There are many people who have given up eating meat but still love the taste of it and find value in the freedom of their culinary adventures. “When I go to a friend’s house for dinner, I’m like, ‘Damn, I want to eat all the amazing meat dishes you’ve prepared.'” After living together, she says, she started eating vegetarian at home. Perry says. She’s a plant-based girlfriend during the pandemic. She felt it didn’t make sense for them to cook their own meals. Her relationship then ended, but Perry’s new habits stuck. “I like the way it feels,” she says.
Some people who love to eat meat have stopped eating it at home due to climate concerns. After Tina Liu saw a Planet Earth documentary about how vulnerable walrus populations are being decimated by global warming, she decided she wanted to reduce her carbon footprint. . But the 33-year-old product manager who lives in New York City also loves eating out at restaurants. “If I see a dish that looks delicious, I want to try it,” she says. She also doesn’t want to miss her parents’ Chinese dishes, which include her pork chops and chicken. “I understand that she was made with love,” she says. “I don’t want to twist something that brings me joy into a story about killing the planet.” At least not 100%.
For some people, reducing meat consumption is a health issue. Taranekia Gilbert-Ross, owner of The Boozy Southerner, a new plant-based soul food restaurant in Lawrenceville, Georgia, has suffered from “severe stomach issues” since her 20s. The 42-year-old chef decided to start a vegan diet at his home last year when several doctors advised him to avoid beef. Gilbert Ross still eats the odd chicken breast at big gatherings with family and friends, mostly to avoid making a fuss at hosts who aren’t confident in their vegan cooking, but he also says that he still eats the odd chicken breast at big gatherings with family and friends, mostly to avoid making a fuss at hosts who aren’t confident in their vegan cooking. believes that his diet is “the gateway to becoming a completely plant-based person.”
Her restaurant’s menu, featuring vegan classics like sweet potato cornbread and braised collard greens, is an extension of that lifestyle. “Heart disease is the number one killer of Black Americans,” she says. “I wanted to create something that would help people live longer lives.” Gilbert-Ross hopes his cooking will convert some meat eaters to a more plant-based diet, but he doesn’t know where his customers are. It is compatible with. “For many Black families, food is a very comforting thing,” she says. “You can’t just tell people, ‘Don’t eat it.'” [their favorite dishes]”
For Libby Huggins, a 40-year-old schoolteacher in Kansas City, the decision to eat almost no meat was easy. “I don’t like the consistency or the taste,” she says. Huggins also finds the meat industry “terrible” and creepy. There are a few things to keep in mind. She takes a “bite” of her father’s exquisite pork tenderloin during her travels and occasionally samples her meat-based dishes, but that’s a big part of her relationship with her husband. There is.
I myself have vacillated between being a strict vegetarian and a social carnivore for over a decade. Most of the time I eat meat for work. Several times a year, I eat juicy pierogi and chicken borscht made by my Polish grandmother, who claims she is a vegetarian. Every Christmas, I happily eat the wonderful German sauerbraten that my boyfriend’s mother makes. My mother’s beef lasagna, topped with crispy béchamel, is my Achilles heel as a vegetarian. I love all of these women very much, and I have no intention of rejecting the efforts they put in to provide for me.