The Great Experiment

After living here a few weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that, in Medellin, finding food that is suitable for an egg and dairy intolerant meat and deep-fry sceptic, who likes her seafood fresh, her fruits without sugar and her coffee black, pure and strong, simply isn’t enough of a challenge for me. I’ve therefore come up with a brilliant plan to make life just a bit more complicated for myself for a while …

Becoming a vegetarian is not something I have ever really considered seriously, and I still don’t find the idea of me giving up pinnakjøt, trout or crayfish neither tempting nor likely. However, over the last few years, I have gradually cut down on my meat intake, and the vegetable portion of my diet has grown correspondingly larger. Partly as a result of my own and E’s food intolerances, I’ve also developed more of an interest in food: what it contains, where it comes from, how to cook it, what it does to us, etc. I’ve also thought quite a bit about eating more vegetarian food. It’s mostly a matter of habit, I think: we’re so used to building our dinners around meat or fish, but there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to cook tasty food without meat now and then.

I heard about Meatless Mondays a while ago, and thought it was a good idea, but never got around to implementing it. Also, in Norway, where I usually cook for several people, everyone’s food wishes and needs have to be taken into account, limiting the craziness I can get up to (E and H may object to the claim that I avoid craziness in the kitchen, but I honestly do restrain myself …).

At the moment, however, I am cooking just for me. I also have to approach the whole issue of cooking slightly differently, since I don’t have the equipment and ingredients I am used to. It’s the perfect opportunity to explore and experiment. So I made a decision: rather than eating vegetarian – which in practice, because of my egg and dairy intolerance, means vegan – one day a week, I’m going all out, completely vegan for a month. Instead of Meatless Mondays, I’m doing Meatless March.

     Why? Why not.

In part, it’s the challenge, I suppose. I want to see if I can do it, and how hard it will be. Another reason is to force myself to cook vegan food. I always mean to, but as long as nothing’s forcing me, I tend to stick to more familiar approaches. And finally, most importantly, it’s a health thing. I want to see what happens to my rather troublesome stomach if I limit it to pure plant-foods for a while. Missionaries of a vegan diet claim it will solve all your problems and cure all your ills. I have a deep mistrust of all kinds of missionaries, but I am curious, none the less. I love fresh and well-prepared vegetables, I’d really like to learn to cook more bean and lentil based dishes, and Colombia is Heaven when it comes to fruit, all of which provides a good starting point. I already find meat heavy and hard to digest, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be all right without it for a while. I fear the challenge is going to be fish and seafood. I’ve never contemplated giving those up before, and come April I’ll be stuffing my face with whatever I can get my hands on, but the truth is that Medellín is not fish country anyway, and the quality of the seafood found in supermarkets here is not necessarily the best. So … time will show. That’s the point of experiments.

And before any of you consider commenting or writing to tell me this is madness and not to be stupid: I have already been told. Nobody here quite seems to understand why I want to do this, and some are actively trying to get me to “just taste” or “just make a little exception”. However, I am quite determined (for now, at least) to do this, and to do it without exceptions or breaks. Since an important point is to investigate the effects of a purely plant-based diet, there will be NO EXCEPTIONS – that is, if I can help it and don’t buckle before the month is up. I do realize that I am making myself even more difficult in restaurants, and therefore to go out and eat with, but as long as I’m willing to pay full price for a (considerably) reduced dish (or if I could convince people to go to proper restaurants now and then, rather than the chain variety where everything is pre-prepared in some central factory), there should be a salad or something for me. It will give me an excuse (as if I needed one) to try out some new restaurants as well – I already have my eye on a couple of Medellín’s vegetarian ones.