Eating Out Part I

A group of girlfriends here organizes a monthly "Girl's Night" dinner, and having missed several of the last gatherings, I really wanted to attend this time. I emailed my friend who was hosting this time in advance that I was eating vegan at the moment but that I would bring along my own entree. I just wanted her to know not to prepare a meat portion for me, not knowing what she planned to cook. She was very supportive and told me there would be several vegetable sides available, so it looked like it would work out great.

It was fun getting to talk to a new group of people about my vegan adventure, and I got some new ideas, perspectives and resources. EY told me about a vegan support group run out of Southampton Hospital where they actually have classes and medical supervision for people trying a vegan diet for health reasons. That sounds pretty interesting, and reminded me that with how vocal the vegan and vegetarian communities can be about their meal plans, there are probably many cooking classes, lectures, and other resources out there to learn more about how to maintain this kind of diet.

For the cocktail hour, M had provided several delicious looking types of cheese. There was also a bowl of nuts out so I snacked on those instead. It wasn't too hard to resist, but when the conversation turned from eating vegan to all the wonderful ways this group of awesome amateur chefs have come up with to cook meat and fish, well, I admit that even 2 more weeks of beans sounded like a very, very long time.

When we sat down for dinner, I was really excited to see 2 vegan-friendly dishes: a stringbean and red potato salad, and a rice salad that was loaded with currants, veggies, and all kinds of things I cannot hope to identify. I loaded up my plate and even though I had to skip the grilled pork tenderloin and the skirt steak, I did not feel at all deprived. I barely touched the serving of chickpeas and quinoa I had brought for myself!

I did ask my friends about whether the dishes were vegan, and they were very accommodating. Unfortunately I did NOT ask about the dressings they used for the salads, and so did not find out until much too late that both were doused with red wine vinegar, a headache-inducing allergen for me. This came up when I did remember to ask that question before the salad course.

Oops.

End result, I had to cut the evening short and head home with a bit of a headache, but that passed fairly quickly and all was well. I did enjoy the food very much and I was very appreciative of how supportive and interested my friends were about the whole thing.