I eat swimmers

As some are aware, I am a very soft vegetarian.  I will eat sour keys and yogurt, both of which have gelatin.  I am not too concerned if the soup being served to me at a friend's house was made with chicken broth.  I have been known to accidentally eat half a hamburger (I swear that I didn't know - but it sure was smoky!)

I have been off the land based meat since I lived in Colombia in 2000.  It was my second stint at being a vegetarian, the first one crumbling after two months of residence induced veggie subs and pasta.  This time I was better educated (by those who were already vegetarians) and it has, much to the chagrin of my mother, worked.

Sonja and I went to our favourite local restaurant tonight for dinner - Vita Bella.  If you are ever in Burnaby, you need to make it there.  The signature dish is the Linguine Fumate - a 

smoked duck, wild mushroom and truffle pasta.  It is the closest you can get to eating wonderful wonderful smoke.  Incredible really - Sonja won't eat anything else when we go there.

 

A picture of the Linguine Fumate.

 

As we were leaving, I asked one of the owners if there would ever be a vegetarian option.  She smiled and asked if I was really enough of a vegetarian to even not eat duck?  (Did she know me).  I smiled back and replied, "I only eat swimmers", going on to explain that while I will eat seafood (in fact, I had one of the seafood pastas this evening), that I wasn't quite soft enough to eat duck.  We explored the possibility of a vegetarian version and then we left as a table of friends approached her.

Upon arriving at the car, Sonja exclaimed "Best line ever! I eat swimmers! Ha!  You should be careful about when you say that."

"What do you mean?  I say that all the time."

So, with Sonja's objections to the phrase for reasons unbeknownst to me, I enjoy my day off before the light run tomorrow and the race on Sunday.  Mmmm....fumate.