which is a vegan adaptation of an eggy cake. It was good! Then we took the bus and the Max (light train) to the art museum. We had a great time there, but when we were ready for lunch we couldn't find anyplace to eat. The cafe at the museum was mobbed and we couldn't find a menu to look at, so I still don't know if they had anything we could eat. So we went out looking for a restaurant. Paul took us over to Higgins, a restaurant he went to with Eric Sten, city commissioner (shameless name-dropping), which he said focused on local, fresh, organic foods. But it was after two and they were only serving at the bar and kids, of course, can't be allowed into the bar. So, we wandered and finally thought, let's get back on the Max and start for home, then look for a place and if we don't find one we can just eat at home.

So, we spotted a bakery that has great bread and also serves soup and sandwiches. We jumped off and went in. They had a great-sounding veggie sandwich--it had roasted red pepper, cucumber, sesame hummus, and other good sounding things. They also had a veggie soup. Paul and I decided to split a soup and a sandwich, Zac had half a sandwich and Hibi just chose soup.

We ate our sandwiches hungrily, and noticed that it had grapes in it! Very interesting. It was very tasty and the filling was in a creamy sauce which I assumed was the hummus, but it was different from any hummus I'd ever tasted. The soup wasn't as good, Paul and I thought, but Hibi enjoyed it and didn't want a taste of our sandwiches.

Paul and I finished our sandwiches. Zac was still working on his, but was getting filled. I started picking at the stuff that had come out of his sandwich. Grapes, yum, tofu, oh, tofu, I hadn't remembered that there was supposed to be tofu in it. Hmm. This tofu is a bit stringy. At that point I looked back at the board and didn't see tofu listed in the veggie sandwich. And where were the red peppers and cukes? Those weren't in my sandwich.

Paul grabbed the order form I'd filled out. I looked at the entry above "Veggie Special" and it said "Curried Chicken Salad." Oh. Huh? Did we just eat a whole chicken sandwich? Um, yeah. I cannot for the life of me figure out how we didn't realize it was chicken after the first bite! We all (except Hibi) felt queasy all afternoon. It just tasted mild while we were eating it. I don't think I'd have ever figured it out if I hadn't been picking at Zac's.

That was the first meat I've eaten since Christmas of 2000. I kept thinking, if I was going to eat meat, I wish I'd at least have known it! I've wondered recently if I'd like it at all now. Of course, as Zac pointed out, if I'd known I wouldn't have eaten it.

Paul said he thought about going and telling them they'd messed up our order but then he imagined their response--why were you stupid enough to eat the whole thing? Why didn't you figure it out when this sandwich wasn't anything like what you ordered? We just beat it out of there.

Hibi is making dying chicken noises behind me now. She says she will quit if I say she's doing this on my blog. :-P

Ick.

7 comments:

Susan said...

thats funny! I can imagine Hibi's dying chicken noises:)
Susan
I dream about such things about three weeks into lent!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, I know you're probably really grossed out about the whole thing, but I think this is HILARIOUS!

I hope it didn't actually make you sick though. My dad has been a vegetarian for almost 40 years, and the one time my uncle dared him to eat this little tiny piece of chicken, he almost threw up. And when I ate meatloaf after a couple years of being veg, I was sick for DAYS!

Elizabeth said...

We didn't actually get sick, as we'd feared. We all felt grossed out, but there was no vomiting or diarrhea. I just could feel it sitting on my stomach for quite a while.

Glad I could provide your comic relief. :-P

Mimi said...

Ewwwwww.

I've only eaten meat in a soup once (since being veggie), and I know the feeling of having it sitting in your stomach. Yuck.

Xenia Kathryn said...

Ack!
Sorry this happened!

:D

Anonymous said...

I really enjoy chicken, I'm sorry but I can imagine what you went through! I'm a meat eater who loathes vegtables but I think I want to try and convert to a more vegan lifestyle after reading thousands and thousands of vegan blogs...

This summer I'm going to have a HUGE garden, just because I love to weed, and I'll start weening myself off of pork and beef, which I love.

I certainly wouldn't want anyone eating my animals! I like your blog by the way!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

I'm delighted you enjoyed the cake! I'm making it for a tea party soon too : )
And I am also thrilled you folks went to VegFest! I ended up working in the kitchen the whole morning, but if you saw a girl running around in a 'Veggie Planet' tshirt and a pink flowery apron that was me.