Yes, I am a vegetarian! For approximately six years I have been experimenting with some sort of vegetarian diet and am more so a vegetarian now than ever, only eating fish when absolutely necessary! I love my eating habits. Veggies are wonderfully filling, tofu can be delicious and protein bars are a great snack for those lacking any interest in the so called "meat sweats". In regards to the people in my life, I only have four friends and one cousin that follow the same dietary habits as myself. That's five people! The rest of my family, friends and potential date-ees are non-discriminatory meat eaters. Burgers, chicken, sausage, they cook and eat it all! Now this is not an issue for me! If I spent my time only hanging with veggie eating folks I'd have hardly any friends and would never go on dates unless I joined some sort of veggie eaters match.com, which, I won't.....yet!
Yes, I wrote "yet"! It seems possible that my eating habits are making the men I date, who claim to be good cooks, very bad cooks. Recently, I've had two similar situations with two different guys. In both situations, I'm invited over to his place for a vegetarian meal that he cannot wait to cook for me. You know the phrase "cooking is the way to a man's heart"? Well, replace "a man's" with "Sarah's" and you've got the phrase I live by! Both times, the guy assures me he loves to cook AND is good AND he's got the perfect dish. I'm practically drooling at this point. Not sure if I actually like the guy (typical me) but willing to give him a chance because any guy who will cook for me is potentially the man of my dreams. So here's how it went, only slightly fabricated.
Scenario 1:
Sarah: Wow, frozen pasta!
Boy 1: Yeah, I think it needs to be thawed, would you mind doing that your way?
Sarah: Wow, frozen peas!
Boy 1: Yeah, they need to be thawed too, would you mind doing that your way?
Sarah: Wow, a whole onion!
Boy 1: Yeah, would you mind cutting that, your way?
Sarah: Wow, whole garlic
Boy 1: Yeah, would you mind finding the perfect clove, and mincing it with your own bare hands because I don't have a mincer, nor do I know what a mincer is and on top of that, I don't own a tablespoon or measuring cup or even a sauce pan. Basically, I only know how to cook meat so I've been completely uncreative here and hoped that since you are the, should I say "vegetarian" you could just cook the whole dinner for us. (slightly fabricated part but based on actual events).
Scenario 2:
Sarah: Oh, you made pasta!?
Boy 2: Yeah, could you add water, it's over cooked and a bit sticky.
Sarah: Do you have any sauce?
Boy 2: No, huh, you eat sauce?
Sarah: Yeah, marinara pasta sauce is usually made out of meatless tomatoes.
Boy 2: I bought some tofu for you!
Sarah: Ahh, great! Should we drain it and saute it?
Boy 2: Darn, I don't have a strainer or any oil or any seasoning whatsoever except for salt! You can't just throw it onto the pasta?
Sarah: Not sure sauce-less pasta with flavorless tofu will be very good?
Boy 2: Oh, I thought that's what you vegetarians did.
The truth is, it seems very questionable if either of these two men have actually ever cooked to begin with! I honestly think they have but got so mixed up about what was vegetarian acceptable that they depended on me to bring the ideas and or do the cooking. Problem here, I was invited! I went into the situation thinking it was going to be a nice evening of non-Sarah cooked food, wine and entertainment. Bottom line, regardless of my dietary specifications, these guys were completely unprepared to cook anything out of their ordinary! It's not cute or funny, just a total turn off! So no, to answer my question, I don't think vegetables make you incompetent if you are a carnivorous cooker but just a little word of advise to all (men or women) who like to invite dates over for a home cooked meal. Be prepared or YOU may come off as being worse than anything...relationship incompetent!
