Omnivory

My yoga teacher had a potluck at her house on Friday. She is a strict vegetarian; really, she's quite strict about her diet in general. She tried the ice cream one man offered, but commented about how she hasn't tasted ice cream since the last potluck, which I found slightly awkward.

The next morning, G and I drove to Chinatown to meet friends for one of my very favorite excursions--dim sum! For dim sum enjoyment, you must bring a sense of adventure and leave behind your shellfish allergy. What's in that dumpling? Who knows! The women pushing the cart does, but she doesn't know how to tell you in English. Why is there pork in the middle of a sweet, angel-food-cake-like roll? And how did the pork itself become sweet and bright red? Who knows! But hey, sweet pork can be delicious! And oh look, there's a shrimp in that other thing! Yum!

This unusual combination of food experiences--Vedic asceticism straight to delightful Taoist openness--made me want to start a new food movement, or maybe a branch of the Slow Food Movement: The Omnivory Movement. Food movements are usually defined by what is not eaten--meat, fish, eggs, dairy, wheat, sugar, pork, shellfish, eggs...vegetables, if you're one of those Neanderthal Dieters...Let's have a movement that instead celebrates the wide variety of foods that humans can eat! We shall rejoice in fresh tomatoes, crusty breads, pungent cheeses, meats and sweets!

PS I was very grateful that our dim sum friends appeared interested in my 3-minute dissertation on why the sesame roll filled with red bean paste is a perfect Taoist food, complete with detailed description of the yin and yang elements of said roll. Very polite.