The Vegetarian Montrealer

I'm not a vegetarian. I'm far, far, faaar from veggie. I can't stand any more than a few days without a meat product. It doesn't mean I'm a mean, nasty unresponsible human... I would probably kill for my own food as humanely as possible, gut and skin the thing, and have it inside my belly within the day. Mmm... meat...

Okay, you can call me a monster. But I gots to eats.

Anyway, a lot of vegetarians are out there and they're veggie at various degrees for various reasons. The range is:
1) (most animal-hurting) claims vegetarianism but quits after a day when they spy a nice thick juicy hamburger.
2) claims vegetarianism but just alters diet to not eat anything that used to moo.
...

100) (most veggie) claims that looking at a tree causes it irreparable harm, thus eats only dead leaves and shells of nuts.

It must be hard for a non-veggie to imagine a lifestyle of a veggie in the first stages. Superficially, we would worry about being full on non-meat (at least that's my problem), missing nutrients, and incorporating as much variety in our meals without having to restrain from pointing at weird mutated-looking vegetables/fruits going, "Ewww, what's that??? Why does it smell so bad???" (Okay, that's my problem too. But only while I'm in Chinatown.)

But my sister was once vegetarian, until she became anemic. Then she restored her diet except for red meat. Back where I was living as a kid (the barren, uncivilized north called Chicoutimi), no one I knew had any sort of dietary restrictions. Perhaps the random muslims who found themselves so far north of Quebec, but those were usually scarce.

Anyway, by the time I got to Montreal, I was still not as sensitive to dietary habits. One time, I remember passing around some candies, and Jorgh told me he was allergic to peanuts. (Snoopy? No, not Peanuts(c)(tm)(r)($$$), but peanuts.) Then I discovered nearly every other person I met had some sort of dietary exclusion: peanuts, seafoods (Jorgh), ham/pork/bacon (Davy), any meats (Jordi, Ian, Sasha), any milk ingredients (a lot of chinese people, Ben), onions and mushrooms (Jorgh's brothers, who claim one or the other is yucky unless it's prepared properly), random chinese foods (Jorgh *grr*), vegetables (my ex-roomie who has an aversion to such), blood (jehovah's witnesses like my cousins), non-organic foods (crazies in education), etc. ...

But soon I learned to compromise and make substitutions that would suit almost anyone (except for the raw-food eaters - they'd hate my guts) for any occasion. I even had a birthday party last September where I made vegetarian sushi maki rolls and cucumber sandwiches which were supposed to be for the vegetarians who never showed up. But I had chicken wings which made it all better. :)

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I'll stop rambling. The point I was trying to make this entry is that:

• since Guillaume's girlfriend, Caroline, from England is coming to Montreal to visit for a few weeks


• and she is vegetarian,


• and Guillaume is completely ignorant of any vegetarian-montrealer lifestyles,


• and because I'm such a great person who loves researching this kind of thing, for anyone, for a good cause,

I will be compiling a list of all sorts to do with Montreal-vegetarianism.

Okay, I'll be *slowly* making a list. I have until April, after all.

The first section ("VEGGIE RESTAURANTS") will be for the restaurants that I encountered in Montreal with or without vegetarian foods. They will all necessitate a unapologetic biased review. The second section ("VEGGIE FOODS") will be a list of foods (and recipes) for vegetarian meals that may or may not be sufficient for an entire meal.

By the way, Caroline is a vegetarian who eats eggs, butter, milk, and cheese. Thus, some of my list will include eggs and milk groups.