Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Tofu memories

I tend to think about random things in the shower, and today what should pop into my head but the first time I ate tofu! I was 13, a fairly new vegetarian, and lived off of salad with ranch dressing, cheese pizza, and jo-joes. To make a long story short, my home was not a happy place, and I usually used babysitting money to buy my own food or ate meals at friend's houses. One of my newer friends, Alicia, had been raised vegetarian and I always got a good meal at her house!
One evening I was over and they decided to go out to dinner and invited me along. I was surprised to learn that we were going to a Chinese Restaurant because I thought that all Chinese food had meat in it. Luckily, Alicia's mom ordered the food because I didn't know what any of it was, and when it came there were all these plates of weird vegetables and a few plates with these big chunks of whitish stuff that I didn't recognize. I remember being a little embarrassed and wanting to just eat plain rice, but they told me it was just made out of beans and tasted like the sauce so I tried it.
And just like that, I was converted into a tofu lover! I didn't eat it often until I was in college and had my own kitchen to cook in (there weren't veg restaurants around Portland when I was in high school), and it's been a staple in my diet ever since. I really need one of those shirts that says "I &hearts tofu!"



P.S. Alicia's still one of my best friends. Awww!
That's us in May at the Sasquatch Festival :)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great story! I don't think I knew any vegetarians when I was 13!

VeganView said...

awww what a great story and how you remembered it so vividly is awesome! yay for tofu and new food experiences :)

Jen said...

that is a great story. isn't it funny-sad how we all struggled when we were young vegetarians? i think all i ate in the beginning were pb sammiches, cheese sammiches, and canned green beans. yuk!

jessy said...

Chelsea - that's just too crazy that you think of random things in the shower - i do the exact same thing. i don't know what it is about the shower - but it's like a think-tank for me or something! ahahahahaha! awesome! great minds think alike, right?! yay!

thanks for sharing your story, too! hooray for tofu! i also love it the most! it's so great! :)

Jen Treehugger said...

Awww lovely story.
YAY! for Tofu and YAY! for friends.
:)

Bianca said...

Aww! Its great that ya'll are still friends!

I don't even remember the first time I had tofu (guess that makes me a tofu whore??). But I think my story is similar to yours. I went veg at 14 and lived on mac&cheese, Ramen noodles, and cheese pizza. That lasted through college when I finally discovered all the amazing veg foods out there...I believe I sampled tofu in high school, but didn't start cooking it until college.

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Aww you guys are so cute in that picture! I loved your tofu story, you are my hero for going vegetarian so young!
I get the best and craziest ideas and thoughts when I'm in the shower!