Barrier.Detail-3.pdf Fallacies-3.pdf JournalDietaryRestrictions2.docx Jrn1-2.Prmpt(1)-2.pdf Rhetoric.Definitions-4.pdf

Dietary Needs while Hosting Guests

Hello journal, I got plenty to share today, Wednesday 21st September 2016, my most eventful day of the year thus far. Remember Judy, my high school friend, communications director at the white house, Asian-American lady from my writing back in March Judy? Yes, Judy got me an invitation to the 35th edition of the state house dinner. Came as a surprise to me too but I was certainly glad to attend and true to her words it was spectacular. I have never seen such diversity in one room, all races, religions, genders you name it were present. The menu reflected its importance. Cold dark beers with small talks, canapés with niceties, wine to fill the hollowness of the laugh, sorbets to cover the stereotype jokes and coffee to keep the guests awake on the return journey. I did, however, note some unusual things. The Qatari lady representative, the guest professor from Israel and one of the most important people present, the former first lady, did not indulge much and instead restricted their diets to drinks only.

The lady representative I could understand her reasons must have been religion based. The former first lady too is an open advocate for clean eating and insists on people becoming vegetarians for better lifestyle hence her obvious reasons. The Professor, however, I could not understand and just had to get his reasons from him. Standing next to him was a professor too from Poland. I figured they must be friends because of the conversation they were having which made it much easier for me to talk to them both. “Did you know that Hitler had ordered all German soldiers to become vegetarians and it became the first ever state-sponsored incident of a vegetarian diet.” The professor’s response was simple; it is cruel to kill animals for food. See the three had different reasons for restricting their diets. Paying close attention to the crowd, I noticed more people restricting their diets to certain foods. The Usher too had noticed and directed the staff to put identity labels beside the dishes for ease and bam!! The change was drastic. Simply put, more people ate.

Basically, I learned it is important to know your guests in advance as well as understand their preferences. They will actually appreciate your views on healthy eating, animal welfare or whichever other reasons you have to undertake whatever diet you choose to. It is also critical to educate yourself on the options available in a vegetarian diet. One of the options is to go to the stores and find meat substitutes available. There are mind-blowing options like soy-chorizo or vegan roasts that you might not even know they exist until you look around. If you are not able to prepare a fully vegetarian meal by yourself, you can choose to host the occasion in a restaurant. This might sound far-fetched but depending on the cuisine that the restaurant offers, together with some creativity, there can be a lot of interesting choices. After all, I was able to learn a lot and I am even considering to blog about tips for vegetarians together with tips for becoming dairy-free. I will also include dining out options as well share my favorite cookbooks.