On the trail of the red lentil - a vegetarian in California

The year was 2000 – and our first visit to California. Those Golden Gates were well and truly open and we looked forward to a holiday in the state that boasted Hollywood and Big Sur, the Getty Museum and Yosemite, Hearst Castle and Lake Tahoe.

The sun shone, the scenery was breathtaking, and the Californians were warm and hospitable. But as vegetarians for almost twenty years we wondered about the food. This was a land which, wild and untamed until the mid nineteenth century, was once thought fit only for trappers and explorers. Then came reports of the discovery of gold - and the race was on, with Forty-niners making near-impossible treks. No hardship was too great to endure for the tough prospectors who, as they wrestled through steaming jungles on cross-Panama journeys, cooked iguana or monkey meat over camp fires, or those who, packed into the holds of ships on 15,000 mile voyages around Cape Horn, had a steady diet of bread inhabited by weevils. Of those who did not die on the way, many settled in California, became owners of sprawling ranches, sold cattle hides for making clothes, boots and horse tack and animal tallow for soap and candles. Added to all this, in the 1950s post-war boom the United States had led the way in convenience eating: fast food that was heavily meat-based. Despite a high incidence of diet-related cancer, heart problems and obesity the eating habits of America from east to west had been established. Vegetarian eating? We should be so lucky!

First impressions confirmed our fears.  Take-aways on every street corner and drive-thrus every half-mile dispensed high fat, artery-clogging, meat-based food: burgers with fries, chicken nuggets, hot dogs. Restaurants offered meat stews, steaks, beef lasagnes and fried chicken while food stores abounded with ‘lunchables’ made up of heavily-processed meats, ready meals containing poultry-based amino acids used for flavouring (a quick and easy way to add taste) and snacks containing enough animal fats to sink the Queen Mary. Heart disease in waiting!

But - one moment! Surely there must be something more, we thought, as each time we turned despairingly away. Where was the open-mindedness, the connectedness to the earth of the 1960s hippy movement started in such numbers and with such passion in the Golden State?  Where was the sensitivity, the compassion of those children of idealism, many of them artists, writers or musicians? Where were the outcomes of the rejection of their parents’ beliefs which, by all accounts, had helped bring about big trends in healthy living?  Still alive and well, it seemed: further exploration of the area revealed gyms with large numbers of dedicated Californians pedalling miles on exercise bikes and an abundance of yoga centres attended not just by a cranky few but by people of all ages who had come to recognise yoga as life-saving in a stressful world. “Peace,” was the greeting from strollers on the pavements as they held out spread fingers as a sign. “Peace, Man!”

As for healthy eating, the adventure had only just begun. Further investigation of those street corner take-aways revealed offers of delicious Chinese stir-fries with fresh beansprouts and bamboo shoots, burritos and tacos filled with bell peppers and native cheese, pizzas topped with freshly cooked, organic tomatoes and mushrooms and Spanish rice with sunflower seeds, to name a very few. One or two inquiries directed us to restaurants where the menu convinced us that healthy eating was high on the agenda: how’s this for blurb: “no sugar, dairy, wheat, yeast, alcohol, caffeine, chemicals, monosodium glutamate or artificial sweeteners are contained in our dishes. We use only organic ingredients, olive or sesame oil and purified water.” Promising, eh? At this eating place and others we found imaginative vegetarian cooking – roasts made from soya with rainforest cashew nuts, steamed yam halves on salad greens, blackened tempeh with cranberries, seaweed salad topped with roasted hemp nuts. Food for the Gods: meat eaters as well as vegetarians.

With those initial fears banished and with a married daughter now living in the state we look forward to years of visits in which good, healthy eating takes its rightful place. It is with some glee that we turn the pages of the calendar for each New Year and ring a couple of dates. California, here we come!

Pat Lewis, March 2003

I am in favour of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. (Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865)

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This page created 27 March 2003 by Paul Appleby.