Update on the Vegetarian Experiment

My plan was to eat an entirely vegetarian diet while in India. I know I need to drop some weight and improve my numbers (cholesterol, etc) and I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how I might do as a vegetarian when I’m in a situation where I don’t have to cook, but there are always good vegetarian options available. So I’ve been here a week and I have to confess a couple of things. First, while we’ve been staying at the Thikana Guest House (which I highly recommend if you ever travel to New Delhi), I’ve been eating eggs for breakfast. Actually, I’ve been eating granola with yogurt and fresh mango, followed by eggs and whole wheat toast with coffee every morning for breakfast.  They were making eggs to order and they do it so well! I decided that since I wouldn’t be taking in as much protein over the course of my day, I needed to go ahead and have the eggs. Benjamin Franklin said that best thing about being a rational creature is that one can find a rationalization for anything. We leave tomorrow and I am really going to miss breakfasts here. Second, the other night we went to very well-reputed restaurant called Gunpowder, where I ordered and mostly ate a dish of curried lentils and chickpeas that was quite good. But my companions ordered fish curry, pork, and buffalo curry that I just had to taste. I only took a taste of each, which was hard because they were really good. How could I pass up an opportunity to taste water buffalo?

Still, in the seven days we have been travelling, eggs for breakfast and those three bites are the only animal proteins I have consumed (I’m not counting dairy—cut me some slack here). Will it result in weight loss? That remains to be seen. I had thought that the walking, the hectic schedule, the reduced opportunity for night time snacking, and the elimination of meat might add up to a net loss in mass. But we have been eating a lot. Aside from the lavish breakfasts, we have had some lunches well worth writing home about (which is, of course, what I’m doing).  I’m not counting the McDonald’s lunch. We dined at an all-vegetarian restaurant where I had a masala dosai with three chutneys—coconut and two others which our Indian program directors simply said were red and green. Helpful. But I guess they are as ubiquitous as the red and green salsas in a Mexican restaurant. I have also discovered a Dominos Pizza that I wish we could get in the states: paneer with red and green peppers. We were trying to figure out how to describe paneer to someone who has never had it and the best suggestion was “cottage cheese in the form of tofu.” Honestly I like paneer better than either cottage cheese or tofu, but no matter. The vegetarian experiment continues, and maybe if I keep it to a granola bar for dinner every so often, I may drop a pound or to in sweat.