Going to the Mecca of Meat

Tonight is a special night. My mother has invited a big group of my family to Ruth's Chris restaurant in Providence to celebrate my son Ben's graduation from college. He is continuing on to grad school in the fall, but for right now, there will be most of our immediate family, going to this restaurant that is synonymous with prime beef steaks and chops. They have a porterhouse steak for two! A cowboy rib chop with a foot long rib bone attached to it (we call it a tomahawk chop in the industry--you can imagine what that looks like just by the name!) 10-ounce filet mignons, and 14-ounce sirloin steaks. Sides of vegetables with tons of butter and cream sauces. Potatoes with mountains of sour cream and blue cheese. Sweet potato casserole with a buttered pecan crust. If you are a carnivore, you must be drooling by now.
But my wife and I are vegans. Tonight will be a hard night for both of us. I would love to dive into some of those items above, but my brain is telling me I'm doing well right now. Donna is doing very well. She continues to drop weight.
At work, I have to taste soups, and meats, and salads, cheeses, desserts because I have to give my honest appraisal of them to the people who work for me. But most of my meals are vegan. I just feel better eating that way. Like quitting cigarettes, the longer you stop, the more some desires seem to fade. My desire to eat steaks and chops is still there, but diminished a little.
Tonight I will feel like a bible thumper being dragged into an X-rated film. This place is the Mecca of Meat, the Pinnacle of Pork, the Largesse of Lamb! And while my relatives are slicing away at huge steaks and chops, lathered in A-1 sauce or Bearnaise sauce, my wife and I will be eating steamed spinach and asparagus (no hollandaise sauce please!), with a plain baked potato. Maybe I will splurge and sneak a stick of margarine in for our potatoes. I doubt they have vegan cream cheese, or any type of vegan cheese there. No point in asking for coffee, they won't have soy creamer. No need for dessert, there's noting a vegan would eat there. In fact, we may be the first vegans who freely enter this Bounty of Beef. What a paradox that is!
But Donna and I will do it for my son Ben, because we are proud of him and love him, and want to be there to celebrate that love. For us, it's another typical example of how restaurants ignore vegans. We are a special group of diners, and preparing for us is a bit out of the ordinary, yes. But would it be too much to ask restaurants to offer veggie burgers or steamed fresh vegetables? Vegetarian options slathered with thick cheese and cream sauces are no longer healthy for anyone--let alone a vegan. Time to begin thinking outside the box. Everywhere I look, I see huge enormous people barely able to walk, they are so big! I don't recall seeing that spectacle very often when I was a kid. Yet we all see it everywhere. Go to a Wal-Mart for an hour, you'll see what I mean.
Donna and I went to The Garden Grill restaurant in Pawtucket recently. Everyone who was in there appeared healthy and thin. (We were the biggest people in there--but hey! we're working on that!) The staff were all young and pleasant. We liked looking over the menu and specials. It was nice to be in a place where the food was healthy and looked good. I wouldn't say the place was as good as The Candle Cafe in Manhattan, but they are trying hard to do their best, and the place was pretty busy. I hope they make it, because my wife and I will go back. I may even bring them a copy of The Candle Cafe's cookbook to give them some ideas that taste really good, that can be done cheaply, if I can do that without insulting them.
So tonight when I am eating a pile of plain spinach and a plain baked potato, I will smile for my son Ben and wish him good luck with his future. While I am doing that, I will be thinking about a vegan burrito with homemade salsa, and dairy-free quesadillas with homemade guacamole. I will be daydreaming in the Mecca of Meat.