Going Vegan???

Living in Bangladesh I am blessed with the service of a chef and a maid. While it is totally awesome that I don't have to cook or pick up after myself, there are some definite setbacks.

First of all, having never had these luxuries, it is extremely awkward. I don't enjoy asking someone else for something that I could do or get myself. However, this is their job and what they are getting paid to do, without it, they may be unemployed so I try to play along. Personally, I prefer to cook for myself. One: I enjoy cooking, and two: I have aforementioned dietary preferences which poor starving people cannot comprehend. This makes me feel like a total jack@$$ when I have to turn food down that I know anyone else in this village/city would love to eat. Having said that, I am in a village with a mixture of Muslim and Hindu people. Hindus will not eat sacred cattle and Muslims will not eat dirty pigs, so you would think they could understand me not eating ANY animal products, sacred or dirty.

My favorite! Who would've thought
I'd find myself BEGGING for Ramen
noodles!

One of the biggest mistakes I have made so far is telling the kitchen staff that although I don't eat anything that moves on its own (chicken, fish, cow, pig etc..) I will eat eggs and ice cream. Desperate to make sure I get enough protein on a daily basis, I am now given one egg at every single meal, every single day. Moving forward I will commit to a completely vegan diet or at least lacto-vegetarian but I'll definitely be dropping the ovo portion of my diet. In addition my cholesterol levels at this point must be sky high!

I have tried explaining that I cannot eat so many eggs which will usually result in me getting one meal that day without an egg, but it will still be on my plate for the other two meals. Dahl is a traditional food here which contains legumes which are also high in protein. I have requested dahl on several occasions as a replacement to this strict egg diet I appear to be on. Occasionally I will get dahl, but sometimes there is an egg IN my dahl! I'm still working on getting a nice big bowl of hummus...I'll keep you posted if that ever happens.

Vegetable meat! haven't tried this yet.
Love that it is stored next to the
cleaning supplies in the market. 

So the other morning, I sat down for breakfast and our maid, who is now also doing the cooking while we wait for a new chef since our last one quit (too much stress trying to serve the crazy vegetarian girl???), put down a bowl of broth in front of me and looked very proud of herself. Next came a plate with some Roti (flat bread), potatoes and....you guessed it! Egg! I looked at the broth because I have never been offered soup for breakfast before. It was however, questionable. The broth looked pretty oily, I questioned it, but they have been dealing with me for a month already, so they have to have this figured out by now right?  I took a tiny sip of the broth. I looked at Muslima (the maid) and pointed at the bowl with questioning eyes (I still haven't gotten a Bangla lesson so communication around here is more like charades). Muslima smiled and proudly blurted out "SOUP". I looked at the bowl again, tucked my hands to my armpits and began "flapping" my elbows. I pointed at the bowl again and asked "chicken?"  Muslima instantly realized her mistake, got a bashful smile and said "yes. sorry m'am".

Two types of bread, potatoes and egg!

I feel so bad because she is working so hard now with not only her maid duties but also taking on chef duty. However, I have my own morals and values that I refuse to let go of even in a developing country. Besides, I'm sure the cat enjoyed the soup.

 I have taken a few photos of some of our plates of lunch. We often get a plate that is all one color. Usually either white or yellow. On occasion we get rice, bread and potatoes (and an egg for me, fish or chicken for the English teachers) for a meal! Talk about carb loading!  Maybe this would be a good time to train for a marathon.