The Vegetarian Barbeque

I hear the screams. Relax guys and girls, I'm not about to give up my meat eating ways. I enjoy being on top of the food chain.

Being in New York City, I run into all kinds and there are a lot of vegetarians living in the concrete jungle. As much as I don't comprehend their lifestyle, many veg heads don't understand or approve of mine.

I'll never understand why so many vegetarians work so hard to create meat substitutes. I'm talking about things like the faux chicken fingers, burgers, meat balls etc. I remember one visit to an animal rescue center upstate that included a vegetarian lunch. The chef was so proud of her "meatless chicken salad." She swore up and down that once you tried it you'd never go back to chicken. I tried it and well, whatever it was it was no substitute for chicken salad. It didn't taste like it, it didn't smell like it and it didn't look like it. I'm not saying it wasn't tasty, because it was pretty good. But I think my mind and palate would have approved more if she called it what it really was.

If it's a chopped nut and wheat berry salad- say so. Don't try to pass vegetables off as something else. You'll never find a carnivore trying to pass pulled pork shoulder off as spaghetti squash.

Let's stop the vegetarian bashing; this is a blog about barbecue. Towards that end I want to point out The Vegetarian Barbeque. It's a website based in Australia, who almost gets the concept of vegetables are vegetables and meat is meat. It's got some great vegetarian recipes, most of which don't try to pass off tofu as meat. Enjoy.

Photo courtesy of The Vegetarian Barbeque