After 27 years of vegetarianism, I’ve started to eat red meat, one timid but determined bite at a time. It started with the serendipitous discovery of the Pizza Bianca:herbed ricotta, bresaola, arugula, truffle oil, grana padana. Ignorant of the four-legged ingredients, I ordered it while dining with my two best dude friends in early November. Matthew, the owner of the restaurant, sold me on the selection when I requested that he recommend something in the vegetarian/pizza category. The man knows his Italian cuisine, so I never bothered to double-check his suggestion. One major miscommunication later, it arrived, covered in air-dried salted beef, which looks more like pieces of folded purple ribbon rather than cow… anything.

I didn’t speak at first, just stared. Bresaola staring right back at me, like, Wadda you lookin’ at, Granola? Pinot Noir decanted, two endless friendships by my side, I held my wineglass by its upper stem, interrupted their conversation, and proposed a toast: To becoming a carnivore (at least for an evening). 

And so I ate a cow. Mentally blessed her with each chomp, for providing herself for my consumption. (And in such a fashion! And on such a day! And with such company!) I felt sudden, full-bodied gratitude for her benevolent life. For her sacrifice. For her purpose of living, only to be slaughtered, thinly sliced, salted, aged for months, and heaped on a thin-crusted pizza with the company of greens, and cheese, and truffle oil. Final resting place of this beloved cow? As a member of a flavor profile that would woo the gods to take human form. And did successfully woo me into red meat eatery.

Since the bresaola, I have swallowed sausage, twice, pancetta, bacon, ham, ground beef (in pasta sauce), and braised pork. I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed it all. I have no idea how you (religious meat eaters) intentionally, repeatedly consume braised pork, for example. And sausage? Oily and spicy= upset tummy for this girl. No go. But overall I dig the experience. Why? Because although I credit my vegetarianism and general healthy diet for my thin physique and overall good health, I believe, that yes, part of having balance IS NOT HAVING IT. Is moving intentionally to the (dreaded) other side of the spectrum. And playing there, with childlike innocence and perhaps even a small spark of naughtiness.

There seems to be ying and yang in all states of natural being: Darkness and light, sleeping and waking, growth and death. It would stand to reason, then, that for all matters of human behavior a little bit of everything is a formula worth betting on. To what degree? And in what precise ratio? Eh, those are the types of sophisticated questions ya’ll will have to answer for yourselves.

After all, I’m justa simple meat eatin’ foo…