A term defined as "a dietary choice in which a person, known as a pescetarian, eats any combination of vegetables, fruit, nuts, beans, fish or invertebrate seafood, but will not eat mammals or birds. Some animal products like eggs and dairy may or may not be part of a pescetarian diet plan." If you'd like to understand more about this diet and how it is perceived by the Vegetarian Society then feel free to wiki "pescetarian". From my understanding that although it is a diet of choice, the Vegetarian Society does not somehow consider pescetarianism a valid vegetarian diet. I totally agree, one cannot claim s/he is a vegetarian if fish or seafood is part of their diet. My perspective is that if you're a vegetarian because you love PETA but would consume fish or seafood, you are not a vegetarian! Why give rights to those mammals or birds but not living creatures in the the sea?
I'm not in love with PETA or have a strong feeling against animals being slaughtered for food. I'm on this vegetarian challenge because I'm welcoming new changes in my life and I want to understand for a period of time what vegetarians eat. To better understand something you must put yourself in that situation and experience it first hand. I'm 11 days away from exiting my pescetarian diet and into a vegetarian diet. I'm a little scared because I would have to pay more attention to what I eat to consume enough daily nutrition values so that I could function properly.
My morning started off pretty late. Found myself inside a grocery store doing some shopping. To manage my craving for a salad, I bought a 1/2 lb. of Italian pasta from the deli. It was so good, probably one of the best I had so far or at least from my recent memory. For dinner, I was at my aunt's house and she had made shrimp wontons noodle soup. Even though I could not eat the soup due to the fact that the stock she made was from pork bones. I decided to make my own version in a dry form. I did consume the shrimp wontons because my pescetarian diet allows me to. In a bowl I added the rice noodle and egg noodle with cooked bean sprouts and green onions topping it off with fried shallots. I then drizzled some soy sauce that I made, it included red chili paste, some fresh squeeze lime juice and of course soy sauce (free of any animal product). It was delicious, and people said to me "Tim, you really know how to eat even though you're on this vegetarian challenge of yours". It helps when you've been cooking for quite some time now.
-Timothy Pham
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