... to write. I'm just too lazy.
Since my last post I traveled to both Barbados and New York hoping for different and "gourmetlicious" reasons to blog. But that would have meant actually going out of my way to find these meatless, tasty morsels to satisfy a vegetarian hunger. But alas no, this was not to be. I don't know about the others out there but sometimes I'm just not in the mood. I'm currently back to my pasta phase. I need therapy, rehab, something to get me out of this pasta phase, I just love it so! During my mid years as a vegetarian I tried a thing or two with soya recipes. Well not really recipes, just basically substituting meat for soya in dishes like pelau and lasagna.
Anyway...
So in Barbados I slipped back into eating egg. Lots of it. Not proud to admit it but I am indeed a lacto-ovo vegetarian, altho, I really want to be vegan. I slipped back into eating eggs because I felt I didn't have a choice for breakfast. I was wrong of course but I didn't discover this until the very last day. The hotel's menu didn't seem very satisfying for my dietary needs. Usually in these cases I'll have fruit and pancakes. Not seeing much of an option I opted to have something similar as my colleagues, a fellow vegetarian (a pescatarian) and a carnivore - veggie omelette, toast, a single hash brown and a single pancake. Not impressed with the pancakes and hash browns at this hotel, I did away with it and just had the toast and omelette. It wasn't until towards the end of my stay I realized I could have a nice fruit bowl. So last day my breakfast consisted of such, plus the omelette.
For lunch I frequented Chefette's Bar-b-que Barn and Salad Bar where I had my restaurant favourite outside of pasta - baked potato and salad. Did I say salad bar? I love salad bars!!!! I love love love salads, especially when given the run of the salad bar, to me it is complete heaven to stack a plate with as much vegetables and fruits as it can hold. Non-vegetarians often look at me strangely thinking it's way too much and I will be unable to eat it all - hello, this isn't carbs we're talking about! Sans the heavy stuff, it is quite possible to eat a huge salad without the possibility of ethnic fatigue. A proper salad with a great variety has many benefits and can be enough for a meal on it's own. Just to be sure tho, I added a little bit of the non vegan pasta and potato salads to my plate only because I knew my days would be long. The worst thing anyone can do to a salad for me though is to put creamy dressings on it, especially a lot as happened one day when I could not get out to get it myself. All you taste is the dressing. I wanna taste my veggies, and most times with a little bit of vinaigrette or italian. At one point at Chefette's I had Barbados' version of a macaroni pie - lovely!!! It has a hint of red colouring to it. I don't know, I didn't ask but it is heavenly! Chefette's also serve roti, this I did not try. It's interesting to see roti served as an item at a restaurant that isn't primarily a "roti shop". But not interesting enough for me to want to try a veggie version of it. In fact I'm not even sure there is a veggie version (usually a potato roti).
Dinner was catered, as my trip was work related. But nothing interesting to report here. Rice or pasta, peas or beans, steamed vegetables, salad. The important thing to note though is that certain foods do not keep. I think our dinner was delivered around 6pm. Which means it was probably prepared and cooked around 2ish, 3ish. The job I was doing involved lots of rain delays, thus dinner was often skipped and I could not eat a thing until after 11pm! One night my entire dinner was dumped and on another night when I had just 10 minutes to eat, thus leftovers, after 11pm I had to dump it anyway.
Post Barbados, the freelance gig switches to Trinidad. No hotel stays this time. Dinner on the job was catered by Eat-it, a restaurant based in San Fernando. There used to be a branch in Maraval but I don't know what happened to it. Oh, the first and second nights were heaven! I can't believe I didn't take photos! They prepared a lovely salad as a started. This salad included chopped almonds, sesame seeds and their very own pineapple vinaigrette - applause!!!. The main course included vegetable rice, potatoes and peas. I have no idea what kind of potatoes it was was it was divine! By the second night, especially for me they did a veggie wrap. Again, no idea what it was, some sort of vietnamese something? No idea but it was, as Rachael Ray would say, absolutely delish!
So during my real vacation in the US, home of one of my favourite restaurant chains - Olive Garden (!!!!) - I mainly ate white rice and cooked vegetables prepared by my Aunt June especially for me. Thanks Auntie! Yes, rice and veggies, only because, except for Sunday, home cooked meals didn't offer much besides meat other than white rice and vegetables. I could of course seek out Olive Garden or other like places but I opted to eat with the family. At the food court in the Staten Island Mall I passed an Italians and Southern food offerings for Japanese. It was the suchi on the menu board that caught my eye. But this is a food court in a mall, no fresh sushi and all the veggie options were gone. So did I order anything extraordinary? Nope, it was jasmine rice that was too soggy and vegetables in a something sauce. My aunt did a better job. On a short shopping trip with one of my young cousins we lunched at Wendy's, soon to be opened in Trinidad. Luckily Wendy's offers my favourite, yup, baked potato (the call it something else) and a normal salad, yum yum yum. Had I been brave enough to call my new friend D-roy, perhaps a restaurant, or two, or three would have been in the works. But I wasn't brave enough to call him.
l'm such a lamo.
Very good.
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