A FISH OUT OF WATER

It seems that this vegan wannabe is living in an area that just doesn't fit with the vegan lifestyle. I'm not complaining as I love it here. It's just that being a California native, I was spoiled with all the health-food population living in sunny southern California! I mean, exercise was a way of life. Granola, yogurt, and fruit smoothies were popular there..... way before this form of consumption became in vogue. Needless to say, my background is in early hippy gourmet eating, and the whole non-meat genre was well under way when I lived on the west coast.

However, I decided to become vegan when I moved to Utah. What in the hell was I thinking! This is the land of hunters and fisherman, not tofu-grass-fed vegans. And the restaurants are few and far between. If I want to go to a 'vegetarian' restaurant, it is at least 45 minutes away. I live in Park City, and if you want just a vegetarian meal, most restaurants serve pasta with a dash of vegetables and heavy cream sauce. Or you can always order marinara poured over more pasta. That almost doesn't give one a reason to go out for an evening. There is nothing hard about preparing noodles and sauce. I could make the same at dish home and don't even have to comb my hair.

There are a couple of restaurants in my city that do have vegetarian/vegan meals, but they are rather expensive. A restaurant called Shabu has an excellent vegan dish of crusted coconut Tofu with vegetables. I love it! And the River Horse Cafe' has a superb vegetarian meal that they offer. But those are the exceptions. I find most of the time it is just too much trouble to order a "specially prepared" meal. This makes eating out a rather unpleasant experience. I do wish this vegan thing would catch on in Utah. It will probably take several years for the flesh-eating mammals to finally realize that it is detrimental to your health, to the environment and to the animals. It took me a long time to figure this out myself, so am not being judgemental. By the time this becomes more prevalent here, I will probably have moved on to greener pastures.

So, there you have it. This fish is swimming upstream at the moment, and will probably be doing so for several years. Can't blame everyone here for being the way they are, I just wish they would make one dish that was vegan. I wish they would make just one imaginative special dish that they created as equally appetizing as they do when a beef dish is prepared. Vegetables are colorful and can be elegant if available in an original way. Chefs are supposed to cater to all types of palates, but since we are the minority at present, I will have to suffer through pasta for a long while.