As I prepare to take off on a trip to another country...again...I'm contemplating how this Flexitarian diet works in other parts of the world. I was recently in India and Singapore, and not surprising, India proved to be pretty easy. Not for the expected reason, because 31% of the population is vegetarian (and it is clearly indicated on menus and packaged goods with a green dot, similar to how Kosher is identified here), but because after the first day of me eating even a small amount of Indian food I got so sick that I ended up subsisting on basically bread and bottled water the rest of the trip (bottled from the Coca Cola or Pepsico companies only, of course). Singapore, however, was not as easy. It is a VERY modern society with your pick of cuisines (in fact, my first meal there was Chili's - a much anticipated event after India!), so in reality it shouldn't have been an issue. But, the problem came with trying to determine which fish/seafood options were sustainable. So, the net total of the India/Singapore week resulted in 3 meat meals (including my mouthwatering trip to McDonald's where I had McChicken nuggets - yum!...and Chicken Rice, which is a traditional Singapore meal, and of course my Chili's Quesadilla Explosion salad) and 3 fish/seafood meals (including the seafood buffet dinner on Friday night, which unbeknownst to me was $80!!!! $10 over my daily meal allowance - whoops!). I'm going off the assumption that at least one of those seafood meals was with sustainable fish, especially considering where Singapore is located, on an island in fish-friendly seas (totally making that up), so I'm going off on a limb saying I didn't go over the 5 meal quota.
However...tonight I leave for Germany. I am headed to Frankfurt and Hamburg, which my grandfather astutely pointed out is the home of the frankfurter and hamburger. And so, I fear my flex diet may be in a bit of trouble. I mean, when have you ever gone to a German restaurant (I could put a full stop there, but I'm making a different point) and not eaten schnitzel or some sort of sausage or something meaty and greasy and totally filling. So, in preparation for this trip I did not eat one meat or non-sustainable fish meal last week, thinking I might have to bank some points for this coming week. Stay tuned to see how it turns out...
However...tonight I leave for Germany. I am headed to Frankfurt and Hamburg, which my grandfather astutely pointed out is the home of the frankfurter and hamburger. And so, I fear my flex diet may be in a bit of trouble. I mean, when have you ever gone to a German restaurant (I could put a full stop there, but I'm making a different point) and not eaten schnitzel or some sort of sausage or something meaty and greasy and totally filling. So, in preparation for this trip I did not eat one meat or non-sustainable fish meal last week, thinking I might have to bank some points for this coming week. Stay tuned to see how it turns out...
