Being vegetarian in Brussels

I hope this will be part 1 in a series of posts on vegetarianism in Brussels and the rest of the series will be slightly more positive... So far, I've been struggling a bit with my conviction of not eating meat or fish - not mentally but in pragmatic terms. The Belgians are a meat-loving people. It's like France, where the cuisine is heavily based on animal-products, but at least Paris is modern and diverse enough so that you'd find plenty of vegetarian, vegan or macrobiotic restaurants there - however, not Brussels. In one restaurant, they could actually only propose a green salad to me (really!!). Ok, but asking 16 Euros for it was kind of ridiculous. 

It should be said however that the EU cantines do provide a daily vegetarian option which is as poor as any of the non-vegetarian options. Obviously, I feel that all public administration and international organisations should do what they preach on reducing carbon footprint: provide only vegetarian food, or at least adhere to the Meatless Monday movement.

Sorry for getting radical once again... But the point is (never mind saving the planet) that I don't know how I will succeed in visiting all the restaurants on my "Brussels 500 secrets" list. Many of the restaurants on the list are a bit old school and probably they find the very idea of vegetarianism against their beliefs. There are a couple of vegetarian places mentioned in the book, in the "Healthy food" section. I'm glad to eat healthy but labeling vegetarian food rather healthy than just good food that is able to compete with any carnivore meal is saddening and old-fashioned. At least in Helsinki, all the fine-dining restaurants are already offering great value for vegetarian money (vegetarians are no poor hippies any longer...).

                    

Until a few days ago, I believed that at least one traditional Belgian food is not only vegetarian but even vegan: the French fries, les frites. Well well, in a rush before a concert I had my fries and smelled like fried oil for the rest of the evening among the cool hipsters in Beursschouwburg. My friend educated me afterwards that the Belgian fries are fried in animal fat, most often beef fat - no wonder the smell sticked on a vegetarian skin so well. So that's it, even this safe option for vegetarian food is now gone. Although, I have to say that I'm not very sorry for losing the opportunity of eating fries, especially because luckily already years ago I have visited no. 76, Frit'Flagey, and no. 79, Maison Antoine, on the list of "The Best Places for Proper Belgian Frites" (later on I was told by a proper Belgian that actually you can find proper fries only outside of Brussels...).

This (and having gained a few extra kilos here) brings me to the issue of healthy eating in Brussels. Belgium is the biggest consumer of fat internationally with a consumption of 95 grams per day per capita. Germany (86,5 g) and Finland (80,8 g) follow a bit behind. When it comes to sugar, Belgium is number 6 with 95,0 grams after for example the USA (126,4 g) and Germany (102,9 g). Finland takes the eight positions with 91,5 grams of sugar per day per capita (see the article on Washington Post). However, at the same time, the share of obese people in Belgium is below the OECD average. I guess they do better in resisting the pains au chocolat etc. than I do. In any case, I have hard time avoiding sugary and greasy products, so missing out on fries is quite welcome... 

Image from the Washington Post article.

Questions & answers and how I took a step towards veganism

My sister called me on Sunday: "I would like to give you some communication advice." I shut down my iPod and tried to concentrate while the three babies in front of me in the tram started all crying at once. I had an uncomfortable feeling, this didn't sound like she was prepping me to become a great orator just for fun. And indeed, my sister was thinking of me defending my vegetarian stance at my niece's 5th birthday party the day before. I had apparently justified so badly my position that she was still troubled and felt compelled to become my personal communication adviser as if I was running for some political post or was the head of the Vegan Association.

Obviously, I had myself noted that I hadn't defended my position in a very eloquent way, but, at the same time, I felt bored with a coversation about vegetarianism with people who try to accuse me of doing something at all. "But you do eat cheese and other dairy products? And what about those leather shoes???" The general prosecutor asked me when I had refused to eat some organic Swedish sausages (which, by the way, wasn't any kind of problem for me, there was plenty of delicious veggie food available).

Here we go again, and I wished I had been playing with the air balloons. This reminded me of the excellent "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer (mentioned already in this blog for a few times). He writes: "I can't count the times that upon telling someone I am vegetarian, he or she responded by pointing out the inconsistency in my lifestyle or trying to find a flaw in an argument I never made." I couldn't agree more with the author. Here I am, trying to do my best to contribute to the saving of the world and I'm accused of not going all the way to living in a forest like the radical ecologist Pentti Linkola, while the people around the table eating their little sausages can smirk at my inconsistency. People are not consistent with their life; who hasn't lied while being otherwise a morally considerate person, who hasn't said at some point in the wee hours "let's have tequilas" while knowing it's the worst idea?

So, I just got annoyed by the comment, said something about hating comments like that and went to play with the air balloons. Indeed, a PhD gives me a plethora of ways to back my opinions but when pushed in a corner by a person who doesn't seem to care what I respond, I think it's better to leave the situation. In a best case scenario this should happen a bit before I get upset and raise my voice (which might have happened before turning to the balloons).

In any case, my personal coach of PR issues suggested that I should prepare a battery of FAQs so I could give witty and persuasive answers to my harasser. I had't thought of this that much before because usually I spend my time with people who more or less agree with me on the vegetarianism issue or are at least intelligent enough to understand all the arguments presented, so they don't say: "But if we were all vegetarians, would there be enough food for everyone?" (Argh, information hasn't apparently reached every one after all; this is precisely the original reason why I even became vegetarian before the ethics kicked in.) Honestly, this misinformation reminds me of the Helsinki city hall discussion on adding one veggie day to the school weekly menus. One council member said: "If the kids eat beans, they will fart more, and we need to keep the windows open and thus lose energy by heating more - is this what the vegetarians want, to increase our energy consumption?" (Sad but true, this is a real citation!) Considering that factory farming is the biggest source of co2 emissions in the world this argument is not only ridiciulous but ill-founded, instead think of this: if all Americans had a meat-free day once a week, 1.4 billion animals would be saved annually!

So the Q & A session, I have to think of it. I should probably do something similar with my PhD thesis, what's my relationship with my ex boyfriend, why do I travel alone, why I think Christina Aguilera's video is demeaning to women and why I don't like toilet paper coming from the side of the wall.

But it's not healthy!
Vegetarians are more rarely obese or over-weight than others (look at my slender shape). In addition, I'm basically never ill. (Mum says: "But your skin looks terrible." Indeed, I think that's the combination of chocolate, stress and this conversation). And most importantly: do you think that farm factories or animals pumped full of antibiotics are healthy (remember swine flu...)?

Why do you eat cheese?
Well, first of all, we would need to go through the reasons why I am or anybody is vegetarian. There are plenty of those reasons; ethical, environmental, economic, health, political. Some of these are more important than others for me or for other vegetarians. If I think that killing animals is the problem, cheese would be ok. If I think that the food production system in general is the problem, I could probably still eat organic cheese (as I do with most food I buy in any case). Obviously, I should stop eating cheese and using other dairy products, I should be vegan. I am not, but I try to compensate this with other eco-friendly action. How about you, dear general prosecutor, why do you eat pork and beef and not dog? In Vietnam, I heard that puppy meat is really tasty. What's the difference between a puppy and a baby lamb? (JSF writes on this last issue very nicely.)

I think the general prosecutor feels some kind of shame of eating meat, why would it otherwise be so important for him/her that I don't eat it? Why do I feel that meat eaters try to convince me to become a carnivore and not the other way around? They must acknowledge the moral superiority of my action even if it's spiced with some camembert or chevre. It's funny because I would be immensely happy if even the idea of Meatless Monday would expand to be a standard for carnivore life (see also the short Meatless Monday video). I don't believe in fundamentalism in anything, even if above-mentioned reactions push me towards it. If the general prosecutor initiates Meatless Monday in his/her life, I will take the challenge and have a vegan Sunday. In fact, all I want is that people acknowledge what they are eating and where their food comes from. Not like my other sister who hushed me when I said to her daughter that "I don't eat pigs" when she was having bacon and offered me some. That's an attitude I don't accept!

By the way, today is the international vegan day. Did you know that Bill Clinton is a vegan? I take the challenge, I'll reduce the amount of dairy products in my life and have a vegan Sunday! How about that? I'll stick to Italian leather shoes and bags but I will stop using milk products (well, the reduction of 5 dl per week is not likely to change the world, but if you'd do it as well...).

As you might notice, I am a bit annoyed while writing all this down and I'm done with the FAQs - bloody hell, can't we have some respect for the choices we make and for our principles in life if they don't harm anybody, quite the contrary. This makes me think of this video:



By the way, if you're interested in starting a life with less meat or knowing how eating/producing meat impacts on your health and nature or on the animals themselves, here's a good spot to start: PETA's vegetarian starter kit. Interesting videos, facts, etc. I just calculated my "meat footprint": during my four years of vegetarianism I have already saved more than 1120 animals!