The Plight of the Vegetarian

There are many times when vegetarians get the short end of the stick. We're often forgotten at parties, difficult dates (oh the pressure on the boy to not disappoint!), party poopers on holidays (Tofurky Thanksgiving anyone?), and constant ingredient checkers of seemingly harmless soups and salads that have hidden meat-based ingredients.

One of my favorite "vegetarians get the shaft" stories dates back to high school when we were on a school trip to NYC. We were going to Medieval Times, a live show that features a barbaric menu and a jousting match. Part of the appeal is the dinner; there is no silverware. You drink your soup from the bowl. You pick up that turkey drumstick and bite right in. You grunt and wipe your greasy hands on the paper covered table.

Unless of course you are a vegetarian. Now, they can't just let you STARVE after you've paid a good $40 to be there. So, for my dinner, I received a giant plate of steamed broccoli with a plastic fork. Talk about a buzz kill.

Anyway, there was a point to this story, and it was to demonstrate the overwhelming assumption that it is acceptable to give a vegetarian a massive amount of any given steamed vegetable and assume it is an acceptable meal alternative.

Jump forward to 2009. The normally frugal Ms. Golightly decides to embrace the hype and participate in DC's Restaurant Week, agreeing to shell out the $35 plus drinks and tip for the experience of eating at one of Washington, DC's top restaurants. Sure, some restaurants were immediately ruled out. Vidalia, with its "Red Waddle Pork Jowl Rillette," "Calf's Liver," "Fried Hen Eggs," and "Smoked Pork Belly" was obviously out of the question. Many other restaurants followed suit.

However, one restaurant offered promise. Taberna del Alabardero is too-expensive to normally justify eating at, it has an upscale and swanky atmosphere, and... (drum roll please) it advertised having a vegetarian option on its Restaurant Week menu.

I'm sure you can't guess what that "option" turned out to be...

(To be continued, with an actual review of Taberna del Alabardero)

I was reading this article by Maureen Dowd (who, coincidently is also reputed to be a difficult boss) and it got me thinking back to the days of college and women's studies and my thesis on Women and Competition in the Workplace.

In its article on Anna Wintour (infamous Vogue editor who served as inspiration for the character of Miranda Priestly in the novel The Devil Wears Prada, Wikipedia states that the character of Miranda Priestly:

is depicted by author Lauren Weisberger as a tyrant who makes impossible demands of her subordinates, gives them almost none of the information or time necessary to comply and then berates them for their failures to do so.

Sound familiar to anyone?

Things I plan to do with this new, Washington DC based blog:

1) Raccount stories of crazy, "Devil Wears Prada"-like bosses (in a completely anonymous, hypothetical, fiction-like setting, of course)
2) Detail adventures in and around Washington, DC
3) Show lots of pictures of random happenings and other things of interest around DC
4) Rant and Rave
5) Share random web and news findings
6) Quote song lyrics and movies
7) Throw in some fashion and cosmetic goodies
8) Share yummy vegetarian recipes from those rare occasions I actually decide to play chef
9) Attempt to figure-out the inner workings of the male brain
10) Offer my unsolicited opinon about, well, everything