Vegetarian cognitive dissonance

Something bugs me about a lot of vegetarians, particularly those who are less empirically and more spiritually inclined. This is the tendency to emphasize how "natural" vegetarianism is. It seems like people will often use any argument that seems to support their point of view, even if the facts behind it are dubious, particularly when reality doesn't really go along with their immediate point.

(This illustrates a pretty good example of what I am talking about.)

Most evolutionary scientists believe that humans evolved eating a relatively large amount of meat. Most anatomical biologists believe that we are best suited to a primarily omnivorous diet. This is likely responsible for the development of the human brain, and explains why our species is so intelligent. So, against the claims of many vegetarians, the scientific community emphasizes the important of meat in the evolution and development of our species.

So it turns out that eating meat is pretty "natural" after all. Which brings us to this important question: so fucking what?

I think it says something about the insecurity of a position when you feel the need to something as being natural in order for it to be right. People use nature to make all kinds of messed up arguments. This includes arguments against homosexuality, interracial dating, and yes, vegetarian diets! And they are all stupid. Something being natural does not make it moral, and something being not natural does not make it morally wrong.

I am vegan for ethical reasons. I don't give a damn what my predecessors did. If evolutionary scientists discovered that humanity evolution took shape partially because among our proto-human ancestors the strong males raped females and killed weaker males, this would not justify rape and murder!

I guess people can believe whatever they want. If they want to think eating meat is something that is fundamentally unnatural, or that God, Jesus, Moses, the Prophet Mohammad, Abraham, Buddha, Vishnu, the Great Sky Spirit, Thor, Zeus, the Great Cthulhu, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or L. Ron Hubbard disprove, well I guess that's their right. The thing is, I am vegan for moral reasons, and I don't need some illogical existential justification to validate it.

And I don't give a damn what this guy thinks about it.

Best vegetarian places to eat in St. Louis

Yeah, it's been months. I have been telling myself this blog was over. Then some nice person just commented to me that she enjoyed this blog, and requested more. That feels kind of nice. I have some time on my hands, so what the hell.

I have been struggling with depression over the past year. It's been really difficult for me to function in my day to day life. Frankly, life has really sucked for me lately, and that is more than anything why I have not been blogging. It simply got overwhelming. I think I might be pulling out of it, but I hesitate to say that as every time I think things are going better life drops another anvil on my head. Meh, okay -- enough whining.

First off, I did end up winning that chili contest. I think I deserved to as well. I have been making the same chili for about twelve or so years, so I pretty much have the process down pat. Perhaps I will provide a recipe or something sometime when I am feeling recipe-ey. But I don't now. So deal.

Over the past few months I have been pestering vegetarians in St. Louis to tell me their favorite places to eat in the area. I had them do a top five ranking and awarded "points" accordingly. There were a lot of places that were mentioned, but the winner by a pretty wide margin was Meskerem.

Meskerem is an Ethiopian place on South Grand, and their food is quite simply wonderful. If you go I strongly suggest you get the vegetarian combo. On their menu they specify that it feeds one person. This is wrong -- this thing easily feeds two hungry people. I have taken a lot of dates here, and they have all been impressed with the food, and it's pretty damn cheap for a large dinner for too -- talk about a win-win! Don't ask me to tell you anything about what they serve -- I just remember various colors, consistencies and flavors, and that should be all that is expected of Mississippi trailer trash like me.

So there you are. I am pretty comfortable in saying that Meskerem is one of the best places to eat if you are vegetarian in St. Louis, and from the sample I have it's rated the best by far. I think they are deserving of this. The service is also good -- they have this nice and cute waitress that looks like Joan Cusack. She's a sweetheart, not to mention a great server. Be sure to tip her well if you go!

Second on the list was Lemon Grass. This is a Vietnamese place, also on South Grand. They have this one dish there that I think is simply amazing: sesame tofu. It's very delicious, and certainly very bad for you -- battered and deep fried tofu covered in a thick, calorie laden brown sesame sauce, garlic, and a little broccoli (so you can pretend it's not as bad for you as it is).

Battered and deep fried tofu. Mmmmm*gargle*gargle*drool*

Any drawbacks? Yeah. The service sucks. And I don't mean a little. It's bad. Every time I have eaten there the service is as slow as it is rude. Fairly recently I took a date there, and she had leftovers. She asked the server for a little rice to take home with her. He said, "no." Now this server KNEW I was a regular; I go there and get sesame tofu take out all the time. (I like to go right to sleep after eating it -- it helps me keep my girlish figure.) Well, safe to say his tip suffered after that -- I am usually a good tipper but that shit is uncalled for. If you won't take care of your regular customers -- well that's just bad business.

Other honorable mentions in my little poll: Pi -- the pizza place on the Delmar Loop. I once had a take out vegan pizza from there. In my opinion it was okay, but generally speaking vegan cheese sucks. Sweet Art was also a favorite among StL veggies.I have never actually been here, but I probably should have been. They have a lot of vegan stuff, from sandwiches to pastries. Finally, rounding out the places I will mention is Foundation Grounds. They usually have a few vegan items in display. They cupcakes are usually wonderful. The pastries are hit or miss. The coffee is fantastic, and the people that work there are great.

So there you have it. A post. I did it. Take that life.