Day 6 - they sure do cook a lot of meat TV.

When I was growing up in the US and still learning English one of my favorite TV shows was on PBS called "Chang can cook". A super energized Chinese man cooked very exotic (to me) ingredients while showing off amazing chopping knife skills. Since I became a vegetarian within a few years of arriving to US, seeing someone cook tofu and so many delicious Chinese ingredients was mesmerizing. One of the few places I could eat as a vegetarian were Chinese restaurants and I always dreamed of re-creating those dishes at home. With a slogan Chang Can Cook So Can You! it seemed promising.
Well I never grew out of watching cooking shows. Food Network came into my life when we got cable and I have been mesmerized again. From gourmet BBQ to molecular gastronomy - I loved it all. Well we got rid of cable but what's this - network channels have a slew of cooking shows now too!
Today I came across one where 4 chefs were transported to the world of ancient China and their challenge was to cook duck. Crap.
No amount of conjuring up images of factory farms could stop me from thinking about the BBQ duck we got in Chinatown a few weeks ago. From the cinnammon-y seasoning that are rubbed on it to the crispy skin - it was amazing. Talk about party in your mouth. Well anyways... The TV show was showing a pretty interesting idea - chefs traveled to different time periods and cook foods from that period. First one was ancient China, hence duck. Second time period is Tudor period. And one guy admitted to playing Dungeons and Dragons. Ok I know who I'm rooting for. Ok short attention span.
Well, even after watching duck prepared with crispy skin and massive amounts of meat prepared for the Tudor period I am still not desperate enough to take off to go to Chinatown to grab some duck. Watching the cooking shows as a vegan now is a funny, weird experience. I guess part of me realizes how versatile meat is. Part of me wants the chefs to really do something different and not use meat for once.
At least I was able to rationalize my way out of getting smoked duck meat.

I wish I could say that the sight of meat disgusts me or something. It's just really not true. It takes a lot to actually disgust me.
 The only way that I have been able to stay a vegan for these 6 days (except that one day when I had a slice of pizza) is thinking critically about choices I was making with food. And eating meat is a social experience in this country. At least at our end of the summer internship lunch I did order a veggie sandwich and asked for no cheese. Ah, getting over the fear of asking people to do stuff. I think I'm finding out that while by myself I can figure out how to eat vegan, when it comes to interaction with the outside world, I'm just not that great at navigating it.