It's Not Shtick

SHE BLOGGED: I recently finished Anthony Bourdain's latest book, "Medium Raw." And while for the most part I enjoyed reading his very opinionated opinions, I also took everything he said with a grain of salt. No pun intended.

It wasn't until I reached almost the end of the book that I came to a page where I couldn't have wholeheartedly agreed with the angry man more. It was about vegetarians. While I don't expect anyone to go out and purchase the book just to read that part, I will dutifully re-type that part for your reading enjoyment:

Okay. I AM genuinely angry -- still-- at vegetarians. That's not shtick. Not angry at them personally, mind you -- but in principle. A shocking number of vegetarians and even vegans have come to my readings, surprised me with an occasional sense of humor, refrained from hurling animal blood at me -- even befriended me. I have even knowingly had sex with one, truth be told. But what I've seen of the world in the past nine years has, if anything, made me angrier at anyone not a Hindu who insists on turning their nose up at a friendly offer of meat.

I don't care what you do in your home, but the idea of a vegetarian traveler in comfortable shoes waving away the hospitality -- the distillation of a lifetime of training and experience -- of say, a Vietnamese pho vendor (of Italian mother-in-law, for that matter) fills me with spluttering indignation.

NO principle is, to my mind, worth that; no Western concept of "is it a pet or is it meat" excuses that kind of rudeness.

I often talk about the "Grandma rule" for travelers. You may not like Grandma's Thanksgiving turkey. It may be overcooked and dry -- and her stuffing salty and studded with rubbery pellets of giblet you find unpalatable in the extreme. You may not even like turkey at all. But it's GRANDMA'S turkey. And you are in Grandma's HOUSE. So shut the fuck up and eat it. And afterward, say, "Thank you, Grandma, why, yes, yes of course I'd LOVE seconds."

I guess I understand if your desire for a clean conscience and cleaner colon overrules any natural lust for bacon. But taking your belief system on the road --or to other people's houses -- makes me angry. I feel too lucky -- now more than ever -- too acutely aware what an incredible, unexpected privilege it is to travel this world and enjoy the kindness of strangers to ever, ever be able to understand hos one could do anything other than say yes, yes, yes.

Awesome.