My first meal at a restaurant after deciding to give up "unethical" meat was a celebratory dinner for my friend Maya. I'd assumed that very few restaurants would serve meat that I could eat, so my master plan was to find something vegetarian and call it a day. But by the time I got there I was starving and the chicken was calling my name, so I decided to ask how their meat was selected.
I have been a fussy eater for the better part of ten years; there is a long list of common ingredients that I do not eat. So I made my peace, long ago, with the inevitability of awkward conversations with waiters. When our waiter arrived I gave him my biggest, friendliest smile and started right in.
"Hi, how are you?" [Smile.] "I was wondering--how is your meat...um...you know, well....is it treated well?" [Pause, blush.] "I mean, like, is it, um, organic?"
I lowered my eyes, studying my napkin. I replayed the question in my head, trying to decide exactly how idiotic it was. I'd basically asked for a biography of their chicken dinner. And how could meat be "organic"?
Here is the beauty of LA. Without missing a beat the waiter said: "All of our steaks are grass-fed, free-range and hormone-free. And the hamburgers are made of steak, so those are safe too. I'm not sure about the chicken though--do you want me to ask the chef?"
"Yes," I said, "I'd love for you to ask the chef."
Embarrassment averted, but eyes opened: I realized I have no idea what I'm talking about, or what I'm really asking. What is my problem with mass-produced meat? How it's raised? How it's killed? What it's fed? Can I eat an animal if it was allowed to move about freely, even if I don't know how it died?
Apparently I can: the chef confirmed that the chickens roamed free just like the cows, so I ordered a burger and ate half of Maya's fried chicken. (The waiter also informed me that meat can be certified "organic"--though theirs wasn't.)
And so I came to realize that deciding to care is only the beginning. Next I have to decide what I care about most--what I can live with, what I can't. Today I visited the Hollywood Farmers' Market and had a slightly smarter question ready: "Are your chickens free to roam, and well, um, how do you kill them?"
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cool experiment. just a heads up, there is no definition or regulation of the term "free range," if you want to include that in your project.
ReplyDeleteName of restaurant?!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm glad that you're being more expansive than just asking whether meat (or fruits and vegetables, for that matter) is simply "organic." Getting the certification is an administrative (and expensive) hassle for a lot of smaller farms and/or part-time farmers, so while their stuff might meet or exceed standards, they just can't shell out for the sticker. It's too much of a sticker shock. HA HA!
If you decide for this blog to take a field trip to see a farm where the chickens are killed by that cone, drip-blood method the man told us about at the farmer's market today, I would totally be in. He said it was quick.
ReplyDeleteOk, if you guys do that, I totally want in.
ReplyDelete