The Suburban Herbivore

It’s been years since I’ve been to Margaret’s Cantina in Chapel Hill. And I don’t know why. They have multiple options for vegetarians, including - my favorite - the tempeh burrito. It tasted exactly like I remembered - absolutely delicious. They also have a new (at least, new to me) item on their menu: Vegetarian Posole. I would have totally gotten this if my mouth hadn’t already been set on the burrito.

Now, on to the more interesting part.

About halfway through the meal, I suddenly noticed what was hanging on the wall right next to me - a large photo entitled Sharkslayer. It was a black and white photo of someone on the beach holding three dead little sharks. (Dogfish, I think.) Those of you who know me know of my deep and abiding fear of sharks, but I honestly don’t wish them dead. I’m afraid of sharks, but I don’t hate them. And of course, I find photos of dead animals to be in extremely poor taste.

After about ten minutes of alternately shielding my eyes from inadvertently catching the eye of the dead little shark and outright staring at the photo, I finally asked the server if she could possibly take it down. “Oh, is he looking at you?” she asked. I pathetically nodded, and she reached over and removed the photo. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and went on with my meal. But I think the image of the dead sharks will stay with me for a while.

While the Durham Bulls performed excellently yesterday, I was very disappointed to find that Flying Burrito is now absent from the DBAP. Flying Burrito offered fat-free burritos, which was basically their Flying Mayan (black beans and sweet potato) and I believe they had the Flying Vegetarian burrito as well.

They’ve been replaced by Tortilla Junction, which does have pinto bean and cheese burritos. I did not confirm if these were vegetarian or not, because I just can’t eat pinto beans. Very bad things happen if I do. I did confirm, however, that they don’t offer anything with black beans.

So, off I went to find something else for lunch. I ended up with a $4 veggie hot dog on a whole wheat bun. I am still pleased that veggie fare is available at the stadium, but the loss of Flying Burrito nearly moved me to tears.

We went to the farmer’s market in Durham late in the morning intending to buy strawberries (if any were left) and flowers. Fortunately, there were plenty of strawberries. I wasn’t sure what kind of flowers I wanted to get, but fixated on some purple ones. Since it was near closing, the farmer gave me two bunches for the price of one!

My original idea for this blog was to track what I receive each week in my CSA delivery and what I end up cooking from it. But I will also talk about cooking in general and vegetable gardening and local restaurants and … well, whatever else seems to make sense.