In my family, I have always been considered the “health nut.” I make modified healthy recipes of my family’s favorite foods, made soymilk the official milk of choice for our house and have considered going vegetarian numerous times (but I love my mom’s cooking too much). I have always been an advocate for healthy living and for trying new foods, so this week I decided to throw caution to the wind and, for the first time in my life, try eating at a completely vegan restaurant.
Although I love trying new things and my friends had commented numerous times on how good the food was, I was a little bit nervous to eat at a completely vegan restaurant. As we walked to get our food, I kept trying to picture what I might be walking into. Bean sprout burgers? Veggie fries? Chickpea nuggets? I am unafraid to say that all I could picture was stereotypical vegan food because, even though I try to be as healthy as possible, I had never intentionally cooked anything vegan. As the restaurant came into sight, I felt my curiosity and nerves building up, expecting the absolute worst—yet, I was greatly mistaken!
When we walked in, I immediately smelled amazing savory and sweet hints of food and saw a display of desserts. I was surprised because the desserts, cheesecakes, cookies and pies all looked like what me and my family make all the time. I quickly recovered from this, though, when I looked up at the menu and was newly surprised with the names of some of my favorite foods items like BBQ sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, burgers and so much more! Even with all of these amazing options to choose from, I went simple and got the sweet potato yams with collard greens because a small part of me was still nervous. After my friends placed their order, sweet potatoes, potato salad, macaroni and cheese and we all got our food, we walked back to Monroe Park to eat, and it was time for me to finally try vegan food for the first time!
As we sat down and started passing out our food, I became excited because it smelled so good. I grabbed my fork and took a bite of some of the best food I have ever had! When I had originally agreed to get vegan food for dinner, I had been expecting bland and flavorless veggies in a salad bowl, but the food was full of flavor. In my experience, the vegan food I had seen before had always looked unappetizing and not appealing to a foodie like myself. Although vegan food is often marketed in this way, my experience made me realize that not only can vegan food be really, really good, but that, in a lot of ways, many people eat delicious vegan dishes every day! Have you ever been rushing to class and just dumped some oatmeal in hot water before running out the door? Or have you ever gone to get fast food with your friends and ended up just getting some delicious fries?
In many ways, eating food that can be classified as “vegan” or even just in a cleaner way at all is not only more attainable than we think but something we do every day. Now, I am definitely not saying that after reading this article, you must rid yourself of all animal-derived products and stock your fridge with a colorful rainbow of fruits and veggies and survive off only the plants of the Earth. Being healthy does not mean you cannot enjoy your favorites: it simply means that sometimes you can be open to getting delicious, vegan versions of them! Since trying and enjoying some truly delicious vegan food, I feel like I am now more open-minded and willing to maybe even try cooking some new vegan recipes because I now know that it can taste really good.