Searched "vegetarian restaurant in [the hip liberal neighborhood I work in]".
The results: a restaurant (named after a meat dish) that happens to have a couple of vegetarian options, a fast food place that thinks "plant based" means you have two vegetables on your meat, and a vegan place that specializes in $20 smoothies.
I'm going to suggest the last one for our next team event, because for shit's sake I'm sick of having a maximum of two food choices at these things, but... what the fuck.
I need to start keeping my own notes about what produce is available when, because "what the USDA/Farmer's Almanac says is in season" is very different from what I find at the farmer's market.
It's died down a lot since I hit my thirties, but there's this weird pattern where I mention that I did something and people will assume I did the version that requires the least amount of work on my part.
"I baked this cake." "From a cake mix?"
"I put gutters up on my house." "You hired contractors to do it?"
"I built this thing." "Out of a premade kit, right?"
Why is it that a restaurant meal can have twice the daily recommended dose of sodium and taste fine, but when I put slightly too much salt into my soup, it tastes like seawater?
People were giving out free samples of certified regenerative farming, organic cheese puff snacks and I was too awkward to say no when they shoved one in my hands.
It tastes like like an ultra processed cheese puff (aka like vomit).
"For centuries, the quinoa has been considered a food of low social prestige, although this prejudice is slowly changing. There needs to be a greater awareness of its nutritional value."
-Neglected Crops: 1492 from a Different Perspective (1993)
The only time in my life I had a fast food burger, I was eight and my parents decided to take the family out to McDonald's to see what the fuss was about.
I cried when I discovered that there was MEAT on the CHEESEBURGER and it TASTED SO GROSS and in the end my father had to finish my burger.
The question "is this plant edible" has only two answers:
"Yes, and people ate it all the time." "This plant is so extremely, lethally toxic, but if you (boil it for two days) (ferment it underground) (burn it to a crisp) (wash it five times with strong acid) it's safe."