Love Me, Love My Dinner

Could you love someone who eats meat if you’re a vegetarian? Would you forgive your man if he acts like a swine, but not if he eats it? Or what if you’re kosher and she’s not?

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the NY Times has an article on the role food plays in relationships:

No-holds-barred carnivores, for example, may share the view of Anthony Bourdain, who wrote in his book “Kitchen Confidential” that “vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans … are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”

Returning the compliment, many vegetarians say they cannot date anyone who eats meat. Vegans, who avoid eating not just animals but animal-derived products, take it further, shivering at the thought of kissing someone who has even sipped honey-sweetened tea.

Could you date someone who didn’t share your culinary leanings? Or marry them? It certainly makes picking a place to go out on Valentine’s Day more complicated.

Then again, if Mayor Nutter, who does not eat meat, can dine at Morton’s for the sake of bringing City Council together, then maybe vegans and carnivores can make sweet omnivorous love.

I Love You, but You Love Meat [NY Times]