Beef

I’ve started eating  a variety of beef products again.  I’ve always cheated with beef jerky for hiking but have avoided steaks and burgers and so on.

I stopped many years ago during a 5 year vegetarian stint between 1995 and 2000.  After falling off the vegetarian wagon I resumed chicken and turkey consumption but not beef (or pork actually).  Not only had beef products become difficult for my body to process (I did try a steak early on at a fancy company dinner), but I knew that beef is environmentally unsound.  The amount of water and grain that goes into one pound of beef could feed families.  In addition, the waste from factory farms is toxic.

So why resume eating beef you ask?  I’m a pretty particular eater and at some restaurants beef is the only appetizing option.  Case in point – last Thursday night my friend and colleague, Pat, and I tried out the new restaurant Linger, which is a well-designed, hip place that is brilliantly reusing the old Olinger Mortuary building.  Here’s a photo from the back side of the restaurant.

As an aside, there was another beautiful sky as it briefly rained and clouds were moving through the windy evening:

Here’s Pat looking regal while we were waiting for our table:

Anyway, at Linger not only did we get the beef tacos but I got an amazing burger slider with some yellow sauce (not mustard) on a surprisingly tasty bun.  For some reason I look overly happy, but here I am below with said slider:

More beef ingestion: after my Memorial Day backpacking trip we decided to stop at Coney Island.  For the first time in 20 years I got a hot dog!  After two days of backpacking and eating snacks and ramen and so on, the hot dog was truly satisfying.  Here is evidence of my hot dog eating: