This blog...

I started this blog last spring out of frustration.

I love to travel and have chosen a life and career which not only allows me to travel, but demands that I do. R and I have never really "traveled" together. We have driven up and down California to get from college to home and back and he visited me in Texas twice when I lived there...but neither of those really constitute "traveling".

However, even those situations, we have found it unnecessarily difficult to find tasty vegetarian food for him at a wide variety of places. We can always eat Indian food, but what about when we want Mexican and the only thing they have for him is a cheese enchilada? Who knows if they even use vegetarian cheese sans animal rennet anyway. Honestly, you would think that every place would at least have one decent vegetarian option...but it doesn't always work that way. I've been surprised, shocked actually, at how often it doesn't work that way.

To be clear, R is a lacto-ovo vegetarian. This broadens the options, but still...it's not as easy as one might imagine.

Originally, I wanted to start a blog about traveling with a vegetarian. I invisioned posting restaurant reviews for every place we visited together. That idea died quickly since I was living 2,000 miles away from him at the time -- I ended up not posting for months.

Now, I am back with a vengence. Being a mixed-eating couple (yes, I know, it's a dumb term...but got any better ideas?) has its own unique set of challenges. I was reminded of those when my baked pasta went awry and I realized I was frustrated that I couldnt make it the way I wanted and he didnt even like it that much anyway.

I will use this as a forum for recipe postings, restaurant reviews, and general thoughts on dating a vegetarian and holding on to my own food habbits and preferences.

I am not a Vegetarian

I am not a vegetarian.

My boyfriend is.

I have been thinking about starting this blog for a while now. An article I was reading from yesterday's NY Times on vegetarian travel in Thailand gave me the final push to do it.

I have always loved traveling around the United States: my family criss-crossed the country every which way during my youth. But, a visit to England and France with my aunt when I was 19 changed my life. I fell in love with travel. Since then, my wanderlust has taken me to Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Peru, and Mexico. This summer I am returning to England for an extended London stay and hopefully exploration of Great Britain and perhaps more of Europe. We'll see.

This will be a travel blog. I have been dating my boyfriend for over two years and want to see the world with him. Hopefully, I will have the chance. In my travels around the world and around the world wide web I have discovered that it is a harsh world out there for vegetarians. There is a dearth of information on vegetarian travel.

Traveling with him even around California, where we both went to high school and college, has been difficult at times. As students at UC San Diego they dont exactly make it easy for you. Now I am living in Austin -- a world of bbq and Tex-Mex -- and his options are even more limited.

I hope to share in this blog my experiences traveling as well as information I gather about vegetarian eating around the world. Perhaps, ocassionally, I will post a recipe...maybe...if you are lucky :).

Right now I am living in Austin, Texas but have trips planned to San Diego and Berkeley, CA and New York City to visit graduate schools. Expect posts on those locations soon.