Living the Vida Vegetariana in PoA...

Can You Tell I was Hungry?
Originally uploaded by Blue Dragonfly Girl

...is actually not hard at all.

However, I did learn his week when trying to get into the habit of bringing lunch to my internship that the pita bread here (called Arabic bread) just isn't strong enough for slices of tomatoes. Yes, my colleagues looked at me kind of funny when I pulled these falling-apart sandwiches out of my bag and asked me, "What IS that?" Oh well. As an American I get to do (and eat) strange things I guess. Unfortunately I don't think anyone would have considered those limp sandwiches to be exotic...

Oh, and where to find the tofu? In a thick disc-shape next to the ricotta in the cheese aisle where it's billed as "soy cheese." But it's there. And sometimes supermarkets have a couple of shelves devoted to healthy food. There are some little health food stores that always make me happy because they're tiny, reminding me of the hippie health food stores of my childhood pre-Whole Foods, and all their offerings are delicately packaged almost as though they were science projects.

There are some fabulous vegetarian restaurants in my general vicinity too. The musician parents of a wonderful woman (who I met on Facebook through a friend of mine who went to college with her - gotta love 6 degrees of separation!) took me out to a tasty Chinese vegetarian buffet downtown when I first got here. They had tiny little eggs that I'd never seen before and initially mistook for buffalo mozzarella. Oops! Not quite. Later I saw them bottled, next to the olives in a supermarket, so I assume they're somewhat common down here though I'm not sure what bird they belong to.

I also just checked out a cute vegetarian cafe called Bonobo and had a tasty chocolate-banana smoothie there. It was like a real cafe with the option of sitting on a couch and lovely wooden tables. I first noticed them when passing by. I was first attracted by the vibrant red of the building and then by a cute little planter with a message about making the world a better place on it. Hard not to go for that kind of thing.

This picture featured on this post is from one just a block away from the park called Prato Verde (Green Plate). As with many eateries in the city, food is served buffet style. Here you pay when you enter and then you are free to eat as much of the delicious offerings as you can. And as is obvious from that picture, I didn't hold back! Included in the price is fresh juice. This time I had mango. Then lime. Delicious!

I was planning on going there for lunch tomorrow after walking through the organic farmer's market in the park, but was saddened to discover on their website that -- like many, many other stores -- they are shutting their doors until next Wednesday. Sniffle, sniffle. But people warned me that this is what happens during carnaval. I better rush to the supermarket soon to stock up on necessities such as water, water and more water, delicious fruit and of course tofu from the cheese aisle.