The Challenge: Complete

Brunch galore: Mama's and Cafe Fanny (far R)

I've made it. Well.... I have a little confession to make. This weekend on 30-Jan, just 2 days left in the month, I was at Korean BBQ and enjoying my vegetable bibimbap, and I picked up some of the banchan that I thought was tofu. Well... it turned out to be fishcake! UGHHHHHHH FAILLLLLLLLLLLLLL

While I would like to discount that because it was a pure accident right before I was home-free, I know I can't call this challenge a success without feeling guilty. I was sooo close. Oh well!

French onion soup and a glass of wine at the Absinthe bar on a rainy day! Blue Bottle's toast and latte

Do I feel different? Did I miss meat? Will this change the way I eat from now on? I feel exactly the same, and like I said before, the only difficult part was eating out or in social gatherings. Since my last post, Rhonda was gracious enough to make a special mushroom ragu for me at a party, I tried the house-made veggie burger at Monk's Kettle (Can't Fail is much better), Mike and I have had a lot of red hot catatoes, and I've been enjoying many a veggie burrito from La Taq after church. I've been saving money from the discipline of bringing my lunch to work instead of spending $10/day on overpriced FiDi salads, and hopefully I can continue to do that since it's also healthier.

Every time a new article was posted about meat contamination or something just as disturbing, I definitely thought "I'm glad I don't have to worry about that." Now that I will again, I think I might stay away from questionable products like hot dogs, bologna, etc unless I know that they are sourced from actual substantial pieces of real animal that hasn't been sitting in its own feces and disease. But who am I kidding. It's so difficult to really track that down, so maybe I will just try to only eat meat when I eat at non-sketchy places (since most SF restaurants grind their own meat, etc). We'll see! Maybe I'll try it again another month, but in the mean time I will be enjoying the nduja that has been sitting in my freezer, waiting for this day to come.