Re-Lent?

The Korean sausage that my mother served for lunch on Sunday isn't really a sausage, strictly speaking.  Its casing was not made of animal intestine and contained no meat but was stuffed with noodles and vegetables.  So, technically, as a vegetarian it would be okay for me to eat it, right? Well there's one thing ingredient I left out: 



Pig blood.  Serving as a sort of glue in which to keep the noodles and chopped vegetables.  I've had this sausage before, when I wasn't vegetarian, so I know exactly what I "missed out" on.  Still, this got me thinking about my self-imposed rules on being vegetarian.  Also, today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent and my eight-year anniversary of giving up meat.

I've already gone over why I became vegetarian and what I allow myself to eat.  I wouldn't be breaking any of my rules by eating that Korean sausage but still I'd feel weird eating it.  Blood is still a kind of body tissue.  If I hadn't known that there was blood in it I would've eaten it, but probably would've wondered why it had a weird iron-y/hemoglobin-y taste.  Another food that's sort of controversial for me is sushi-- more specifically, fish eggs.  I eat regular ol' chicken eggs but somehow I feel weird eating those little marbly orange fish eggs.  It's irrational, illogical that I'm hesitant to eat one kind of egg but not another. 

It's not as if I have numerous occasions to eat Korean sausage or sushi.  I've wondered for a while what a raw oyster tastes like but the opportunity to eat one has never come up. By no means is this issue anywhere near the top of my list of issues. (Not that I make a list of issues in the same way I keep track of the books and movies I want to read.)  Still, every now and then I pause and reflect upon my diet choices.  The operative word here is choice: no one is forcing me to abstain from meat but I do anyway, and I manage to stay healthy.  If, later on, my vegetarianism becomes a health issue for me then I have no qualms with going back to being an omnivore.  But for now I will continue to wonder if it's okay with me to, say, have caviar, if ever the opportunity arises.

I have to confess: about five years ago I went out to lunch with a friend and she ordered fried clam.  Having never tried it I was curious as to how it tasted, and she convinced me to have a piece.  So I did.  I broke my vegetarianism for a piece of fried clam.  I have no memory of how it tasted, only that I ate it and returned to eating my veggie burger.

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