Small victory

Well, I did it. I ate smoked salmon and didn't gag. Actually, it was very tasty. While this may seem a completely meaningless achievement, I used to really like fish until a few months ago when suddenly I couldn't eat it in any shape or form. It just tasted really fleshy, which is something I have never understood when vegetarians say it. So now I am restored to eating at least one type of fish (smoked salmon mousse with smoked salmon in a pathetic attempt to create what I actually fancied from Asda's paltry selection) AND I have an insight into what goes on in the mind of someone vegetarian.

I've been teetering on the brink of vegetarianism for a while actually. Having spent my whole life being a fairly dedicated carnivore, I suddenly stopped liking meat, quite probably because of Jamie Oliver and his chicken thing. I'm a little squeamish, I can't watch someone dissect a prawn or lobster, and I rarely order fish when I'm out in case it still has its head on. I'll happily watch things being cut up or cut them up myself, but this is something that should always be far, far removed from food. I also think eating whitebait or similar is a little too akin to eating goldfish, which I have owned on several occasions and never considered frying them up for dinner. I can't stomach rabbit, nor can I eat anything resembling fat, tendons, skin, brains, trotters etc. Meat jelly is vile and I don't understand why it's considered food. But normally, I find nice normal lean meat quite acceptable. I still waver a little when my pork has a label on it telling me when it was killed, because that conjures up an image of the pig. I know that pork comes from a pig, but I really really don't want to think about it or I start teetering again. Gone are the days when I sat up my chicken prior to roasting and flapped its wings, no, now I have a small seizure if there's any trace of a feather. Sigh.

Please note, there are no double entendres in this post, even though it may appear there are several.