Meatless Monday?

I was up in the Bay Area on Monday and had a chance to stop by Google to visit st a little after lunchtime.  I had visited st once before at Google, but had already eaten that time, so all I was able to do was nibble on a few things here and there.  I do remember that the watermelon agua fresca was quite refreshing.  So in effect, this past visit was my first chance to experience the Google cuisine, and I was fairly excited after hearing all the raves about it.

Imagine the disappointment I felt when I showed up and it was revealed to me that Google was still in the midst of what they call Meatless Monday.  Since I arrived fairly close to cafe closing, we didn't have enough time to make it to another cafe that actually served meat.  So I was left with some green beans, beets, summer squash, fruit, and "meatless" salmon and shrimp.  A fairly unexciting menu for me to sample, particularly since the vegetables weren't really prepared in any mind-blowing fashion.  I did partake in some vegan desserts though, and followed up my unsatisfying meal with a grab&go sushi roll of smoked salmon and crab (though mostly rice).  There was a nice seaweed salad with the sushi roll though.

I think Meatless Monday is a bit misguided, because it takes the balance out of one's diet, when the goal is to give people a more balanced diet.  Protein is an important component of the food pyramid, and the buttery shrimp didn't really feel any healthier than say, a chicken breast or pork loin (particularly if you factor in the cholestrol).  But I think the biggest travesty of Meatless Monday is that the vegetables aren't even showcased.  If you're going to force thousands of people to give up meat for a day, then at least show them that there are viable, tasty options aside from beef, chicken, or pork.  Don't serve blandly prepared vegetables.  Maybe it's a function of the role vegetables have in the U.S., where salads dominate (which means a salad is only as good as your oily, unhealthy dressing) and cooked vegetables aren't really given their proper due.  But if you go to Asia, you see an amazing display of different types of vegetables that are cooked in so many varieties, that eating vegetables for a meal actually isn't so bad.  I even believe that st will eat a majority of Chinese vegetables, though he claims to be a carnivore.

I think oftentimes we get caught up in the extremes of things.  Yes, eating too much meat is not good for the body.  But no, cutting out meat or meat products entirely is not necessarily healthy either (not to mention not very convenient).  Life is about maintaining a balance between everything, and I think we need to strive for better ways to showcase that there are great attributes to both sides of everything.